Postgraduate research students recognised in Leeds Partnership Awards

Three postgraduate research students from the Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law have been recognised in this year's Leeds Partnership Awards.

The Leeds Partnership Awards recognises and celebrates the achievements, commitments and impact of students, staff, and postgraduate researchers at the University who have made a difference or gone the extra mile to make a positive impact.

This year’s Partnership Awards were a great success for Graduate School, with three of our PGRs receiving awards, including Georgiana Epure (School of Politics and International Studies) winner of the Innovation Award, Chris Waugh (School of Sociology and Social Policy) winner of the Postgraduate Teaching Award, and Rumana Hossain (School of Education) winner of the Academic Rep of the Year. A huge well done to all!

We caught up with Georgiana Epure to ask her about the Innovation Award, which she received for her work founding and editing the free online Responsibility to Protect Student Journal.
 
“I became fascinated by the field of 'Responsibility to Protect' during my undergraduate degree at the University. I initially worked with Dr Adrian Gallagher for two summers on a research project about the protection of populations from mass atrocities in Libya and the Central African Republic. It inspired me to establish the journal, at first just as a way for students in POLIS to publish their best essays; but now the journal has a very wide audience and contributors from around the globe.
 
Having returned to Leeds as a postgraduate researcher in 2017, I have continued to coordinate the work of the journal and helped it to grow. It now provides a global platform for undergraduate and postgraduate students to publish their academic work on the Responsibility to Protect populations from mass atrocities and related topics, including international humanitarian law, peace-keeping, peace-building, and international criminal justice.
 
We’ve published four issues so far, including a special issue on peace-keeping and peace-building, with contributions from students from over 10 universities, both from the UK and overseas. The journal is brought together by a team comprising students from York, Swansea, Geneva and Cambridge - where I did my MPhil degree - but mainly by postgraduates from Leeds, who edit, review and promote it. Working with senior colleagues in the School of POLIS, we’ve also been fortunate enough to establish an advisory board of senior international academics and practitioners to support the journal.
 
I take this award as a nice ’welcome back’ to Leeds and am delighted to receive such positive feedback about the value of my work and the dedication of the whole team supporting the work of the journal.”
 
Discover the Responsibility to Protect Student Journal.