Faculty of Humanities: Master thesis award 2015
Speech by prof. dr. Michel ter Hark, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, on behalf of the jury, 27
January 2016
Thanks very much for coming! I’d like to welcome you on behalf of the jury for the master thesis
award.
The jury consisted of prof. Leo Hoek (French language and literature), Prof. Koen Goudriaan
(Medieval history), Dr. Harm Jan ten Dam (classical languages), dr. Roel Zemel (Dutch language
and literature), and myself.
The faculty has selected 10 thesis's according to strict criteria, among them:
 the thesis has to be completed in the academic year 14-15
 the thesis is no longer than 30.000 words (footnotes not included)
 the thesis has got a grade of 8.5 or higher
 each sub-division is allowed to nominate no more than 2 theses
What has been the procedure of the jury?
 well, first of all, reading, reading, making comments in the margins, and drafting an
evaluation which has been discussed in group.
 each member has been given the role of first reader of one or two theses and secondary
judge of two others theses.
 the final discussion took more than three hours, the lunch excluded.
The level
 the jury was impressed with both the depth and range of the topics chosen. In all cases
there was a strong link between teaching and research, which is the hallmark for the
Master programmes. In particular there was in many cases a clear link between the topic
dealt with and the research programme of the supervisors or the research group.
The selected nominations
Building gradually to the climax, let me briefly review the candidates in random order
Inge Huskens, De omnibus verbeeld. Spiegel van de moderniteit (Ten Berge/Esner)
This is a study in cultural history especially the intertwining of urban history, transport history and
iconographic research. The thesis focuses on the impact of the omnibus on urban life. The
omnibus, the author maintains, announces the venue of modernity in cities like London and Paris.
Making use of a wealth of visual material the thesis convincingly and elegantly shows that the
picture of an omnibus is more than just that, an omnibus
The thesis reads like an exposition
Hester Woolwich, Robert Smithson and Mark Dion. De cultuur van de natuur (Kwastek/Ten Berge)
In-depth study and comparison of two artists working in the tradition of land art, or earth art and
concerned with how we relate to nature. Dion is from a younger generation than Smithson and
also their style is different. Yet the author interestingly argues and shows that the two artists are
similar in their concern with the relation between geology, the science of time and critical art
discourse. And this similarity invites further comparison.
the result is a very informative and a good introduction to the work of two artists, a very good
read.
Elianne de Ruiter, Categoriseren van Spaanse fenomenen. Een vergelijkende studie tussen
moedertaalsprekers en niet-moedertaalsprekers (Lamers/Kok)
Study of the perception of two closely related Spanish phonemes fa and the by a group of 23
Dutch speaking and Spanish speaking persons. How do non-native speakers perceive the phonetic
differences? To what extent they differ from native speakers. Can the perception of non-native
sound be improved by experience?
the conclusion i that there is a difference within perception, especially manifesting itself with
ambiguous sounds.
very well conducted research.
Kiki Renardel de Lavalette, How to identify moral language in presidential speeches: a comparison
between two methods of corpus analysis (Steen/ C. Burgers)
Two distinct methods of data analysis, one cognitive-linguistic and one social-psychological, are
both aimed at the empirical study of Lakoff’s (1996/2002) assertions on moral reasoning in
American Politics. In this study they were applied to the corpus of speeches Bush and Obama to
determine whether they would yield similar results. It turns out that the two methods do not lead
to the same findings. Potential explanations for these differences are discussed and an alternative
method of data analysis is proposed.
Very well written, works within a very respectable research programme and strong in critical
reflection
Halina Pavlyshyn, Subject positions offered to readers of Alice: mutual influence of verbal and
visual texts on a reader of three British editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
(Jansen/Oostdijk)
Literary interpretations of Alice in Wonderland do not sufficiently take into account the
illustrations of the book. the author wants to show that on her approach the mutual influence of
text an image can be analyzed in more detail. for this she makes use of narratology, semiotics and
bibliographic accounts. With help of these theories she is able to answer what subject positions
are offered to readers by three different editions of this famous book.
