The jury has assessed the four PhD theses submitted for the 2025 Jan Pieter Heije Prize. The PhD theses cover a wide range of topics: guitar culture in the Netherlands between 1750 and 1810, the function of music in processing sung language, the role of music in the Confraternity of the Jongleurs and Bourgeois in 13th-century Arras, and Edward Said’s writings on music. 

According to the jury, two PhD theses stood out. The jury therefore proposed not only to select a winner this year, but also to award an honourable mention.

The latter was awarded to ‘Making Music and Community in Thirteenth-Century Arras: A Study of the Confraternity of Jongleurs and Bourgeois’ by Bri Dolce (Yale University).

This thesis receives a special honourable mention because it “profoundly renews the historical and musicological conceptions associated with the Confraternity of the Jongleurs and Bourgeois of Arras. Drawing on an analysis of historical, literary, and musical sources - often unpublished or never previously linked to Arras - the author deconstructs the myth of a secular confraternity as the founding institution of trouvère repertoire. Even though it is a highly specific case study, the thesis is a substantial and novel contribution not only to musicology but to history studies more broadly, including urban history, womens’ history, the history of literature, and historiography. The contribution to womens’ history in particular is notable.”

The thesis that surprised the jury most because of its level of critical analysis, deep engagement, and the clarity of its language  and is therefore the winner of the 2025 Jan Pieter Heije Prize, is: ‘Postcolonial Polyphony: Edward Said’s Work on Music ’ by Wouter Capitain (University of Amsterdam).

The jury assess this PhD thesis as “truly outstanding. It deals with an important and influential thinker: drawing on a vast corpus of unpublished archival materials (Edward W. Said Papers, Columbia University: drafts, manuscripts, correspondence, recordings) as well as Said’s published writings, this dissertation sheds new light on the theoretical stakes of his thought with a depth of perception and critical analysis that is quite remarkable. By placing Said’s writings on music - sometimes marginalized - at the very heart of his critical project, Wouter Captain demonstrates that they offer a particularly fertile ground for thinking through the relationships between aesthetics, politics, and postcolonial theory, and for showing how these fields interact with and inform one another. Music, understood as a multivocal and dynamic process, together with the concepts associated with it, is treated here as an alternative and complementary frame of reference to traditional academic prose. Thus, central concepts such as counterpoint and heterophony are mobilized. It is a major contribution not only to musicology, but at least equally so to post-colonial studies. Any scholar from any discipline who engages with Said’s work will find this thesis essential and enlightening reading.”

The jury for the 2025 Jan Pieter Heije Prize consisted of Prof. dr. David Burn (Catholic University Leuven), Prof. dr. Emilie Corswarem (Université de Liège), and Prof. dr. Pauwke Berkers (Erasmus University Rotterdam). The award ceremony will take place during a KVNM evenement in the spring. Further information will follow shortly.