Drupa Prize 2026 Applauds Christina Slopek-Hauff’s Contributions

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Drupa Prize 2026 Applauds Christina Slopek-Hauff’s Contributions

The drupa Prize 2026 has been awarded to literary scholar Christina Slopek-Hauff for her outstanding doctoral thesis in the field of English and American Studies. With her thesis “Plural Psychologies: Interrogating Mental Illness in Anglophone African and African-Diasporic Fiction”, she makes an innovative contribution to interdisciplinary literary and cultural studies. With this prize, drupa annually supports outstanding early-career researchers from the Faculty of Arts at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.

The drupa Prize, worth 6,000 euros, was presented on 7 May 2026 during a formal ceremony at the exhibition grounds in Düsseldorf. The presentation was attended by Wolfram N. Diener, Chairman of the Management Board of Messe Düsseldorf, Sabine Geldermann, Director of the drupa Portfolio Print Technologies, Prof. Dr Heidrun Dorgeloh, Vice-Rector of Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Prof. Dr Ulli Seegers, Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, and her supervisor, Prof. Dr Birgit Neumann.

Dr Andreas Pleßke, Chairman of the drupa Committee, paid tribute to the award winner: “Christina Slopek-Hauff’s work exemplifies research that transcends disciplinary boundaries and brings global perspectives to light. Particularly in a time of profound transformation, including within our industry, such nuanced, intercultural approaches are crucial for understanding complex interrelationships and developing new ways of thinking.”

Interdisciplinary contribution to literary and cultural studies

In her dissertation, awarded a summa cum laude, Christina Slopek-Hauff analyses literary texts as spaces in which dominant, often Western-influenced concepts of psychology and mental health are critically questioned and expanded. In doing so, she combines approaches from the Medical Humanities, Disability Studies and Postcolonial Studies. The work demonstrates how literature helps to make diverse (“plural”) perspectives on mental health visible and to challenge hegemonic structures of knowledge. In doing so, it makes both an academic and a societal contribution to the current debate on diversity and cultural perspectives on health.