Postgraduate student to benefit from award in memory of highly-respected Professor.
In March 2017 the University of Aberdeen was honoured to establish a new award in memory of Professor Debra Gimlin to recognise the enormous contribution she made to the University over 13 years, during which time she inspired hundreds of students.
We are now delighted that the inaugural award has been given to Kirsty Kernohan, a post-graduate student from within the School of Social Science. Kirsty is working on a programme of research entitled Pursuing Gendered Experience through Material-Social Relationships which looks at female modes of object acquisition. Kirsty has already secured two prestigious grants to allow her to travel to Canberra, Australia for twelve weeks to engage with archival collections there and she will now be able to undertake an extra five days of research at The South Australian Museum in Adelaide thanks to this award.
Kirsty said "I am honoured to receive this award in memory of Professor Debra Gimlin. It will allow me to practice research which builds on the work of feminist scholars before me, recognising the contributions of women to history. By funding my travel to Adelaide, the award will support international research which places the lives and voices of historical women in the broad, global contexts of which they have always been a part."
Kirsty’s project will examine the Stonehaven collections, held in the University of Aberdeen’s Library, Special Collections and Museums, which were amassed by the Kintore family, particularly Lady Kintore and her daughters, between 1873 and 1944. During these years, the family travelled extensively as a result of their diplomatic careers and opportunities for leisure. Consequently, the collections have an almost global scope, from Australia and the Pacific Islands, Asia, including Japan and India, the Americas, and Africa, with approximately 700 objects. These objects are a diverse range of ethnographic and natural history specimens, souvenirs, photographs, journals, and associated papers, held at the University, with additional material in the National Library of Australia and South Australian Museum.
Born and educated in the USA, Professor Gimlin was an internationally renowned sociologist of the body. Her doctoral project, subsequently published as ‘Body Work’, established her as an expert on the body as a site for the cultural construction of the self. Arriving at Aberdeen in 2003 to take up a lectureship, she quickly became a highly valued member of staff and colleague in the Department of Sociology, taking up the position of Head of School in 2014. Professor Gimlin was dynamic, intelligent, immensely respected and above all truly kind and her sudden death in February 2017 shocked all who knew her.
The selection panel for the award, all close friends and colleagues of Professor Gimlin, felt that Debra would have appreciated not only the value of Kirsty’s project, but would have also approved of Kirsty’s determination and work ethic as a truly exemplary scholar with an outstanding academic record.
If you would like to contribute towards The Professor Debra Gimlin Award please give online here or if you are based in the USA you can donate here. Our secure online giving pages provide the opportunity to donate to a number of our priorities - to make sure that your donation is sent to the correct area please ensure that 'Professor Debra Gimlin Award' is selected from the drop-down designation menu. For more information or to discuss further please contact Kelly M. Anderson at the University of Aberdeen Development Trust at kellymanderson@abdn.ac.uk, phone +44 (0) 1224 273057.