(ZELLIK, 23-12-2005) -- ‘A dissertation about the ordinary, which can both fascinate and charm'. Those were the words used by Rudy Vanschoonbeek, the chairman of the jury, when he announced the winner of the 2005 Flemish Dissertation Award. It took the five-member jury, consisting of Guido Muelenaer (Trends), Rudy Vanschoonbeek (The House of Books), Marcel Grauls (Concentra), Filip Van Brabander (Eos) and Ludo Abicht (UGent), more than an hour to cut the knot and choose a winner. It was eventually Melanie Surmont, a final-year student Pedagogics at the University of Ghent, who won the cheque of 2500 euros. Surmont outstripped the four other nominees with her thesis ‘Thuis en school waren immers anders dan de weg erheen. De beleving van de weg van en naar school in de jaren 1950 in Bellegem.’, an analysis of what happened on the way to school and back during the 1950's in Bellegem and how people remember that time.

Report of the jury
The jury of the 2005 Flemish Dissertation Award is not only pleased about the high number of entries, but also about the variety of subjects. The Palestinian wall, The road to school, Fashion in Antwerp, the evolution seen by the Islam or The investments in Belgian Art. Those are the five nominees that made the shortlist, but the longlist also offered a sea of ideas from the world of Life Sciences.

In her deliberation, the jury evolved towards the need to travel through a well-written and publishable text. A text that is coherent and that surprizes with its original and fresh approach.

The jury has chosen 'a dissertation about the ordinary, which can both fascinate and charm', about what people remember about walking to school and back when they were a child.

The winner is Mélanie Surmont with ‘Thuis en school waren immers anders dan de weg erheen’.