Sussex postgraduate wins national dissertation prize

Sussex postgraduate wins national dissertation prize. A University of Sussex student has won a national prize from the Royal Geographical Society for her Masters dissertation. Amy Clarke received £100 and a certificate for producing the UK's best Masters dissertation of 2012 - written for her MA in Migration Studies - with a focus on population geography. Amy is the 2013 winner of the Bob Woods Postgraduate Dissertation Prize, named in memory of a population geographer at the University of Liverpool. Her dissertation, supervised by Dr Ceri Oeppen, asked, 'When is a migrant not a migrant?' and explored 'white middle-class perceptions of difference in a liberal British city' (Brighton). "My s revealed a normative link between 'Britishness' and 'Whiteness' underlying white middle-class perceptions of 'the migrant'," said Amy, "but I found that labels of difference associated with visible colour were countered by similarities of language and culture and outweighed by social proximity." Amy's research also demonstrated the importance of including the white British middle classes in research on integration and ethnic diversity. On hearing that she had won a prize for her research, Amy said: "It's great to know that people can see the value in my work, because it's something I'm extremely passionate about." She added: "It's been a great confidence boost in the build-up to the Race, Migration and Citizenship conference in July in Birmingham, where I'll be presenting my thesis.