Swiss Prize winners address stereotypes

Essays on chocolate, banking secrecy and neutrality won first place in this year’s annual Swiss Prize.

The winners were announced at a reception on Tuesday, hosted by the Ambassador of Switzerland His Excellency Mr Marcel Stutz and his wife Mrs Esther Stutz and attended by ANU Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Margaret Harding.

The Swiss Prize has been awarded since 1998 for ANU students of the three official languages of Switzerland: French, German and Italian. A first, second and third prize is awarded for each language.

This year, the essays covered a range of topics including evolving neutrality,  Swiss efficiency, the end of banking secrecy, the promotion of multilingualism and Swiss chocolate, to name a few.

The prize is a longstanding institution of the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics and a collaboration between the Swiss Embassy in Australia and the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences.  

His Excellency Mr Marcel Stutz was very impressed with the calibre of the essays.

"These themes were well and substantially treated, which again substantially complicated it for us to pick a winner."

Professor Margaret Harding spoke at the event and reflected on her own experience as a Post-Doctoral fellow in Strasbourg on the French-German border. Professor Harding encouraged students to continue their language learning journey and to embrace multilingualism.

Award winners

French

1st Hannah Bartlett: Le stéréotype de la neutralité

2nd Shenelle Egbert: La neutralité

3rd Alice Lloyd: La neutralité de la Suisse : un cliché ou la vérité?

German

1st Bronwyn Thomas: Ein schweizerisches Paradox: strenge Asylpolitik in der scheinbar multikulturellen Schweiz

2nd Timothy Boston: Direkte Demokratie in der Schweiz: Erfüllung des Traumes Rousseaus, oder Tyrannei der Massen?

3rd Anja Giddings: Das Ende des Bankgeheimnisses, was heisst es für die Schweiz?

Italian

1st Gene Schirripa: Efficienza: uno stereotipo o una realta’ in Svizzera?

2nd Timothy Hays: Il multilinguismo è uno stereotipo, un’ideale, o un fatto, in Svizzera?

3rd Melanie Kennard: Il cioccolato – lo stereotipo più “grosso” della Svizzera

The nine winners received a Swiss bag, containing prize money, a book in the language of the written essay sponsored by Pro Helvetia and a certificate, signed by the Swiss Ambassador Marcel Stutz and ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young.