The GHS is proud to announce the winner and runner-up of our 2025 postgraduate essay prize. Congratulations to:

1st place: Anja Segmüller (University of Oxford) for the essay: ‘Body, Art, Collective: Künstlerinnengruppe Erfurt and Feminist Performance Art in the GDR and Beyond’

2nd place: Emma Paterson (University of Cambridge) for the essay: ‘German-Jewish Family History Research, c1900-1945’

The awarding committee commented:

The judging panel were impressed by the very high standard of submissions this year. Both winning essays demonstrated methodological sophistication, conceptual clarity, and an ability to situate original primary research within wider historiographical debates.

Segmüller’s essay persuaded the panel with its exceptional integration of feminist theory, oral history, and performance studies. It offered a sharply argued intervention in the history of the late GDR, and brought a largely overlooked collective convincingly into transnational feminist art history.

Paterson’s essay impressed through its clear framing, elegant organisation, and insightful treatment of German-Jewish genealogical research in the first half of the twentieth century. The panel felt it made a valuable contribution to our understanding of Jewish self-definition and historical consciousness in modern Germany, illuminating the cultural and intellectual significance of family history research in this period.

Congratulations to both of our winners!