The BA thesis Prize

Naji Safadi, Election Under Occupation – Analyzing the 2018 Golan Heights Local Council Elections. PPLE, supervisors: Kris Ruijgrok and Santy Kouwagam.

From the jury report:
‘This thesis examines the voting behaviour of the Jawlanis, the population of the Golan Heights, who have been under Israeli rule since 1967. When they were allowed to elect their mayors in 2018, only 1.7 % went to the ballot boxes. This inspired Safadi to examine why people did not vote: was this merely because of their resistance against Israeli occupation, or were other elements at play as well? The jury was particularly enthusiastic about the research method: through the use of interviews this thesis was more ambitious than the other ones. Furthermore, the thesis is very well written, and reads like a detective novel, as one of the jury members commented. Also, Safadi has been very humble in the presentation of his findings, noting that this is explorative research, and repeatedly mentioning that his sample is not representative. Although the jury felt that the conceptual approach and the literature review could have received more attention, this thesis was unanimously appointed as the winner of the BA thesis prize.’

The other nominees in the Bachelor’s thesis category were Sara Pas and Nora van den Brink.

The MA thesis prize

Yvette Hogenelst, A Bloody Crisis: The discourses on menstruation of (I)NGOs, international organisations, and a social enterprise in Lebanon. MA Middle Eastern Studies, supervisor: Maaike Voorhoeve.

From the jury report:
The jury found the thesis of very high quality. It chartered a relatively recent field, critical menstruation studies, and was theoretically well informed. What struck the jury was the originality of the research and the fieldwork in Lebanon, which under the current circumstances couldn’t have been easy. It was very well written and structured with a clear eye to show nuances between the ways in which international and local NGOs tried to deal with the issue of menstruation poverty. Yvette also showed awareness of her own position and views, which did not appear to steer the outcomes of this interesting piece of research. The result was a theoretically sound piece of work with empirical backing through on the ground research. For these reasons, the winner of this year’s ACMES MA thesis prize is Yvette Hogenelst.

The other nominees in the Master’s thesis category were Elem Yag, Roel Welling and Vincent Valk.

About the ACMES Thesis Prize

The Amsterdam Centre for Middle Eastern Studies Amsterdam annually awards two prizes to the best BA thesis and the best MA thesis in Middle Eastern Studies for work completed at the University of Amsterdam during the preceding academic year. The submitted theses should focus on the Middle East or subjects related to this region and must have received a grade of 8 or higher.

The jury is appointed by the ACMES Steering Board based on the fields in which the theses have been written. This year, members of the BA jury were prof.em. Annelies Moors, dr. Dimitris Bouris and dr. Maaike Voorhoeve. Members of the MA jury were dr. Farid Boussaid, Amir Taha, MA and dr. Anne de Jong. The prizes consist of € 150 in book vouchers for the best BA thesis and € 250 in book vouchers for the best MA thesis.