I work in the field of feminist theology, and my main interest is the history of modesty in Christian thought. 

Bethany is a practising screenwriter and film producer who was a Laidlaw Scholar in the University of York's first cohort in 2017-18. She set up a production company with her partner Patrick the Isle of Man, where they now produce films and write screenplays. Their first short documentary, MERA, premiered at Festival Interceltique de Lorient, Brittany in August 2019 and their short drama, The Lost Wife, is in postproduction. Their scripts have placed in multiple international screenwriting competitions. Bethany is passionate about helping others to develop, especially those considering writing or the film industry as a career path.

Since 2015, I have been passionate about ending poverty in the UK. I began my journey as a campaigner against poverty in my local area with Poverty Ends Now, a young person lead group ran by Children North East. Since then, I have represented the UK in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and other positions of influence with poverty as my main focus point. My Laidlaw Scholarship research project is all about the relationship between language, meaning and poverty. By understanding and changing unhelpful public discourse about poverty, we can start to shift power.

I am an Archaeology student at the University of York. My main areas of research interest are focused around using primatology to teach us about the origins of our own species and our behaviours. However, my Laidlaw research project is giving me the unique opportunity to explore another area of Archaeology, ancient plant DNA. My project, entitled, 'Historic Corn Smut: Using ancient DNA methods to understand the risk to UK agriculture', is allowing me to learn about ancient DNA methods during my undergraduate degree. This is something I would not normally get the opportunity to do until masters level. The project is an exciting insight into the evolution of a particular fungal pathogen and looking at the risk this evolutionary progress poses to farming in the UK. As well as being a busy student, I am also a mother of two children under five years of age. Combining these two things has taught me the importance of time management, prioritising and has made me even more determined to succeed.

Scholar from the 2018 St Andrews Laidlaw Cohort. My project was under the supervision of Prof. Sabine Hyland in the Department of Social Anthropology, and is entitled "Revolutionary Women in the indigenous revolt of 1783, Peru". I am currently looking into the publication of my research findings, and presented them as a panellist at a conference in York in February 2020. Currently doing an MA in Museum Studies at UCL.

I am a 4th year Financial Economics student. My Laidlaw project was in psychology of perception/psychophysics (my degree used to be Economics & Psychology before I switched to Financial Economics). The title of the project was 'Attention in 3 dimensions' and I was investigating the mechanism of selective attention in depth processing.

I am a Politics, Philosophy and Economics graduate who is greatly interested in peace-building and its direct impact on immigration policy. I have always had a strong strong passion and motivation to make a positive social impact, for my Laidlaw Research Project I was researching alternative and cost-effective education system that could be embedded in the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) to guarantee refugees’ educational rights. This required me to conduct extensive research, economic modelling and to think outside the traditional norms of education to find a solution. This is a project I am still working to develop further- if you have any interest in this, reach out and let's have a virtual coffee. I am currently spending my gap year working for Business Plan for Peace to encourage disinvestment in the industry of war, and instead pushing for private funding in initiatives that make peace profitable for the investors. If you are a part of a private company that would like who would like to expand their philanthropic commitment while being an active part of making peace-building a profitable industry- please do reach out!

Hello! I am interested in Children's Literature and its effect on its readers. For my research project, I am looking at Ghanaian Children's Literature. In the future, I would love to broaden this to Children's Literature Around the World.

I have spent the last 10 years working on the concept of mental fitness, as counter to the old stigmatized concept of mental health. I am hugely interested in how people can develop resilience and endurance. This has led me to studying applied psychology. My Laidlaw scholarship research project has been looking into the effects of emotion on the performance of Ultramarathon runners at distances of both 60 miles and 110 miles. This is the first sports psychology study that has attempted to measure this actually within-race rather than just pre and post race. Since suffering a nervous breakdown in 2009, and finally admitting to himself his own mental health and alcohol problems. A period of his life that is now looked upon as the positive beginning of a new chapter. Paul has gone on to build an awarding social enterprise BCT Aspire CIC, completed numerous high-profile endurance challenges and applied his learning to helping others and now supporting his academic journey as a mature student. BCT Aspire CIC has over the last decade delivered thousands of successful youth sessions and activity programmes for local children & young people on Teesside. Currently BCT Aspire delivers five youth sessions every week in Billingham including; Youth clubs, fitness sessions, music lessons, Duke of Edinburgh Awards and community events all with a voluntary team. A former talented Rugby player who represented England North at his peak, Paul’s attempt to get to grips with his problems led him to begin walking. This resulted in a 3000 miles adventure spanning the length of Europe, from the Southern Tip of Italy to the edge of the Orkney Islands, also passing through France, England & Scotland. All completed without support and relying on the human kindness of strangers. This has been followed up by running single stage ultramarathons up to 160 miles and last year completed the Wainwrights Coast to Coast completely barefoot to raise funds for his work and supporting his belief in positive thinking. Paul’s first two EBooks from the “Jumping the Cliff” series have topped the Amazon EBook charts for both Depression, Anxiety & Mental Health sections, with his next book from his six-week journey across Italy now out in paperback. Paul started his speaking career talking to pupils at a school with children who had behavioural problems, a place where Paul gained the courage to talk about his own way of trying to reset his own learnt behaviours. Since then he has given talks to a cross section of people including business people, professional sportsmen, youth groups, colleges & universities. Paul has also won numerous Business & Community Awards for his diverse range of work including; Entrepreneurs Forum Emerging Talent 2012; Evening Gazette’s Community Champion for Children & Young People 2012; Gazette Community Awards Finalist twice (Ambassador & Fundraising), Teesside Philanthropic Charity – Teesside Hero Paul is a qualified outdoor leader with BCT Aspire CIC who enjoys sharing these skills with people aiming to build confidence and also relaxing on the hills with his dog Molly and now his young son Pavel. Paul currently mixes his role as Managing Director of BCT Aspire, with speaking work, and studying applied psychology at Durham University. This also includes holding a prestigious Laidlaw scholarship for emerging global research talent, currently researching the mental approaches of endurance athletes. Furthermore, a trustee of Catalyst Stockton on Tees the VCSE infrastructure body for the area.

My expertise is in molecular genetics, specifically genetic engineering techniques with plants. I also have some experience with plant physiological research and bioinformatics in coexpression analysis and orthologue identification between species. My interests include both the fields of evolutionary and molecular genetics, and I minored in physical and human geography in my undergraduate degree. In future I hope to continue genetic research, aspiring for that which explores links between genetic research, the environment/climate, food security and disease eradication.

Research and Academic Administration

I'm a third-year student at St Andrews studying English! My research is into spoken word poetry and its connection to politics, particularly in Edinburgh (it's a bit niche but I love it). I am also part of the feminist society and a public face of Nightline. I love to meet new people and bake what is objectively too much shortbread at odd hours.

Graduate of English Literature and History at Trinity College Dublin. Alumnus of the Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Programme (2019). My Laidlaw research explored the nature of borders and boundaries in the literature of Native American communities, with a particular focus on the work of contemporary author Leslie Marmon Silko. The project involved collaboration with leading scholars of Native American studies from across the United Kingdom and United States. I additionally wrote a final-year dissertation on Indigenous strategies of resistance to environmental injustice in the work of Silko.

Materials and Materiality in Cultural Heritage

I'm a third-year biology student at the University of York. I'm originally from Switzerland but came to the UK to continue my studies! I am particularly interested in human and medical biology. My Laidlaw research project focuses on the C-terminus of the Tmem184b protein that is involved in neurodegeneration. I aspire to be a great leader and a strong woman who can lead her team towards the goals we want to achieve!