Utrecht University is proud of its students who achieve something remarkable, either as part of their studies or elsewhere in their lives. Each year during the opening of the academic year, the Rector Magnificus therefore presents two Student Awards: the Student Award for the Best Master’s Thesis 2023 and the Student Award Social Impact (before ’Exceptional Extracurricular Achievements) 2023. The names of the students who have been nominated for these prizes have now been announced.
All nominees
The nominees for the Best Master’s Thesis are: Niels Drost, Charia Lacroix en Sophie ten Hietbrink. The nominees for the Social Impact Award 2023 are: (1) Angeliki Gianniou, Yashna Pande & Isabel Dahmen, (2) VetInvolved (Marije Spinder, Lidewei de Boer, Barbara Meric, Lisa Braaksma and Sabine Baerts), (3) ’Van Hier Naar [...]’ (Stefan Gaillard, Robert Dasovic, Simon Bangma and Carsten Bakhuis) én (4) Emperiod (Lucy Richmond, Mia Fisher, Georgie Hekkelman, Luiza Boiteux, Julia Cosialls Homs, Valentina Bauer and Faye Sagild).
Nominees Best Master’s Thesis 2023
Nelleke Tanis - An epidemic and its aftermath: Cholera in Utrecht, 1866
Nelleke Tanis wrote an impressive thesis on the financial consequences of the cholera epidemic that claimed more than 1,700 victims in Utrecht in 1866. Many hundreds of households lost one or more children, a mother, a father, or both parents. In her thesis, Nelleke shows how the local community made efforts to help families already during the outbreak and then set up a financial support program for orphans in particular and families whose breadwinner had died.
The result is a high-level scholarly text. The apt use of well-chosen examples of individuals brings the victims very close to the reader but at the same time the author shows how care for these households during and after the epidemic was organized in the 19th century urban society of Utrecht. As the thesis progresses, the crisis also deepens, giving the reader an ever better and more penetrating picture of the effects of cholera on this local community.
But the thesis is more than that. It is also an exploration of a society’s ability to use existing social and financial arrangements to cope with a major medical and economic crisis. Nelleke does this through a convincing and in-depth analysis on three levels: the individual households, the municipal and church organizations for poor care that cared for them, and the Utrecht society that mobilized to raise money to help the affected families.
Anouk van Veldhoven - Interventions that disrupt the peace: Intimate partner violence when edutainment is targeted at men, women or both
Anouk’s thesis addresses an important topic with enormous societal relevance and implications for policy. Globally, 30-40% of women report that they have experienced violence from an intimate partner (Intimate Partner Violence, or IPV). Research has shown that an important reason is so-called backlash from men when women request or receive opportunities to increase their position in the household or society. Recent work has started targeting men with interventions to change outcomes for women -from the perspective that men are typically dominant decision-makers especially in low-income countries -hoping that this may be a more effective method to change outcomes for women and mitigate backlash. However, despite evidence of backlash, studies targeting men to change outcomes for women have not investigated impacts on IPV.
This is what Anouk’s master thesis contributes. She studies a single intervention in Pakistan, a country with high-levels of IPV, but targeted at men, women, or both jointly, so that these differential targeting strategies can be cleanly compared. She finds that targeting men does not increase IPV, but that targeting women, either alone or jointly, increases emotional intimate partner violence, implying that targeting men to change outcomes for women can be an effective strategy to mitigate concerns about IPV when interventions aim to change outcomes for women. She does not observe changes in physical or sexual intimate partner violence. This is a significant and substantial contribution to the field and provides the important policy implication that men should be targeted with interventions when objectives are to change outcomes for women. In the Introduction to her thesis, Anouk clearly outlines her contributions to the literature, citing both recent and seminal related work.
Sisi Chen - Peer acceptance and victimization in the classroom: The role of student ethnicity, socioeconomic status and teacher-student relationship
The thesis concerns a highly relevant topic and the practical and scientific relevance of the thesis is explained very well. It becomes clear how this study adds to the body of knowledge. First, it examines the combined role of SES and ethnicity in predicting peer relations, whereas most prior studies only focused on ethnicity. In doing so, the results show that SES is actually a more important factor in the formation of peer relations than ethnicity. Second, this study focused on the role of the teacher and thereby sheds more light on the highly relevant question how teachers can buffer against peer victimization and promote acceptance in diverse classrooms. Together these finding emphasize the importance of including SES in further educational research and highlights that in educational practice SES should not be disregarded when forming classroom relationships.
