The Ted Meijer Prize is an award established to honour the legacy of the ex-director of the KNIR who died in 1997. Ted Meijer was firmly dedicated to the study and preservation of the diverse cultural heritage of Italy and Rome in particular. Accordingly, this prize is awarded once a year for the best (R)MA thesis or PhD thesis in the field of the humanities, that contributes significantly to these areas of research.
The prize comes in the form of a scholarship consisting of:
- free lodging at the KNIR for ten weeks;
- a weekly allowance of € 200,- (in case of a (R)MA thesis) or € 250,- (in case of a Phd thesis) for your general expenses during your stay in Rome;
- a reimbursement of up to € 500,- for your travelling expenses to Rome and within Italy.
Application requirements
Eligible are (R)MA theses and dissertations that have been completed and successfully defended at one of our partner universities (RUG, RU, UU, UL, UvA, VU) in the 18 months prior to the application deadline. Apart from the quality of the thesis/dissertation, applications will also be assessed based on a (provisional) research plan for the scholarship (e.g. for preparing a new project, writing an article).
Please note that if you have recently graduated or obtained a PhD, and want to pursue a research career, you can also apply for a (regular) KNIR scholarship for preparing a Phd– or postdoctoral project.
How to apply?
Candidates for the Ted Meijer Prize can self-apply. The next deadline for applications is TBA. You can apply via the form that will be available on this page approximately six weeks in advance. The exact dates of the scholarship period, the opening of the application portal and successive deadlines will be published here and announced in our monthly newsletter.
Former Prize Winners
The Ted Meijer Prize 2023 will be awarded to Maarten Schmaal MA for his thesis Imperialist Dynamics Between Lineage and State in the Long Fourth Century (403-293 BCE): Evidence for a Grand Bargain in Central Italy?
The Ted Meijer Prize 2022 was awarded to Claudia Minchilli for her dissertation Localising Digital Diasporas. Diasporic digital networking among Somali, Romanian and Turkish women in Rome through the lens of social class which she defended at Utrecht University on Friday 19 November 2021.
The Ted Meijer Prize 2021 was awarded to Warja Tolstoj MA for her thesis Domine Quo Vadis: Appropriation, Veneration and Fabrication, Traces of the Divine.