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Figure with raised arms looking out at a sunset of the oceanUndergraduate Highlights and Achievements

Our students thrive in a supportive and open learning environment. We are keen to both celebrate their successes and to find ways to pay it forward. 

The support we provide to our dissertation students helps them to realise their considerable potential. In 2024 nine of our students won or were runners up in various RGS-IBG and other dissertation prizes (8 winners, 1 runner -up). This is a truly remarkable achievement and we are proud of how the excellent work our students do has been recognised externally. Several of our students have also gone on to publish their research (further details below). 

We hold an annual photographic competition open to all undergraduate students and recognise throughout the year those who have made special contributions to the university community and beyond.

We also support students seeking scholarships and nominate students for recognition within and beyond the university.

 

Dissertation Prize Winners

Each year the top undergraduate dissertations from across the department are nominated for a variety of prizes in human and physical geography. These prizes are adjudicated by working groups of the Royal Geographical Society and other learned societies. We are delighted to announce that those below have received recognition as truly exemplary undergraduate scholarship!

 

2024 Dissertations

Nominated Prize Student Dissertation Title Result

Quantitative Methods  Research Group

Sophie Pretorius

A legacy of Apartheid?’: A GIS - based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) into relative social vulnerability within Cape Town, South Africa'.

Winner!

Space, Sexualities and Queer Working Group

Sophie Reuben

'Boundaries, intimacy and postfeminism: A feminist geographic exploration into OnlyFans'

Winner!

Gender and Feminist Research Group

Lily Weston

“It's a regular thing and it's always going to happen to you": An exploration of sexual harassment and assault on the London Underground through the lens of Rob Nixon's (2011) 'slow violence’.

Winner!

Gender and Feminist Research Group

Emily Horrell

The Geographies of Gestation: A Feminist Investigation into the Potential Impacts of Ectogenesis on Women".

runner up

Latin American Geographies Research Group

Christopher Weber

The Indigenous Other: Critically examining the construction of Bolivian indigeneity within contemporary climate change governance discourse

Winner!

 

Carceral Geography Working Group

Kate Callow

Navigating the Hostile Environment: Exploring the Impact of Rising State hostility on Asylum seekers in UK 'Quasi Detention' Accommodation'.

Winner!

Quaternary Research Association

Molly Gath

Sedimentology and stratigraphy associated with the Late Devensian Welsh Ice Cap and Irish Sea Ice Stream: Glanllynnau, Llŷn Peninsula, Northwest Wales.'

Winner!

Geographies of Health and Wellbeing  Research Group

Georgiana Cannock

Navigating Neurodiversity: Exploring the identities and lived experiences and of female students with ADHD at Durham University Winner!

Urban Geography Research Group

George Buckland

The gaybourhood never sleeps: Mapping the intergenerational (re)configurations of queer urban space (Manchester's Gay Village) Winner!

 

2023 Dissertations

Nominated Prize Student Dissertation Title Result

Energy Geographies  Research Group

Emilia O'Keefe

The diffusion of clean energy technology: an assessment of domestic solar panel and electric vehicle distribution in England and the factors influencing their adoption.

Winner!

 

2022 Dissertations

Nominated Prize Student Dissertation Title Result

Geographies of Health and Wellbeing Research Group

Helena Lewis

The global intimate: an exploration into how a yogic breathwork practice is conducive to and resists a biopolitical rationality Winner!

Energy Geographies Research Group

Saskia Huxham

Reaching carbon neutrality in electric and hydrogen-powered transport by 2045: A case study of resident perceptions and the technical feasibility of implementing a renewable power structure on the Isle of Skye, Scotland Winner!

Carceral Geography Working Group

Flora Farthing

Re-entry as 'punishment's twin': an exploration of contemporary post-release carceral environment Winner!

Political Geography Research Group

Thomas Bartlett

A 'post-colonial borderlands approach' to the Northern Province of colonial Sudan, 1897-1956 Highly Commended

 

    

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Annual Photographic Competition

Welcome to the Durham Geography undergraduate photo competition! Each year we receive entries from dissertation research and fieldtrips taken around the world and from across all levels of our undergraduate community.

Geography Photographic Competition
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What's Durham Geography like?

Our students are amazing and love what we offer and what they get to do. Hear about their studies and fieldtrips through Student Voices. Then explore our Colleges and college life.

Student Voices Explore our colleges

    

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Undergraduate Study

When you study Geography at Durham University, you join one of the world's best geography departments. We offer BA and BSc degrees tailored to your interests and career goals. Our vibrant student community is right there with you.

Discover our undergraduate courses

Contact Us

Founded in 1928, the Department of Geography at Durham University is one of the leading centres of geographical research and education in the world.

Department of Geography

Durham University
Lower Mountjoy
South Road, Durham
DH1 3LE, UK

Tel: +44 (0)191 3341800

 

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