Students from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) have crowned the first winner of a newly created award that celebrates the work of up and coming academic authors.
Hosted by the academic journal, Sociology of Health and Illness (SHI), the annual Mildred Blaxter New Writer’s Prize is awarded to an author whose article was submitted to the SHI journal within five years of the award of their PhD, or equivalent qualification.
A total of 42 entries were put forward by eligible writers for this year’s prize, which is judged by a subcommittee of the SHI’s editorial board. However, in a unique collaboration with DMU, 14 students from the university’s Health and Life Sciences faculty reviewed the same articles as part of a separate award.
The inaugural SHI/DMU Mildred Blaxter New Writer’s Prize was run as a knock-out tournament, with the eight highest-scoring articles from an initial review going through to a quarter-final.
Each of the eight articles was then assigned to a student, who would provide an overview of the text and advocate for the importance of the research. After each debate the students would vote for their preferred article and the paper with the most votes would advance to the next round.
Joann Wilkinson scooped SHI/DMU Mildred Blaxter New Writer’s Prize 2021 for her article entitled ‘Technologies of time: women’s practices of trying to conceive with ovulation biosensing’. Her article was also highly commended by the subcommittee of the SHI journal’s editorial board in the traditional award.
Dr Christopher Elsey, senior lecturer in Health and Well-being in Society at DMU and member of the journal’s editorial board, organised the students’ competition. He felt the success of this year’s scheme paved the way for a similar partnership in the future.
He said: “It was a very touching moment hearing our students sharing their enjoyment and takeaways from the studies put forward. Hopefully, it helps these young people see themselves as academics in progress and showcases academia as a legitimate career goal.
“The award aims to help students develop their academic reading and critical skills, as well as reading up on some interesting topics that they may never read otherwise. We get a diverse range of articles submitted to the journal, from Islamophobia in the NHS to the ethics of face transplants, and pregnancy in prison.
“Our students could only judge and debate the merits of the paper they received, outlining why their article should be read instead of belittling the opposing article.
“This helps not only improve their understanding of how academic journals are formed, but how these students can deliver constructive criticism in the future.”
This year’s competition followed on from a successful pilot initiative introduced in 2020 by Dr Elsey at last year’s awards was run as a parallel process that did not impact the prize outcome.
The pilot, which was introduced to Health and Well Being in Society students, offered an additional opportunity to develop academic reading and reviewing during the summer break.
Health and Wellbeing in Society students Helen Baxter and Georgia Heggs both reviewed articles in the pilot and returned in 2021 for the journal’s official student awards.
They were joined by fellow students Harriet Brown, Katie Burnett, Chrissi Dean, Chinedu Obiagwu Dike, Rita Gautam, Kimberley Hamilton, Sue Litchfield, Nasreen Lodhi, Nseva Brigitte Nkuansambu, Tara Poudel – Ghimire, Leo Sawyers and Megan Wright.
Having enjoyed its poignant subject matter, Helen chose to debate for twin sisters Samantha and Katherine Wilkinson’s joint article ‘Performing care: emotion work and ‘dignity work’ – a joint autoethnography of caring for our mum at the end of life’.
The entry, which had originally been drafted as a series of diary entries covering an eight-week period, was praised for its unique structure and made it to the final two, narrowly missing out on the top prize.
Helen said: “Taking part in this prize has really helped broaden my reading experience. I felt it was refreshing to support new authors as they look to launch their academic careers.
“Samantha and Katherine’s work outlined potential benefits and advice to helping patients living at home with end-of-life care, which is an important issue for many families as people now tend to live longer lives.”
Georgia debated for an article that outlined the ethical considerations of giving/receiving a face transplant. Giving, receiving ... and forgetting? On the social conditions of receiving an anonymous face transplant, by Marie Le Chainche-Piel, made it to the quarter final of the competition and explores how the face is vital in helping with how people identify.
“Exploring ethical considerations can be a contentious issue, which is why Marie’s work was so appealing to me”, Georgia said. “By reviewing and reading more research journals, I’ve been able to develop confidence in my own writing abilities.
“The debates piqued my interest in pursuing a career as an academic and it’s something I’ve spoken to Dr Elsey about. I volunteer at a hospice, so looking further into improving end of life care will always be one of my goals.”
A list of winners and finalists for this year’s Mildred Blaxter New Writer’s Prize and DMU/ Mildred Blaxter New Writer’s Prize can be found online.
Next year’s student competition has not yet been confirmed by the SHI journal, but students interested in taking part in a potential reiteration of the tournament should email christopher.elsey@dmu.ac.uk to express their interest.
Posted on Monday 25 October 2021