Very good thesis. in particular the theoretical chapters about narratology are strong.
Sam Bocken, Proeft dit gout eerie trout. Protestantse huwelijksethiek in Jacob Cat’s trouringh
(Koppenol/van der Meulen)
This study investigates whether and to what extent Cats’ writings on marriage, as for instance in
his Trouring, reveal elements of protestant thinking. In the literature on Cats this has not gone
unnoticed, but, according to the author, he various claims have not been based on sound scientific
evidence. To provide this evidence is the major aim.
Lisanne Buisman, Adversative particles? (Allan/Boter)
Discusses the meaning of two adversative particles, kaitoi and mentoi, in the work of
Aristophanes. The question is whether the received view of Slings about the meaning of the
particles, and based on the monologues of Herodotus also apply to dialogical work, in particular
Aristophanes.
She makes use of and builds upon the pragmatic theory of Kroon and the work of Allan. An
exceedingly precise argumentation, and strong positioning of the research with current research.
author points out that the analysis of particles in the work of A reveals a number of cases that
cannot be fitted into the theory of Slings. In addition she provides a new interpretation of the
particles which goes further than the debate with slings.
very well written, original
Publishable as a series of articles.
Daniel Kipp, De stad als erfgoed. Visies op stadsvernieuwing in de Nieuwmarktbuurt vanaf de jaren
50 tot 1975 (Van der Maas/Hondius)
The thesis is a historiographic reconstruction of the famous debates and riots in the
Nieuwmarktbuurt as a series of narratives. How did the various narratives emerge and develop.
The thesis contains a very good chapter on stadsvernieuwing after the war. Another striking
feature is the abundance of source material, such as interviews and above all visual material like
photos and pictures.
a very informative documentation of the nieuwmarktbeweging.
Wouter Bisschop, On epistemic circularity (van Woudenberg/de Ridder)
Is epistemic circularity in the same boat as logical circularity, which is generally considered as a
flaw in thinking? the author argues that contrary to received view that it is, and that in itself is a
defect. Yet there is hope, for, in the third essay, it is argued that faith ultimately is at the bottom
of justifications of knowledge.
A very good piece of logical reasoning about a subject matter that is important and relevant for
many areas of research
Ruben Verhagen, The irreducibility of consciousness. A hard problem or a category mistake?
(Decock/McQueen)
The thesis tackles one the last mysteries: the nature of consciousness, and is in that sense very
ambitious. The thesis departs from the seminal work of David Chalmers who defends a form of
non-reductionism. The author considers in detail the various arguments of Chalmers and
concludes that do not imply the failure of a reductionist and physicalistic position. Finally the
author develops a plan for a physicalistic approach, based on a new view of the notion of
information. Additional evidence for the fruitfulness of this plan is the convergence with a recent
influential neurological theory of consciousness.
Tineke Leenaarts, Visual crowding in dyslexia: the effect of increased inter-letter spacing on the
reading performance of dyslexic and typically reading children (Bos/Tijms)
The study departs from the theory that dyslectics are affected by visual crowding, and that an
increase in inter-letter spacing in words would reduce crowding in dyslexic children and enhance
their reading performance. Are these results generalizable, the authors asks. Will dyslexic children
(of varying ages) still benefit from extra-large letter spacing under different experimental
conditions (e.g., a different reading task, a different language)? Can the beneficial effects of extralarge letter spacing be explained in another way than the alleviation of visual crowding in dyslexic
children? The goal of the current thesis is to contribute to finding an answer to these questions.
This is again a very good thesis, with a strong experimental design and interesting empirical results
that deserve further investigation.
In view of the high quality of the theses the jury has decided to award also an honorable mention.
The candidate who deserves an honorable mention comes from the department of philosophy. His
name is Ruben Verhagen.
The prize for the best Master thesis is awarded to Lisanne Buisman from Classic and Ancient
Civilizations: Greek) for her thesis: Adversative particles? Supervised by Rutger Allan and Gerard
Boter.