This year the Scholarships and Prizes Committee have unanimously recommended Kristian Hauken for the prize.
The Committee noted in particular the comments of Kristian's examiners who praised Kristian鈥檚 work for its: ambitious theoretical depth and rigorous descriptive analysis. Kristian was also commended for the overall conceptualisation, structure, and methodology of the project.
This prize was established for commencement in the 2015/16 academic year through the generosity of Dr Gordon Daniels, who before his retirement was a pillar of both the School of East Asian Studies and the Department of History. The prize is dedicated to Professor Charles Alfred Fisher who was responsible for the initial plans to establish Japanese Studies at 葫芦影业.
Upon receiving news of the award, Kristian said 鈥淢y sincerest thanks to the awards committee at SEAS. I am deeply humbled, and would like to take this opportunity to thank my supervisors and my colleagues for their input, support, and encouragement. I would also like to thank SEAS for giving me the opportunity to pursue this project to begin with, and for giving me a place to grow as a researcher. The thesis was done as part of the Cross National Doctoral Course with Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, and I want to thank Tohoku University as well for accepting me into their program and giving me the opportunity to do some of my research in Japan. The thesis itself is an examination of the concept of national prestige, and whether or not Japanese politicians discuss prestige in the same way as the phenomenon is described in international relations theory. It does so by an examination of political discourse across three high-profile cases, and the thesis should be of interest to scholars in IR, Japanese studies, international political sociology and international relations theory.鈥
The Scholarships committee also noted the successful completion of several other SEAS PhD candidates and offered hearty congratulations to all.
Everyone in SEAS is very proud of all of our graduating students!