HuCom Thesis Prize
Have you recently completed your Master’s thesis on humanitarian communication or the representation of international cooperation, humanitarian aid or crisis response? Do you want to share your research with a broader audience and get recognition for your work from an expert jury? Then submit your thesis for the Humanitarian Communication (HuCom) Thesis Prize 2024-2025!
The Expertise Centre Humanitarian Communication (HuCom) is a non-profit organization committed to ethical, inclusive and equitable communication on international cooperation and humanitarian aid. Every two years we award the HuCom Thesis Prize to the best Master’s thesis on humanitarian communication written by a student at a university or other academic institution in the Netherlands or Belgium.
We welcome Master’s theses about humanitarian communication in the broadest sense, in any discipline or field, including discourses of international cooperation and humanitarian aid, the use of stereotypes of ‘developing’ countries and peoples, or on any other topic related to the (discursive) representation of the so-called ‘Global South’. The thesis prize particularly appreciates those theses that provide a critical perspective on humanitarian communication of the (discursive) representation of the Global South more generally.
Why participate?
• You get the change to share your research and expand your network;
• You gain recognition for your work from an expert jury;
• The winner receives a €500 cash prize!
What are the requirements?
– Your thesis must have been completed between September 1, 2023 and September 1, 2025;
– You have written your thesis at a university or other academic institution in the Netherlands or Belgium;
– written in English;
– You have received with a 7,5 grade or higher for your thesis.
What are the evaluation criteria?
– Academic quality and originality;
– Societal relevance and urgency;
– Writing style and argumentative structure of the thesis.
To enter the competition, please fill in the registration form at https://bit.ly/hucom-thesis-prize-2024-2025 and send a digital copy of your thesis (and a proof of your grade) to [email protected] by September 15, 2025 (mentioning ‘HuCom Thesis Prize 2024-2025’). In case the file is bigger than 10MB, please use WeTransfer or a similar file transfer site.
DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 (SUBMISSION IS OPEN ALL YEAR ROUND!)
The award will be presented at a celebratory public event in December 2025 in Amsterdam. For any remaining questions, please contact [email protected].
HuCom Thesis Prize 2024-2025
The Humanitarian Communication Thesis Prize will again be awarded in December 2025. It will be the fifth time that we will be awarding this prize for the best master’s thesis on humanitarian communication and the representation of international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response.
With the Humanitarian Thesis Prize, we aim to biennially recognize research in the specialized field of humanitarian communication. For this fith edition, we again hope to receive many theses submitted to a Dutch or Belgian university in the past year and graded with a 7.5 or higher.
During the awards event, the nominated students will present their thesis in Pecha Kucha style (i.e. 20 slides to be shown for 20 seconds each). In addition to the honor, the winner will receive a cash prize of €500. The best presentation will also be rewarded by the jury.
HuCom Thesis Prize 2022-2023
On Thursday, December 7, 2023, the Humanitarian Communication Thesis Prize 2023 took place in UvA’ Humanities Labs in Amsterdam. It was the fourth time that we awarded this prize for the best master’s thesis on humanitarian communication and the representation of international cooperation and humanitarian aid.
Download the press release on the HuCom Thesis Prize 2023 here
For this fourth edition of the HuCom Thesis Prize, we again received many theses that were submitted to a Dutch or Belgian university in the past year and graded with a 7.5 or higher. After assessing all the entries, the jury – consisting of Rodrigo Mena Fluhmann (Disasters and Humanitarian Studies, ISS, HuCom board member), Clara Egger (Global Governance Studies, EUR), Floris Paalman (Media Studies, UvA), and Femke van Heun (WOMEN Inc, winner HuCom Thesis Prize 2021) – arrived to the following six nominees (in alphabetical order):
- Gabriela Anderson (Development Studies, ISS, Erasmus University Rotterdam);
- Hannah Bailon (Societal Resilience, Free University Amsterdam);
- Ditte Blankert (Development Studies, University of Amsterdam);
- Ashleigh Dunstan (International Relations, Utrecht University);
- Adrian Jonathan Pasaribu (Film Studies, University of Amsterdam);
- Emma van der Westen (Film Studies, University of Amsterdam).
The awards event started with the launch of a new Humanitarian Communication Guide (see Publications) After this launch, it was time for the nominated students to present their research and for the jury to announce the winner: Gabriela Anderson, with her excellent thesis 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗲 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗿𝘁(𝘀) 𝗼𝗳 𝗩𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗯𝘂𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗴𝗮𝘂𝗻𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮 (Development Studies, ISS/EUR). The jury found her thesis, among other things, ‘relevant’, ‘convincing’, ‘critical’ and ‘self-reflective’. Anderson also won the prize for the Best Pecha Kucha. In addition, the jury gave a special mention to Hannah Bailon for the ‘innovative’ method use and ‘exceptionally clear’ presentation of information in her thesis 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮.
Read here the full jury report
The Humanitarian Communication Thesis Prize 2023 was supported by Partos, ASCA and BuzzHouse.
Previous editions of the HuCom Thesis Prize
In 2018 we organized the Humanitarian Communication Thesis Prize for the first time. That edition, Emma Vogt won the prize for the Best Thesis, while Miriam Ocadiz Arriaga (now one of our board members!) received a Special Mention for her research and Gabriel Ramirez Acevedo (now one of our board members as well!) the prize for Best Pecha Kucha presentation. Then, in 2019, Dani Haudenschild won the prize for Best Thesis, while Brittany Keller won the prize for Best Pecha Kucha presentation. After an absence of one year, in 2021, we organized the HuCom Thesis Prize for the third time. This time, the winner was Femke van Heun with her thesis entitled ‘The Politics of Framing Menstrual Health and Hygiene Interventions: Challenging or Upholding Menstrual Stigma?’ In addition, there was a special mention for Katie Banks, while Katerina Zejdlova received the prize for Best Pecha Kucha.
