Willow Groundwater-Schuldt, a PhD student in German Studies, has been awarded the inaugural Tom Hill Graduate Essay Award for "The Hysteric Kriemhild," which offers a Lacanian reading of the Nibelungenlied, in dialogue with Hegel, to recalibrate modern approaches to the genres of epic and tragedy beyond the Greek tradition. The prize was announced at the first annual MSGA Lecture on April 14, 2025. Willow's primary research interests include medieval German literature, historical linguistics, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century philosophy.
The Tom Hill Graduate Essay Award, established in 2024 in honor of Professor Emeritus Tom Hill, who taught in the Medieval Studies Program and the Department of Literatures in English from 1967 until 2022, is awarded to a Cornell graduate student in any field who is judged to have written the best essay in any area of Medieval Studies.
