PhD student Hope Christie from the Department of Psychology, has won the 2018 Ede & Ravenscroft Prize for Best Research Student. One of a handful to be shortlisted across the University, Hope’s presentation stood out for the high quality of the work involved as well as for having the most demonstrable impact.

The prize is an annual award for the best postgraduate research student awarded for the first time in 1991, and is generously funded by Ede & Ravenscroft, appointed robemakers to HM The Queen. Shortlisted candidates from a range of disciplines are invited to give presentations on their research at an open event.

Hope’s presentation was titled Let flowers grow in dirt: Exploring the impact of trauma on parents and their parenting outcomes. For her research, Hope works with parents in South Africa as well as the United Kingdom.

The presentation covered her PhD research over the last two and a half years geared towards understanding parents' experiences and how they feel their trauma has impacted them as well as their parenting. This demonstrated the potential impact that her findings may have in the wider context. For example, as the result of some of her South Africa work, Hope and a colleague held a community forum to disseminate findings from their research, but to also give community members a chance to discuss the research and to have their say on what they think is important to study.

Hope said: “I'm over the moon that I won the prize. I owe a great debt to my supervisors Professor Sarah Halligan and Dr Catherine Hamilton-Giachritsis, for their continued support throughout the PhD process , as well as friends and colleagues for their support, reassurances, and listening to me practise about a million times!”