Van Mildert College Trust

Megan Wainwright: Anthropology

The first scholarship was awarded to Miss Megan Wainwright in October 2009.  Megan, a medical anthropologist from Canada, was accepted to pursue a doctoral research and her project is an anthropological investigation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Megan had an immensely successful first year, winning prizes for her research and essays as well as producing several publications and undertaking presentations. Megan continued to be an active member of the MCR executive as Social Secretary and Charities Officer and has taken her role as resident tutor, an integral part of the award, with the enthusiasm she has applied to her work.

Megan is now undertaking her field work in Uruguay, South America for her second year.  Please see the attached report from Megan Wainwright for further information.

The VMC Trust Research Scholarship fits in with both the Trust's own objectives as well as Durham University's strategy of developing postgraduate provision, internationalisation and the support of agenda-changing research. The Van Mildert College Trust hopes to expand this programme in the future so that a further Scholarship would run in tandem years.

Prizes:  

The Arthur Maurice Hocart Prize 2009 - an annual prize, administered by the Royal Anthropological Institute, awarded to the best postgraduate essay on any anthropological topic from across Great Britain and Ireland.  Essay title: Taking Constipation Seriously; An Ethnographic Study of the Patient's Perspective on Illness Experience and Interactions in Healthcare.

Best Presentation Prize: at the Durham Anthropology Postgraduate Conference 2010.  Title:  Challenging the Status Quo: NVIV0 Audi-Coding of Narrative Interviews.