We received an outstanding selection of dissertations submitted for this year’s Dissertation Prize. Overall, the standard was exceptional, and the collective work of these students demonstrated the very best of research in social and cultural geography today. Empirically these covered a diversity of topics including videogaming, human-animal relations, pilgrimage, national identity and its contestations, and the cultural politics of climate adaptation. These projects demonstrated an impressive comprehension of contemporary geographical theory and in many instances were able to formulate their own original conceptual contributions. Given this remarkable standard, we have selected three dissertations for commendation. These dissertations were read and reviewed by the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group committee, to whom I am immensely grateful for their time, care, enthusiasm, and expertise.
“A Road with No End: exploring Vanlife and the pursuit of utopia in North Wales,” by Harriet Moreton, Bangor University, winner
The committee would like to congratulate Harriet Moreton, the overall winner of the Royal Geographical Society’s Social and Cultural Research Group’s 2026 Dissertation Prize, for considerable methodological depth and conceptual contributions relating to alternative lifestyles and Utopic fantasies in North Wales. The ethnographic scope in terms of the interviews and autoethnographic aspect was particularly impressive, and conveyed real deftness in connecting these to the conceptual and theoretical dimensions of the argument. It was also alive to the geographic questions of the contemporary phenomenon of ‘Vanlife’ and extended the literature in exciting direction. This work would not feel out of place in a leading sub-disciplinary journal.
“Last Orders: pub closures and the everyday politics of working class spaces,” by Molly Edwards, University of Edinburgh, runner-up
The writing quality in this dissertation was outstanding; it was a pleasure to read and demonstrated considerable sophistication both in terms of its structure, theoretical approach, and autoethnographic framing and use of participant observation. The sketches that opened each chapter were wonderfully rendered as well, demonstrating the enduring importance of the field diary as a space of continued meaning; it was a genuine joy to be immersed in the fieldwork through this combination of writing and drawing that brought the ethnography to life. This dissertation made considerable conceptual contributions to feminist geography to question notions of masculinity, class, and belonging in contemporary pubs in a manner that was original and insightful.
“Murmuration – Graphic Narratives for Resistance: an autoeth-not-graphy of language, gender and environing,” by Sunny Elvy-Holmes, University of Cumbria, special commendation
The committee were very impressed by this project’s use of both creative methods as a means of investigation and as a means of disrupting the traditional dissertation format (and linear narrative). It is heartening to see social and cultural geography take on a new form as an online Twine game. The combination of sketches, paintings, and claymation displayed tremendous creativity and wild imagination. Work like this in social and cultural geography ought to be commended, bringing the humble dissertation into intriguing new terrain; it is a testament to the potentials of arts-based methods and a welcome invitation to consider the limits of orthodox structure within the dissertation.
