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School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology

Bangor History student nominated for top award

Picture shows Liz being presented with her award by Peter Furtado, editor of History TodayLiz Homans, now an MA student in Bangor University's School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology, was one of three students from across the UK shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society’s prestigious undergraduate dissertation award sponsored by History Today. At the awards ceremony, held at the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall on 9 January, Liz’s study was highly commended by the judges and was described as a ‘fine piece of work’ that ‘would not have been out of place as an MA dissertation’.

Professor Duncan Tanner, the School's Director of Postgraduate Studies described the event as ‘a bit like the Academy Awards for History’. ‘I'm surprised and delighted to have been short-listed for this award- and attending the Ceremony was a real treat’ said Liz.

Image of Liz with Dr Andrew EdwardsLiz's dissertation, supervised by Dr Andrew Edwards, was on the abolition of capital punishment in the 1960s. 'It was an exceptional piece of work by an exceptional student', said Dr Edwards, 'and as good if not better than anything published on the subject to date. It’s great to see a Bangor student’s work recognised in this way, especially as this competition has traditionally been dominated by Russell Group Universities’.

Articles derived from all three of the dissertations selected by the Royal Historical Society will be published in the top-selling magazine, History Today, later this year.

Liz is a mature student, who came to Bangor to study in 2004 after following an access course at West Herts College, Hemel Hempstead. She is now studying for her MA at Bangor and hopes to secure funding to embark on PhD research later this year. Many of Bangor's students taking degrees in History and in Modern and contemporary History chose to write dissertations on the recent past. The dissertations are organised in the second year, researched and written in the third year, utilise original sources and are 10-12,000 words in length. They often produce work of publishable quality.

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