Breaking news in SPS

Posted on 26 January 2017

We are delighted to begin the New Year with some welcome student and staff news in the School of SPS

Alice Lasek (2016 SPS Graduate) awarded the Gladstone Memorial Prize

2016 graduate Alice Lasek has been awarded the Gladstone Memorial Prize for her final year dissertation on “The politics of Charlotte Smith and the French Revolution: political gossip and informal political communication in ‘Desmond’”.

The Gladstone Memorial Trust prize is awarded for a long essay or project of exceptional quality which contributes to the final examination assessment of undergraduates in the Departments of Economics and Related Studies, History, History of Art and Politics (and combined degrees), provided that such work, either relates directly to Gladstone himself or any of his may fields of interest, which need not to be confined to the period of Gladstone’s own life”. This is the first time the prize has been awarded to a candidate in Social and Political Sciences.

The judge described Alice’s dissertation as “an impressive piece of work with multiple strands”, and complimented the author on producing “a nicely illuminating theoretical discussion of gossip both as a social phenomenon in its own right and in the context of potentially dangerous political debate in late 18th century England with its underlying anxieties about what was happening across the Channel”.

Helen Cain's (3rd year SPS student) has work published

Our current final year undergraduate Helen Cain has had her article on “The Mental Capacity Act: an unsuitable assessment in cases of anorexia nervosa?” published in the York Policy Review – the UK’s First Graduate Social Policy journal.

Auriel Hamilton (School Co-ordinator) receives a Rewarding Excellence award

Finally, the whole School will be delighted to learn that our School Coordinator, Auriel Hamilton has been recognised for her outstanding work on behalf of the School of SPS by a Rewarding Excellence award by the University of York. Warm congratulations to Alice, Helen and Auriel.

Simon Parker

School of SPS Director