Bachelor's Thesis Award

Since 2019 CRASIS has offered an award for the best submitted Bachelor’s Thesis written at the University of Groningen or the Protestant Theological University in Groningen and dealing with a research topic covered by CRASIS: ancient history, classical languages, archaeology, and ancient Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The winner, who receives a prize of € 500, is announced annually at the first Ancient World Seminar of the academic year.

Previous Thesis Prize winners

Thesis Prize 2024:

The Thesis Prize 2024 was awarded to Boris ter Beek, for his thesis entitled “Een moeder, een leven. Over Matris natalicia van Jacobus Johannes Hartman (1852-1924)”. This edition, translation and critical commentary of Hartman’s neo-Latin poem brought together a detailed analysis of the poem’s language and intertextuality with a careful and considerate analysis of the relationship between author and text, and between the author’s poetics and his self-representation. The jury was particularly impressed with the thesis’ clear argumentative structure and its convincing showcase of the skills necessary for high-calibre research of its kind. 

Thesis Prize 2023:

In this year, four Thesis Prizes were awarded, one for each discipline represented by CRASIS. The winners of 2023 were:

• Maarten Durivou: Blessed be the poor: A Literary Examination of the Portrayal of Poverty in the Gospel of Luke (Theology and Religious Studies)

• Folkert de Bruin: Polyxena before Euripides (Classics)

• Marieke Apol: The soft power of coins in Tarsus: A numismatical analysis of the relationship between the city of Tarsus and its rulers from the fifth to second centuries BCE (Ancient History)

• Ingar Witte: De weg naar het verleden: Onderzoek naar de bruikbaarheid van Least Cost Path analyse voor het reconstrueren van Transhumance Routes in het Pollino gebergte, Italië (Archaeology)

Thesis Prize 2022:

The winner of the CRASIS Bachelor Thesis Prize 2022 was "The Petrine Plot Twist: Strategies of Umwertung as a Unifying Concept for Understanding 1 Peter", written by Peter Hansum. Hansum studied the rhetorical strategies that the author of 1 Peter employed to argue for a new honor code and suggested that one of the ways the author seeks to accomplish his goal is by using the rhetorical tool of Umertung.

Thesis Prize 2021:

The winner of the CRASIS Bachelor Thesis Prize 2021 was “Eternal Friendship, Carved in Stone,” written by Silvan Auf der Maur. In the thesis, Auf der Maur investigated the use of decrees in Athenian diplomacy, showcasing the importance of epigraphic evidence for our understanding of Athenian politics. The jury was particularly impressed by how Auf der Maur situated his question within the history of scholarship and clarified what his work contributes to the study of ancient Greek diplomacy.

Thesis Prize 2020:

Hylke de Boer was awarded the Thesis Prize 2020 for his thesis “Roma hospitis patria: Een karakterisering van de hospes in Propertius boek IV”. The jury was impressed by de Boer’s mastery of the primary sources and his ability to bring them into dialogue with the secondary literature. Not least because of their relevance for modern societies, the themes of diversity and unity are currently of central interest in classics and ancient history, and De Boer offered a creative contribution to these debates.

Thesis Prize 2019:

The Bachelor’s Thesis Award of 2019 was presented to Benjamin Lensink for his thesis titled “Cosmological Contestations: A Cosmological Comparison between the Visio Pauli and the Apocalypse of Paul”. The jury especially appreciated the combination of solid description and high explanatory potential, resulting in a very convincing interpretation of the material within its religious and cultural context. Moreover, the suggestions made for further research showed both the relevance of this topic and Lensink’s enthusiasm and ability to work on it.