The Hydén Award is granted annually to mark the best thesis on socio-economic and political issues in low- and middle-income countries, as presented by a Bachelor or Masters level student at Lund University.
This year alumnus Jacco Visser who graduated in June this year from the program received an honorary mention for his Master thesis titled “Towards a Mobile Indigeneity? The Case of Indigenous Students from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Dhaka, Bangladesh”
The committee stated:
"The committee would like to give an honorary mention to Jacco Visser for his Master’s thesis titled “Towards a Mobile Indigeneity? The Case of Indigenous Students from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Dhaka, Bangladesh”. The thesis is built on rigorous ethnographic engagements and covers a topic that is of relevance to the struggles of “indigenous” communities worldwide. Jacco displays a deep understanding of the context and develops a complex theoretical web to make a nuanced study of how the idea of indigeneity changes meaning in an urban environment characterized by rapid social mobility. The conceptual stringency outshines empirical strength of the thesis, but this does not overshadow the overall impression that the author has produced a lucid and enlightening account of how members of a minority group adjust their sense of identity in a new and challenging social milieu.”