Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures University of Toronto
The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures is pleased to announce that doctoral candidate Hannah Robinson has been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant in recognition of her outstanding and highly promising research.
Hannah’s project examines the historical origins of multilingualism through the study of medieval German literature, offering new perspectives on language contact and linguistic diversity in periods preceding modern constructions of nationality and linguistic boundaries.
Her research challenges the assumption that monolingualism is a natural or historical norm. Instead, it considers the medieval period as one in which linguistic and geographic boundaries were significantly more fluid than the clearly defined categories often assumed today.
As Hannah explains in her research proposal:
“Monolingualism is a concept invented in the 17th century (Gramling 2016). The rise of nationalism brought with it the idea that each person had a natural language or mother tongue which marked their belonging to a single family or empire. Even now, the words for language and nationality are often the same (e.g. English, German, French) (Yildiz 2012). In the medieval period, however, these ideas simply did not exist (Kibbee 2010; Baldzuhn & Putzo 2011; Canagarajah & Liyanage 2021; Gramling 2021; Piccardo 2022). Linguistic and geographic boundaries in the medieval period more closely resemble watercolours bleeding together than the neat divisions seen on our modern maps and described in our dictionaries (Piccardo 2018). By using current plurilingual theory to analyze multilingualism in medieval German literature, her project will create a new model for understanding medieval multilingualism, free from the traditional yet limiting associations between language and nationality. Furthermore, by examining representations of multilingualism that pre-date nationalism (specifically, from 1150 to 1300 CE), her research will also provide insight for scholars of linguistics and second-language acquisition as they develop theoretical models and pedagogical approaches that embrace language mixing and are better suited to the present era of globalisation.”
Why German Literature?
Her project contributes to the expanding field of medieval multilingualism research, which has seen significant scholarly development over the past two decades. Germany occupies a key position in this area of study due to its historical role as a site of sustained language contact between Europe and Asia. From the late twelfth century onward, German vernacular literature increasingly reflects this multilingual environment through the incorporation of diverse linguistic influences and multilingual narrative elements.
Methodology: Plurilingualism
Her research is informed by plurilingualism, an approach that differs from traditional multilingual frameworks by emphasizing the fluidity of linguistic boundaries. This perspective challenges the notion of a singular “native speaker” and a fixed “mother tongue,” instead recognizing the dynamic and interconnected nature of language use (Piccardo et al., 2022).
Research Questions:
- How are multilingual individuals and multilingualism represented in medieval German literature between 1150 and 1300 CE?
- In what ways can this premodern perspective contribute to contemporary models of multilingualism that move beyond inherited associations between language and nation?
Her approach is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural, engaging with scholarship across linguistic, literary, and historical fields.
The Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures warmly congratulates Hannah Robinson on this significant achievement and the recognition of her scholarly excellence through the SSHRC award.
