NeFCA Awards

Since 2013, the Netherlands Flanders Communication Association (NeFCA) confers the NeFCA Senior Career award and the NeFCA Young Scholar Award to recognize excellent achievements of communication scholars. These prices are alternately awarded during the annual Etmaal conference.

In addition, NeFCA confers the NeFCA Dissertation Award. Before 2018, a NeSCoR Dissertation Award (for Dutch dissertations) and a Flemish Dissertation Award were awarded alongside each other. From Etmaal 2018 onwards, one NeFCA Dissertation Award is awarded for Dutch and Flemish dissertations together. On Etmaal 2018, the first NeFCA Dissertation Award (for dissertations defended in 2016) was handed out.

Senior Career Award
The NeFCA Senior Career Award honors a lifetime of scholarly achievement in communication studies. The award recognizes scholars who have shown substantive and quantifiable contributions, scientific as well as societal, to the field of communication studies, through for instance multiple (refereed) publications, professional or public publications, presentations, invited speeches, leadership and mentorship, expert panelist, memberships of committees and/or other contributions with scientific and societal impact.

Award winners:
2023: Prof. dr. Moniek Buijzen (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
2021: Prof. dr. Jan Kleinnijenhuis (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
2019: Prof. dr. Claes de Vreese (University of Amsterdam)
2017: Prof. dr. Hilde van den Bulck (Antwerp University)
2015: Prof. dr. Keith Roe (KU Leuven)
2013: Prof. dr. Peter Neijens (University of Amsterdam)

Young Scholar Award 
The young scholar award is meant to honor the accomplishments of young doctors (e.g., post-doc, assistant-professor, lecturer) who succeed in combining their individual academic career with contributions to the discipline of communication and media research. The award recognizes young scholars who hold a combination of a good academic track record and notable efforts with respect to the development of the discipline by, for instance, being involved (or have been) involved in contributing to the development of their own research group, section, department, or faculty or to the academic community at large.

Award winners:
2024: Dr. Hanneke Hendriks (Radboud University)
2022: Dr. Sanne Kruikemeier (University of Amsterdam)
2020: Dr. Laura Vandenbosch (KU Leuven)
2018: Dr. Gertjan Willems (Ghent University)
2016: Dr. An-Sofie Claeys (KU Leuven)
2014: Dr. Eva van Reijmersdal (University of Amsterdam)

NeFCA Dissertation Award 
The award aims to acknowledge excellent dissertations in the field of Communication Sciences and wants to recognize the quality of doctoral research in the Netherlands and Flanders.

Award winners:
2024: Dr. Aart van Stekelenburg (Radboud University)
2023: Dr. Monique Alblas (University of Amsterdam)
2020: Dr. Roel Lutkenhaus (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam), for his dissertation entitled “Entertainment-Education in the New Media Landscape: Stimulating Creative Engagement in Online Communities for Social and Behavioral Change”.
2019: Dr. Yosha Wijngaarden (Erasmus University Rotterdam), for her dissertation entitled “Places of co-working: Situating innovation in the creative industries”.
2018: Dr. Femke Geusens (KU Leuven), for her dissertation entitled “#DrinksWithFriends – The Underlying Processes and Conditionality of Alcohol-Related Social Media Effects“.
2017: Dr. Rena Zendedel (University of Amsterdam), for her dissertation entitled “Informal interpreting in Dutch general practice”.
2016: Dr. Stefan Bernritter (University of Amsterdam), for his dissertation is entitled “Examining consumers’ brand endorsements on social media”.

Flemish Dissertation Award

Award winners:
2016: Dr. Sara De Vuyst (Ghent University), for her dissertation entitled “Hacking gender in journalism. A multi-method study on gender issues in the rapidly changing and digitalised field of news production”.
2015: Dr. Laura Vandenbosch (KU Leuven), for her dissertation entitled “Self-objectification and sexual effects of the media: an exploratory study in adolescence”.

NeSCoR Dissertation Award

Award winners can be found here.

Frieda Saeys Foundation Prize

The Frieda Saeys Foundation strives to stimulate research in memory of the late Professor Frieda Saeys (1948-2007), Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences at Ghent University, who studied and lectured in the fields of media, gender, policy, and diversity. Since 2019, the annual Frieda Saeys Foundation Prize is awarded to a young scholar or student who conducted excellent research on topics related to gender and media.

Award winners:
2024: Femke De Sutter (Ghent University), for her paper entitled: “Je n’aims pas les vieilles”: A comprehensive analysis of the representations of older adults on the Belgian silver screen (1945-2022)”.
2023: Maxine De Wulf Helskens (Universiteit Gent), for her paper entitled: “Repackaged sob sisters and outsiders within: Reading the female and minority journalists on The Bold Type and The Morning Show”.
2022: Sofie Vranken (KU Leuven), for her paper entitled: “A Qualitative Study Exploring How Boys and Girls Construct Gender Norms in Alcohol-Related Self-Presentations on Social Media”.
2020: Thalia Van Wichelen (University of Antwerp), for her Etmaal paper entitled: “De mening van Vlaamse ouders omtrent homoseksualiteit in kindertelevisie“.
2019: Joke Dheer (Ghent University), for her Etmaal paper entitled “Eerst moeder van drie, of toch vooral politicus? Een kwantitatieve inhoudsanalyse naar de representatie van vrouwelijke politieke kandidaten in de Vlaamse pers”.