The winner of this year’s Birgit Elands Thesis Award wrote several piano pieces to explore the relationship between humans and nature.
Article by WUR
The jury was impressed by the use of multiple methodologies by Leonoor Opstelten to illustrate different global climate and biodiversity crises discourses – from analysis of newspaper articles, focus groups and interviews to musical impressions – in her MSc thesis.
“For many people, especially young people, this period of time is not an emotionally easy time”, says the jury in its laudation. “War, climate and ecological crises can induce negative feelings including anxiety. Leonoor argues that those feelings of anxiety and loss are deeply connected to the relation we have as society with nature. As humans, we need a story that gives a sense of stability and ontological security…she connected discourses with emotions and came up with five different story lines.”
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Photo shows Caterina Ossio Tord (fourth from left) and Leonoor Opstelten holding their prize certificates. Flanking them are the judges and students whose theses were among the five short-listed entries.
Foto_ WUR
