THE ANN WATERFALL STUDENT AWARD |
The winner of this prestigious award will receive £1,000. The award, funded by The Anglo-Portuguese Society. All nominations are presented to a selection panel comprising of an academic, and two members of The Anglo-Portuguese Society Executive Committee, who will on behalf of The Anglo-Portuguese Society agree upon the winning candidate. The guidelines for eligibility for nomination were changed in 2014 to reflect the expansion in Lusophone Studies and Portuguese language learning in this country. The nomination requirements and procedures are that:
The Society's decision will be final; where there are candidates of equal merit, the Society will give preference to those aiming to continue their Portuguese studies at postgraduate level. Presentation of the Award will be made by a representative of The Anglo-Portuguese Society, at a mutually agreed date at one of the Society’s events. |
33 YEARS OF THE STUDENT AWARD
Originally named the "Best Student of Portuguese Prize," this prestigious award was established by the Anglo-Portuguese Society to recognize exceptional achievements in the study of the Portuguese language and culture. The award is presented to the nominated university, and it is the responsibility of the university professor to distribute it among one or more deserving students.
The oversight of the award falls under the purview of Juliet Perkins, a member of the society's Executive Committee. Juliet diligently reviews the rules governing the award on an annual basis to ensure its fairness and relevance in supporting outstanding students.
In 2011, the award was renamed the Ann Waterfall Award as a tribute to Ann Waterfall, the society's longest-serving secretary who dedicated 20 years of service to the society. This renaming serves as a lasting tribute to Ann's unwavering commitment and invaluable contributions to the Anglo-Portuguese Society.
On certain occasions, with the support of Canning House, the society has had the privilege of offering a substantial prize of £1,000, which includes a generous contribution of £500 from the society's Restricted Fund.
Since 2020, the prestigious award has been proudly sponsored by Caixa Geral de Depósitos, the national bank of Portugal.
This financial support underscores the society's commitment to promoting excellence in Portuguese studies and further incentivizes students to pursue their academic endeavors with zeal and dedication. We extend our gratitude to Caixa Geral de Depósitos for their valuable support in honoring outstanding achievements in this domain.
The Anglo-Portuguese Society's student prize serves as a testament to our mission of fostering educational exchanges and recognising the importance of language proficiency and cultural understanding between the United Kingdom and Portugal. By supporting and encouraging outstanding students, the society continues to play a vital role in nurturing the next generation of scholars, linguists, and ambassadors of Portuguese language and culture.
Chronology of the Anglo-Portuguese Society Student Award.pdf
AWARDED STUDENTS |
2022Ana Torres of Queen's University BelfastHaving grown up in a bilingual English-Spanish environment, my passion for language learning is not surprising. I decided to study Portuguese ab-initio and French at Queen’s University Belfast in 2018, and since then the Portuguese language has become very close to my heart. Despite the pandemic, I was lucky enough to spend two summers in Lisbon, first in 2019 in the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, and then in 2021 in the Lusa Language School. Both experiences allowed me to improve my linguistic proficiency and deepened my passion for Portuguese culture. These experiences also motivated me to apply for Chairperson of the QUB Spanish and Portuguese Society so that I could share my love of lusophone cultures on campus. We organised events such as Brazilian Carnaval and we fundraised for Fundação Ama Orfão in Guinea Bissau. At Queen’s I was very privileged to be exposed to both European and Brazilian Portuguese. We gained an all-encompassing insight into the history and culture of the Portuguese-speaking world and were encouraged to appreciate its diversity: the fall of the Portuguese Estado Novo, the novels and short stories of Mozambican Mia Couto and Paulina Chiziane, favela representation, post-colonial cinema, modern Brazilian documentaries evaluating Bolsonaro’s rise to power and much more. In my final year, we studied decolonisation (political, military and cultural), from the 1970s to the present day, and its impact on contemporary Portugal and the former colonies in Africa. I was particularly interested in the concept of “Lusotropicalismo”, a theory with a complex colonial history, and how its legacy is one that still permeates contemporary Portugal. I was so inspired that I have decided to continue my studies and will undertake a Master of Research that will enable me to explore cultural production that provides an inclusive representation of the realities of post-colonial Portugal. I am thrilled to be the recipient of the Ann Waterfall Student Award this year. I recognise that this is a great privilege, and I would like to extend my deepest thanks to the Anglo-Portuguese Society for their consideration. I would also like to thank my dedicated lecturers and the amazing Portuguese teaching staff at Queen’s for their unwavering support throughout my four years of study, especially through the most difficult period of the pandemic. |
2021Zsofia Elek of The University of EdinburghI started studying Portuguese from scratch in my first year at the University of Edinburgh. Coming from a linguistics background, I thoroughly enjoyed learning all about the Portuguese language and its quirks. What really surprised me, however, is how much I loved finding out more about the literature and history of the Portuguese-speaking nations, from the fierce poetry of Conceição Evaristo to the haunting prose of Luis Bernardo Honwana. In my third year, I had the opportunity to travel abroad to study at the Universidade de Lisboa. Here, I took a mixture of courses relating to both Portuguese linguistics and the Lusophone cultures. I learnt much about the deep cultural myths of Portugal in Mitos da Cultura Portuguesa and the different variations of spoken Portuguese across the country in Dialetologia. It was at this University that I first heard about the Mirandese linguistic community that lives in the Northeast of Portugal. I have always been fascinated by linguistic minorities and as such, I decided to focus my final-year dissertation project on this community. For this, I interviewed some incredible Mirandese-Portuguese bilinguals and carried out sociolinguistic research on the current and future vitality of the Mirandese language based on these interviews. I found it an absolute pleasure to be able to connect my passion for both linguistics and Portuguese throughout this project and I am looking forward to committing myself further to working on such projects in my future where I aim to continue with my Portuguese studies. |
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