We are thrilled to announce Luke van de Wouw (Public Administration track) as the 2024 GMD Writing Fellow! Luke will spend the next three months focusing on making her thesis titled: "Bounded Rationality in European Policymaking Processes - The Development of European Legislation to Address Future Responses to the Instrumentalization of Migration" into a publication, With the support of thesis supervisor Dr. Maria Schiller. Learn more about Luke, her thesis, and her future aspirations through this GMD meets interview.
About the GMD Writing Fellowship: Every year, GMD students/recent graduates with (excellent) thesis results are encouraged to apply for the GMD Writing Fellowship. One writing fellow is selected through a selection procedure involving all GMD track coordinators. With financial, structural, and network support, the fellowship empowers GMD students/graduates to turn their (excellent) MA thesis into an academic article. This year, we have received very high-quality theses from multiple students. It was a tough decision to make, but the coordinators were able to select a fellow.
Congratulations on being selected as the 2024 GMD Writing Fellow, Luke! Could you share with the GMD community your academic journey thus far and how you got to the GMD Masters?
My academic journey started with the BA in International Studies at Leiden University in The Hague. It was a challenging start due to the COVID-19 pandemic: I could only attend in-person classes for 2 hours every two weeks. Fortunately, the pandemic ended, and I was able to go on an exchange during the last year of my bachelor's. I spent 6 months at Deusto University in Bilbao (Spain), where I improved my Spanish language skills, took interesting courses, made new friends, explored the Basque Country, and grew personally. Thereafter, I completed my bachelor’s degree cum laude with a thesis in which I compared the European Union’s responses to the Yugoslavian refugee crisis in the 1990s and the more recent Ukrainian refugee crisis. During my bachelor studies, I discovered my interest in human rights and migration, which is why I decided to enrol in the Public Administration track of the GMD master. The master has been a true adventure, from meeting the staff and students on the welcome day to the field trips, the classes, the Christmas potluck, the final exams, and all the way to the graduation ceremony… I enjoyed it all. One of the things that I liked most about the program, is that it allowed me to explore a wide range of migration-related topics from different perspectives.
Your thesis received a high grade, and now it has been selected for the fellowship to turn into an article manuscript. Could you tell us more about your thesis and your thesis process?
For my master’s thesis, I was inspired by the crisis rhetoric of several Eastern European countries regarding a sudden increase in asylum applications from people crossing the border from Belarus in 2021. To connect this to public policy, I decided to investigate the role of Herbert A. Simon’s concept of bounded rationality in developing European legislation to address the instrumentalisation of migration. I was fortunate to have dr. Maria Schiller as my supervisor, as we had already worked together on another project. She supported me in every step of the process with constructive feedback and encouragement. The most challenging part of the thesis research was the data collection. I had decided to conduct semi-structured interviews and it proved difficult to find enough suitable participants within the limited time frame of the thesis research. In the end, I was able to include ten interviews in the thesis. Based on this empirical data, the research found that bounded rationality has played a role in the agenda-setting and policy formulation phases of the policy process.
We are excited to read your thesis, which sounds intriguing and timely but also would bring a robust contribution to the current literature. So, finally, would you like to share what you are most excited about participating in the fellowship?
Over the past year, I have realized that I feel at home in university settings and that I really enjoy doing societally relevant research. Therefore, I would like to explore opportunities for PhD positions in the coming year, while working with Maria on a project about evolving higher education policies and international student mobility in the Netherlands. Thus, the announcement of the GMD Writing Fellowship immediately caught my interest: I consider the opportunity to learn about the process of publishing in an academic journal and to receive guidance in turning my thesis into an academic paper to be extremely valuable for building my academic profile. I am looking forward to starting the Fellowship in October and putting into practice the skills that the GMD master taught me!
We are delighted to hear that you are interested in an academic career; the fellowship is a great leap forward, so once again, congratulations and welcome to the GMD family!
Luke will be co-presenting as a panellist with Dr Maria Schiller at the Annual LDE GMD conference. She has expressed her excitement about presenting at an academic conference for the first time (and definitely not the last time). Luke is also keen to connect with LDE scholars and stakeholders. Those who are joining the annual conference feel most welcome to connect with Luke and learn about her thesis on November 13 in Leiden.