The Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies MA Thesis Award
2025/26 Call for submissions
The Nordic Society for Middle Eastern Studies announces the annual MA thesis award for the best MA thesis on a topic related to the Middle East submitted at a Nordic educational institution. All students submitting their thesis between 16 August 2025 and 15 August 2026 are eligible for the award. The thesis must be nominated by the supervisor, and will be read by a three-member committee.
The thesis must be written on a topic related to the Middle East region, including North Africa, Iran, Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula. The thesis must be submitted at an educational institution in one of the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark) and written in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish. The application must include the following, in one single PDF:
1. A completed submission form (found here)
2. A letter of recommendation from the thesis supervisor
3. A digital copy of the thesis
4. Copy of the certificate of completed Master’s degree. If this is not issued at the time of submission a confirmation of submitted thesis should be included instead, and the certificate shall be sent after issuance
Deadline for submissions is 15 October 2026. The winner of the award will be announced in February 2027. The winner will receive a certificate and a token of achievement. The application should be sent to secretary@nsmes.org.
The winner of 2024/25 MA Thesis Award was Pernille Gold Barash for her thesis titled “Mellem fortællinger og fordomme. Undervisningsforløb om Mellemøsten til danske folkehøjskoler”, a two-part thesis consisting of a theoretical and methodological discussion, and a structured teaching programme on the Middle East.
As in previous years many excellent theses were submitted to be evaluated for the awards and the choice was not easy. The committee, however, was in unanimous agreement that Barash’s thesis was a well-executed, highly original piece, with great potential for practical application and impact. Barash shows herself to have a firm grasp on the data and literature in question, and we feel that the piece is overall a balanced and mature contribution to the field of Middle Eastern Studies in the Nordic countries.
With the selection of Barash’s work, the committee has wanted to acknowledge the value of a product-based thesis that brings academic work into practice. In this case, it is done exquisitely and based on a solid theoretical and methodological ground. The systematic incorporation of theory into the development of concrete teaching material has resulted in a convincing and inspiring course plan giving all of us who are teaching on the Middle East new perspectives to consider.
The MA awards Committee members were Christine Crone, Thorir Jonsson Hraundal and Hasan Karakilinc.
Previous winners:
- 2025: Davide de Francesco, Lund University. "From Dawn to Dusk. Studying the origin of the Islamic fivefold daily liturgy in the Quran."
- 2024: Lili De Paola, University of Helsinki. “Constructing Saudi Arabian Nationhood: Shaping Subjectivities Through Suitable Pasts, Imagined Futures and National Femininities.”
- 2023: Maiken Omnes Frydenlund, University of Oslo. “Meddling with my Dough-Baking Hands! Protest Language and Stigma in Contemporary Turkey.”
- 2022: Mathias Ghyoot, University of Copenhagen. “Brothers Behind Bars: A History of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Second Prison Ordeal, 1954 – 1964.”