Sisi has written a strong theoretical framework which outlines the important underlying theories and the relevant empirical work in the field. The results are presented clearly. The findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for research as well as their relevance for educational practice. Sisi has been trained and worked as a primary school teacher herself and she knows how to translate the findings to educational practice. Based on her thesis, she made a very nice animated video for teachers to explain the findings of her study.
Nominees for the Student Award Exceptional Extracurricular Achievements 2023
VetInvolved: Marije Spinder, Lidewei de Boer, Barbara Meric, Lisa Braaksma and Sabine Baerts
VetInvolved is a student initiative consisting of critical and committed veterinary students with a focus on ethics and animal welfare. They organise discussion evenings on current topics or issues that a vet encounters. Two speakers are usually invited for this, who will explain different perspectives. This is followed by a discussion using propositions and green/red cards. Examples include calf housing, using pigs as organ donors and the Malieba Day. VetInvolved also engages within education. For example, by conducting a survey among students, asking about moments within the study where ethical dilemmas occurred. VetInvolved care for a broader social discussion about topics that chafe, that cause discomfort, that have no unambiguous answers but need to be discussed. In this way, they ensure a better teaching and working culture.
’Van Hier Naar [...]’: Stefan Gaillard, Robert Dasovic, Simon Bangma en Carsten Bakhuis
Van Hier Naar [....]’ (VHN) is an interdisciplinary platform founded by students in collaboration with De Nieuwe Utrecht School. With all Utrecht students, professionals and patients, they analyse and research society-wide health issues. Societal themes related to health that are addressed by VHN include the growing health gap/health inequity, the (upcoming) care infarct, trust in (medical) science, climate change, psychological suffering, One Health and the performance society.
In conjunction with Journal of Trial and Error (JOTE), 2020 student award nominee, they have organised, among other things, an international workshop, a series of public dialogues and are collaborating with NPO1 on a TV documentary about unorthodox medical treatments.
Angeliki Gianniou, Yashna Pande & Isabel Dahmen
The establishment of the GELIJKSPEL Foundation. GELIJKSPEL was founded four years ago by this foursome to improve the sexual culture of students. They started by talking to different student associations, institutions for sexual well-being and educational institutions. It took a while before student associations wanted to do something with it, but this eventually led to a campaign. They provided input for the development of the Consent Matter module and brainstormed on how the University could contribute to the sexual well-being of students.
In addition, GELIJKSPEL supported Rutgers and the Centre for Sexual Violence in their campaigns and policy strategies and provided them with a student perspective. Isa, Giulia, Marloes and Lotte also developed an education, in which they rewrote the norms of sex. In the end, the ladies decided that this information should be the organisation’s basic product. These information sessions are given to student associations in different cities.
Emperiod: Lucy Richmond, Mia Fisher, Georgie Hekkelman, Luiza Boiteux, Julia Cosialls Homs, Valentina Bauer and Faye Sagild
Emperiod was founded in 2021 as a project of Enactus in response to the fact that 1 in 10 women in the Netherlands suffers from menstrual poverty. Menstrual poverty is defined as being unable to access and afford menstrual and sanitary supplies, menstrual health and hygiene education. It also focuses on the gigantic mountains of waste it entails. Emperiod’s aim is to make reusable sanitary pads in cooperation with local homeless shelters in Utrecht and the surrounding area. They were also instrumental in setting up a dispenser with free toiletries at UCU and organised Menstrual Week in May together with Period.nl.
Criteria
Directors of Education or research directors can nominate a student in their programme for the Student Award for the Best Master’s Thesis. The student must satisfy the set criteria. Anyone, regardless of their relationship to Utrecht University, may nominate a student for the Social Impact Award ( https://www.uu.nl/onderwijs/topdocenten-en-topstudenten/studentenprijzen )
Announcement
The winners will be announced during the Opening of the Academic Year ceremony in the Dom Church on Monday 4 September 2023