Studies exploring more-than-human relations in the city and understandings of the spatial in visual art win SCGRG dissertation prize
Charles Couve of the University of Manchester is our 2019 Winner for his dissertation entitled More-than-human Manchester: Recombinance, Auras, and Dialectics in the Edges of Modernity. The committee found this a fascinating and original study. Written in rich and engaging prose, they were impressed with its deft handling of complex ideas from a wide-ranging literature, and its deep, nuanced analysis of the city. They very much enjoyed the risks it took in style, method, and form, including its innovative use of creative methods to vividly explore the ‘excess’ of more-than-human relations. All felt that this was an outstanding example of cultural geographical work that demonstrates some exciting possibilities within an undergraduate research project.
William Silver of Durham University is our 2019 Runner-Up for his dissertation entitled Gordon Matta-Clark’s slices through space: artwork towards a critical understanding of the spatial. The committee were impressed with this engaging and original piece, which showed nuanced engagement with complex theoretical ideas and interesting experiments with form in its writing. They praised its incisive use of literature from across art history and geography and its fluid prose that made the piece a joy to read. An impressive piece of work that gives valuable insight into applications of cultural geographical thinking to art worlds in an undergraduate project.
The winner has received a prize of £100. Both have also been given a one-year free subscription to the journal Social & Cultural Geography courtesy of Taylor & Francis.
In total we received 19 submissions for the prize this year. These spanned the breadth of social and cultural geography interests and we look forward to continuing with the prize in 2020.