ALBA Thesis Award 2022-2024

The ALBA Thesis Award is named in honour of Dr. Liesbeth Brouwer, a deeply committed and enthusiastic teacher in the Euroculture programme at the University of Groningen, who sadly passed away far too young in 2006. The award is granted annually to a student who, according to the jury’s opinion, most effectively and elegantly represents the “Euroculture” approach, that is, dealing with current European issues from a complex perspective and approaching the related problems in an interdisciplinary manner.

For the cohort 2022-2024, we are proud to announce that student Mario Mikhail has been awarded this prize, for his MA thesis titled:

Das Passagen-Werk 2.0: Constellating Phantasmagoria, Rhythms, Flâneurism, and Ruination in Olympic Haunted Paris

Mr. Mikhail's thesis stands out as a daring, intellectually rich, and deeply interdisciplinary work that most certainly exemplifies the spirit and standards of the Euroculture programme. With Paris as its central case study, the thesis explores the city's urban and architectural transformation—from the late 19th-century Haussmannian modernization to the contemporary remodelling ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games.

The thesis makes a vital contribution by exploring how we experience and conceptualize urban space - an area of cultural inquiry that is essential to understanding European society today. Its focus on 'culture' as meaning-making of lived experience, and spatial imagination, combined with an interdisciplinary methodology drawing from urban studies, cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, and literary theory, positions it as a model Euroculture thesis.

A number of other Euroculture theses were nominated for this award. We would like to extend an honourable mention and a warm word of praise to the following students for their impressive theses.

Kristine Kajaia

The EU Fights Against Democratic Backsliding in Georgia: the Role of Civil Society Organizations

Gregor Nikolaus Matti

Decolonizing the EU’s International Cultural Relations. Europe’s Memory-Heritage-Identity Discourse and its Contestations from the Global South

Johanna Freistedt

Rape in Armed Conflict – How Sexual Violence against Women under Emergency Rule Reveals Persisting Hegemonial Masculinity in the Global North Using the Examples of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine since 2022

Iga Staszak

Development of the Rule of Law: Investigating the Case of Poland as an European Post-Communist Country

Suvanshkriti Singh

Life in Translation: Literary Perspectives Towards a Philosophy of Migrant Citizenship

Pippa Williams

A Study of European Sex Workers; From Human Rights to Government Policy