FSS Johannes van der Zouwen Master Thesis Award 2024
The FSS Johannes van der Zouwen Master Thesis Award is granted to the most impressive master thesis within the social sciences. The master thesis should have received at least an 8 and finished as well as assessed within 1 year of the application deadline.
This year, the award was given to Santiago Camara. The Social and Cultural Anthropology master's student wrote the thesis, ‘Chemsexuality. Exploring Transgender Experiences with Drugs and Sex in Amsterdam ‘’
FSS Dissertation Award 2024
The FSS Dissertation Award seeks to increase the quality of empirical research in the broad field of social sciences. The granting of the FSS Dissertation Award is open to all FSS PhD students that defended their dissertation in the past two years at the faculty.
This year's FSW Dissertation Award was granted to Sharon Stellaard (Political Science and Public Administration).
The jury chaired by Prof Jeanne de Bruijn stated: "Sharon’s dissertation unquestionably deserves this distinction. It addresses the crucial issue of the recurrent failure of major Dutch policy fields, as the subtitle indicates: On Persistent Tragedy in Special Education and Youth Care Policy. The dissertation employs an innovative approach. While most policy evaluations focus on immediate problems and short-term solutions, this study takes a long-term perspective, examining how policy decisions and outcomes have evolved over several decades. This approach uncovers the deeper, underlying causes of these failures, which are often overlooked in traditional policy analysis."
FSS Research Award (junior) 2024
The FSS Research Award aims to bring the most appealing, promising and original research achievements into the spotlight. This year the FSS Research Award was granted to a junior research talent.
This year Kristina S. Weißmüller (Political Science and Public Administration) won the FSS junior Research Award. She is an expert in behavioral public administration, focusing on leadership, decision-making, motivation, and good governance. Her research addresses critical societal issues like public sector corruption, bureaucratic discretion, and the impact of ‘publicness’ on governance amid complexity and technological change. Aligned with UN SDG16, her work aims to strengthen citizens’ trust in institutions and social cohesion. Kristina has led several international research projects on topics like anti-corruption and deliberative quality. She collaborates with organizations such as UNODC, WTO, and Transparency International, and serves the academic community as Treasurer and Board Member of IRSPM and AYA.
Kristina's reaction on winning the FSS junior Research Award: "I am very happy and grateful to have received this award – what a great start into the new calendar yearI The laudation by Elly Konijn was very touching and appreciative. At our faculty, I have the privilege of working with so many inspiring, creative, generous, and very successful colleagues. FSS is a very inspiring and interdisciplinary place to work at, and I feel very honored to have received this nice award as a recognition by my peers. Of course, I am proud that my achievements - such as my Veni and NWA grants – are being recognized, but I truly believe that science is a team sport. Therefore, in my opinion, it is a team success. I thrive at my department (B&P) because our faculty is a great place to work, with a lot of support, a motivating research agenda for the benefit of society, and a fantastic international community of engaged scholars. Therefore, I am most thankful to all my colleagues, and we will celebrate the award together. "
Congratulations to all the winners of this year’s awards!
Curious about the nominees? Check out the video’s below in which every Research Award nominee tells us something about their research.