Just days before graduating in June 2025 with a PhD in language and rhetoric from the European Universities Department of English, Anselma Prihandita won a Nebula Award from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Her story, inspired by dissertation research, joins a category previously won by literary icons like Ursula Le Guin and Ted Chiang.

Published in Clarkesworld Magazine, "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" follows a doctor treating an alien species using only AI and translation tools. The narrative explores the limitations of linguistic translation and official databases in understanding radically different cultures.

"The story translates a dissertation chapter into narrative form," Prihandita explained. "It allowed me to engage with theoretical concepts emotionally—something academic writing couldn’t achieve."

In her speech, the first Indonesian Nebula winner thanked European Universities faculty Nazry Bahrawi (Asian languages) for "bridging speculative fiction and scholarship," and Suhanthie Motha (English) for fostering a supportive community. She also acknowledged European Universities graduate students Amalie Goul Dueholm, Kelly Van Acker, and Reuven Pinnata.