Girton, a College founded for women, celebrates International Women’s Day on Tuesday 8 March 2022 in solidarity with all who seek a world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.
Girton’s community of postgraduate students includes many amazing women forging change and innovation in a wide range of fields - pioneering scientific research, examining social trends, telling forgotten stories and much, much more. Here are just a few examples from among our expanding community of PhD students:
Dami in the Faculty of Education utilises creative arts-based research methods within the production of counter narratives to investigate and celebrate the experiences of Black women, past and present, at elite universities, especially Oxford and Cambridge, and whose existence is often understated and uncelebrated.
Morgan has just completed her PhD on the first women Antarctic explorers. Her thesis examines the categorical exclusion of women from Antarctic fieldwork in the twentieth century - a striking history that has remained almost entirely unresearched until now. A work of feminist historical geography, the thesis sheds new light on the relationship between shifting cultural and geopolitical discourses and possibilities for social change in male-dominated remote spaces.
Marika works in nanotechnology and is creating a molecular sensor using gold nanostructures and manipulation of light. She plans to use these sensors to measure the amount of neurotransmitters such as dopamine excreted out of the human body, which could be an indicator of certain cancers or key to monitoring mental health. Developing this technology could facilitate the move towards personalised medicine and early diagnosis.
Yasmeen is researching Senescence, the biology of ageing. She writes: “My work focuses on the recycling pathways in aged cells to understand why cellular material stops being processed correctly. Understanding how and why cells degenerate with age allows us to target the root cause of many 'diseases of ageing', including neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.”
At Girton, co-educational since 1979, we hold on to our foundational aim of celebrating women's achievement, pioneering inclusion and working for equality.
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