The award is issued biannually by the German language branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM D-A-CH) for the best research presentations by early career researchers.

Christopher earned the price for his presentation “Between Music-Anthropological Research and Culture Regulation. Cybernetic Investigations of Popular Music in the GDR 1957-1970.” In his lecture, he uncovered a previously unknown strand of musicological study of popular music in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and showed the extent to which the sonic dimension of popular music became an ‘epistemic thing’ not only through different research technologies and laboratory studies, but also through concrete political orders and official beliefs of the SED, the ruling party of the GDR, in the manipulating character of ‘Tanz- und Unterhaltungsmusik’.  

More about the award (in German): https://www.iaspm-dach.net/maria-hanacek-award