Yvette Drissen

Winner Dissertation Prize 2025

Report by the selection committee 

Yvette Drissen gave the jury of this dissertation prize much to contemplate. The irony of the situation can hardly have escaped the PhD candidate herself. She took part in a competition for a dissertation prize with a thesis that investigates the very problem of competition. In every part of society – and particularly in academia. Especially the intense competition faced by young PhD researchers. And there we were, as the jury of this dissertation prize, asking ourselves whether we were part of the very problem that Drissen so convincingly outlines in this fine thesis. 

In ‘When Success Becomes the New Normal. The Competitive Society and Its Symptoms’, Yvette Drissen shows how relevant philosophy can be in analysing current issues, how accessible philosophical research can be to a wider audience, and how various methods can be combined in a fruitful way. Not a study of a gap in philosophical scholarship, or a technical detail of the discipline, but a fundamental question that touches on the organization of our society and the way people interact with one another – in a living environment that seems to be becoming ever more competitive.  

The jury appreciates that Yvette Drissen approached the major question of competition in such a practical way. In an argument that – entirely in the spirit of Erasmus – is very accessible to a broader readership. Drissen does not so much pass judgement on various forms of competition as offer insight into how they function. Her analysis ultimately leads to practical criteria, or to tools that can help us determine in which circumstances competition may be beneficial or desirable. Not least in academia, of which she is now herself a part.  

A competitive world of which this dissertation prize is also a part. The jury will certainly make use of the tools that Yvette Drissen offers in this thesis to reflect on our work at the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation – and we invite Yvette Drissen, as a new expert, to do the same. But whether she wants to or not, whether competition is appropriate in her view or not: she has won this competition. Because Yvette deserves to be praised for this dissertation. In the hope and expectation that she will continue to address major issues in such an original way in the future.