Lewis Award: Reflections on a competitive process and a moving ceremony
Dr Dimitrios Kafteranis, EWI’s Co-Founder and Director of Research, reflects on the inaugural edition of the Lewis Master Thesis Award. Eglė Vaizgėlaitė from Lithuania’s Vytautas Magnus University received the award from Professor David Lewis during the European Whistleblowing Conference.
In the first year of my PhD, I was searching for conferences on whistleblowing law and policy, at the time, a novel research area with limited literature and events. Upon discovering the International Whistleblowing Research Network’s conference in Oslo, Norway, I registered immediately, thrilled to finally attend a conference dedicated to whistleblowing. The conference was organized by Professor David Lewis, whose work I had extensively read. Upon arriving in Oslo, Professor Lewis greeted me warmly and remarked, “You were the first to register for this conference – there should be a prize for that”.
Over the years, I have attended numerous events where Professor Lewis presented his work on whistleblowing. When we founded the European Whistleblowing Institute, one of our aspirations was to create a prize for Master’s students writing their theses on whistleblowing law and policy. A few years ago, most students were unfamiliar with whistleblowing, but recently, it has become a significant research topic. Consequently, we decided to proceed with the award and unanimously named it in honour of Professor David Lewis, the academic who brought whistleblowing into the spotlight in Europe.
The interest and applications we received exceeded our expectations. It was refreshing to see many students choosing to write their theses on whistleblowing law and policy. However, the most challenging part came when the committee had to decide the award winner. The theses were excellent and authentic, covering topics from corporate law and criminal law to national laws transposing the European Whistleblowing Directive. The issues analysed by the students were novel, authentic, and topical. It was inspirational for the committee to read these theses and witness the students' commitment to their research. Once the final decision was made, we prepared for the award ceremony at the European Whistleblowing Conference in Brussels.
We were humbled by Professor David Lewis’s kindness and enthusiasm for the award. His warm communication before the ceremony moved us deeply. The same goes for Eglė, who won the award. Her happiness reminded me of my younger self achieving an important milestone. Her joy confirmed the value of our idea for the award. The ceremony was extraordinary, with heartfelt words from Professor Lewis and Eglė’s passionate analysis of her work. It was the perfect ending for the Lewis Master Thesis Award. We aim to continue the award and invite more students to consider writing their theses on whistleblowing law and policy and applying for the award.
