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Tim Spier Study Prize for the Social Sciences

Since 2007, the Department of Social Sciences of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, i.e. the subjects of Political Science and Sociology, has been awarding the Social Sciences Student Prize for outstanding Bachelor's, Master's and state theses. The prize is awarded annually at the Spring/Summer Festival of Social Sciences, which focuses on the exchange between students and lecturers in a festive and convivial setting.

In 2018, the study award was renamedthe Tim Spier Study Awardin memory of our colleague Tim Spier, who passed away at the end of 2017. The Department of Social Sciences thus honors Tim Spier's outstanding commitment to teaching.

Tim Spier's family has supported the prize with a generous donation.

© Universität Siegen
Campus Unteres Schloss Uni Siegen Universität

Announcement of the Tim Spier Study Award 2026

In 2026, the best Bachelor's and Master's theses will once again be sought at the Department of Social Sciences.

The Sociology and Political Science departments award the Tim Spier Study Prize to outstanding theses written between the summer semester 2024 and the winter semester 2024/25. The prize is awarded to university graduates who have submitted a Bachelor's or Master's thesis in the social sciences since the deadline for the last award ceremony (31.03.2024). The prize is endowed with €750 for a Bachelor's thesis and €1000 for a Master's thesis. The prize money will be split if there are several prize-worthy theses. A PDF copy of the thesis, the reviews and a short biography of the author must be submitted for assessment. Self-nominations are also possible.

Proposals must be sent to the following address by March 31, 2026

Award winners

Here you will find a list of all previous winners of the Tim Spier Study Award since 2018.

M.A. Yannik Büdenbender: Representation of political participation in grammar school, secondary school and lower secondary school textbooks in NRW

B.A. Nicole Landefeld: "So actually I've proven to myself that I've got what it takes to study!" How students from non-academic homes experience and deal with the changed study conditions caused by the pandemic. A case reconstructive study from Pierre Bourdieu's inequality theory perspective based on biographical-narrative interviews.

M.A. Anastasiia Tropnikova: Digital Authoritarianism in Russia: Analyzing the Impact of Internet State Regulation on Political Participation

B.A. Janine Wetzel: Prostitution as a subversive-emancipatory power strategy

B.A. Lisa Marie Heß: Social Work with Strangers - Constructions of Strangeness in Narratives of Social Workers in Refugee Work.

M.A. Michelle Buller: The everyday arrangement of home office, childcare and couple relationship. A qualitative analysis of couple interviews during the COVID-19 pandemic

B.A. Celia Hsü: The coverage of the Moria refugee camp in Die Tageszeitung and Die Welt. A comparative frame analysis

M.A. Marius Dilling: Escape into the projective. Authoritarianism, conspiracy mentality and right-wing extremist attitudes

B.A. Nina Hoffmann: Climate movements in the age of Web 2.0 - social media as a communication tool for the German 'Fridays for Future' demonstrations

M.A. Selman Almohamad: Doomed to fail? Army Reform in Postwar Peacebuilding

B.A. Tim Krause: What influences the intention to drop out of university?