The Inclu-Thesis Prize, formerly the Scriptieprijs DiverGent, is a recognition by the City of Ghent and Ghent University for the work of students in the field of social, critical engagement. An independent jury of professors and researchers from different disciplines and a policy officer from the City of Ghent and from Ghent University chose three laureates and the final winner from 31 theses. In his thesis, Davo Maras gives a voice to a hard-to-reach, underexposed group that is barely researched in Belgium.

"My thesis builds on the lived experiences of transgender individuals in Belgian prisons. I want their stories and unique pain points to be heard and to come out." - Davo Maras, Inclu-Thesis Prize 2022

The master's thesis highlights, among other things, the daily difficulties for transgender persons in Belgian prisons, institutions with a very strict separation between men and women. For this Maras uses experiences of (ex)-prisoned transgender persons, prison staff and external care providers. He concludes his study by stating that the call for a penitentiary policy that takes gender diversity into account is getting louder.

"As a university, we believe that the world is improving thanks to "bold thinkers" who go against dominant views, strong beliefs and conventional frameworks. This is also what we want to tout with the Inclu-Thesis Prize. A master's thesis that dares to invite us to reflect on our own actions, our own structures and self-evidences, and to think outside the conventional framework. That is what 'diversity and inclusion' embodies. Making the invisible visible." - Mieke van Herreweghe, vice-rector Ghent University

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Inclu-Thesis Prize