On 12 June 2025 three winners were awarded the 11th Lova Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award during an award ceremony at the Annual Lova Meeting in Amsterdam. Lorraine Nencel, chair of the jury, handed out the prizes on behalf of the jury that consisted of Fenneke Reysoo, Kim Knibbe and herself. Like the previous ten editions of the Thesis Award the event was organised by Marina de Regt. In a speech for the winners, Lorraine explained the history of the award, which is dedicated to the work and life of Marjan Rens, an active Lova member in the 1980s and 1990s, and who unfortunately passed away at the young age of 39.
Featuring in the picture above from left to right: Marina de Regt, Lisa Ottolander, Lorraine Nencel, Eva van der Pol, with Diego Galdo González on the screen of the online connection.
In December 2024, a call for submissions had been sent around via the Lova Mail Service and was published on Lova’s website and Facebook page. Students of master programmes in Anthropology, Development Studies and related domains at Dutch universities were invited to submit their thesis written from a feminist perspective, graded with an 8 or higher, and completed between January 2023 and December 2024. Twelve theses were submitted and the jury had quite a job to select the best three.
Winner of the first prize: Eva van der Pol
Eva van der Pol’s thesis Coding for a Better Life: An Intersectional Study on the Social Mobility Biographies of Highly Skilled Migrant Women Entering the Technology Sector in Barcelona, Spain, written for her Master in Social and Cultural Anthropology at VU University Amsterdam, shows how female migrants in Barcelona used reskilling as a practice and strategy for upward social mobility and better life conditions in the IT/coding sector. The research participants left their home countries, mostly to escape oppressive gender regimes that do not provide a positive acceptance of highly skilled professional women. The thesis reconsiders how the definition of skills is underpinned by gendered, racial, and ethnic power structures. It also reflects on the complex trajectory of insertion into the labour market in the host countries by women who have gone through tertiary education in their countries of origin. While scholarship on deskilling is rather widespread, the challenges and impact of reskilling initiatives on social mobility and job market integration have been scarcely documented.
The rich empirical data were gathered through participant observations, biographical interviews and ‘hanging around’ during the activities of the NGO CodeWomen in Barcelona. The ten key informants from ten different countries allowed Eva to create a narrative from the perspective of the deskilled/reskilled female migrants who try to make a better life.
The thesis is extremely well written. The author reflects on her own position by showing how her original ideas about migrant women as vulnerable influenced the way she did research in the beginning. The jury was also impressed by Eva’s willingness to do a survey for the NGO she worked with. The data collected were not only insightful for her own study but could also be used to evaluate the NGO’s work and develop new directions. So, it can be said that this thesis really makes ‘a difference’.
Winner of the second prize: Lisa Ottolander
The second prize was awarded to Lisa Ottolander for the thesis Je (Ne) Suis (Pas) Parisienne: Exploring Normative Femininity Through the Lens of Constraint and Desire completing her Master’s in Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. In this thesis Lisa inquires how the figure of la Parisienne shapes ideas and behaviour of feminine normativity among predominantly white heterosexual middle-class women in Paris. How do these women relate to this figure and what are their daily experiences of normative femininity in Paris. Feminine normativity works as constraining and as desirable; a feminine norm to aspire to in view of belonging. The thesis contributes to feminist contemporary theory by engaging critically with the feminist anthropological discussion on normativity as oppression.
For her thesis Lisa immersed herself during 2,5 months in the daily and nocturnal life of young women in Paris. She experienced the disciplinary mechanisms of the normative expectations of femininity and the constraints, fears and dangers of her interlocutors. She writes about the difficulty she had accessing research participants and developed new and exciting methods by using existing apps and going on ethnographic walks. This thesis is a beautiful example of ethnography in a contemporary cosmopolitan city; her methodological insights are extremely relevant for today’s ethnography. The thesis is original and wonderfully written and shows the complexity and tensions involved in what it means to be a Parisienne.
Winners of Lova Marjan Rens Master’s Thesis Award 2025. From left to right: Lisa Ottolander, Diego Galdo González, Eva van der Pol. Diego participated in the ceremony online from Peru.
Winner of the third prize: Diego Galdo González
In his thesis Descendants of Sodom. A History of Pleasure in Lima (1950-1982), written for his Research Master in Social Sciences at University of Amsterdam, Diego Galdo González shares the story of a group of individuals in Lima, Peru, who in the 1950s-1960s were called Maricas. At that time the terms homosexual or gay were not used, but these persons were proud to be Maricas. Diego shows how class, pleasure and sexual identity were constructed differently in the course of time and in different spaces in the centre of Lima and in the middle class neighbourhood of Miraflores.
During his fieldwork in Lima the author collected oral histories and researched archives. Based on these empirical data the author presents a long exciting narrative that is constructed piece by piece. Although it reads effortlessly, you can feel all the work that was needed behind it to get this result. The thesis gives a valuable look into a part of Limanian “Gay” history that has barely been recorded earlier. The conclusion shows the tension that exists between politicised gay identity and the Maricas/Maricones, as well as between different generations and classes.