Congratulations to the VoV and CAS Travel Award Winners!
Amy Onstot - Voices of Vienna Scholarship Winner
My dissertation examines music and ceremony in the reign of the Austrian Queen Maria Theresa (1717-1780). As the ruling female sovereign of Austria at a time when this was uncommon, Maria Theresa had to address questions about the nature and viability of female rule. I look at the way the queen presented herself and her monarchical power in her coronation ceremonies, court spectacles, and court operas. My work looks for narratives of monarchical power at work in the Bohemian and Hungarian coronation ceremonies and the accompanying celebrations.
With the help of this grant, I will travel to Vienna and Prague in the summer of 2018 to examine the correspondence, descriptions, payments, musician lists, and schematics of the coronations. Combining the information found in festival books with the administrative details found in the archives allows me to better understand the shaping and structuring of the ceremonies, determine the role of music, and look for the narratives of power built into these events.
Meyer Weinshel - Center for Austrian Studies Travel Award Winner
My research interests include Austrian-Jewish literature and culture. I am researching for my dissertation various translations of German-language poetry into Yiddish--prior to and following the First World War in the late Habsburg Empire and interwar East-Central Europe. Central to my dissertation project is the role of multilingualism, and how writers re-/situated their (and others') works in multiple languages as they traversed many cultural and political borders over the course of the twentieth century.
I will use the grant to travel to Jerusalem and conduct needed archival research at the National Library of Israel. Located on the Hebrew University campus, the National Library houses the personal collections of many German- and Yiddish-language writers. I will be examining unpublished manuscripts and correspondence that are important for my dissertation.
