2012/2013 Austrian Doctoral Research Fellow Eva-Maria Müller defends thesis “Rewriting Alpine Orientalism: Lessons from the Canadian Rockies and Austrian Alps" summa cum laude

Eva Maria-Müller waits in the virtual lobby for the announcement of her defense results.

It is with great pleasure we announce that 2012/2013 Austrian Doctoral Research Fellow Eva-Maria Müller defended her thesis “Rewriting Alpine Orientalism: Lessons from the Canadian Rockies and Austrian Alps" summa cum laude on July 22, 2020. Comparing and contrasting representations of Canadian and Austrian mountains in literatures from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, this thesis develops an analytical framework capable of analyzing the particular colonial codifications written into and onto mountains as well as the interventions that write back to the business with mountain tourism, engendering a critical reading that responds to such interventions.

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 health crisis, Ms. Müller defended her thesis virtually from her home in Innsbruck. She will receive her degree from the University of Gießen, where she was a member of the prestigious Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture. Her work was supervised by Ingo Berensmeyer from LMU Munich and UAlberta’s own Stephen Slemon (Department of English and Film Studies).

Ms. Müller says the UAlberta network will continue as she moves on to new adventures, which have brought her back to Innsbruck; specifically the Department of American Studies. In May 2020 she started a FWF-funded project on "Delocating Mountains"  with Christian Quendler. Stephen Slemon and Zac Robinson, she says, are valuable partners in this project.

Ms. Müller has been an enthusiastic and energetic member of the Wirth Alumni Network (WAN) for several years and currently serves as the network’s treasurer. We wish her continued success in all of her endeavours and look forward to working with her on some exciting upcoming projects related to both the WAN and Mountain Studies.