Postgraduate student Kirsty Kernohan awarded inaugural Prize to trawl through what women collected from 1873 to 1944. In particular, Lady Kintore and daughters.
This new award, established in 2017 is in memory of Professor Debra Gimlin to acknowledge her enormous contribution at the University of Aberdeen for over 13 years and inspiration to hundreds of students.
Professor Debra Gimlin was born and educated in the USA. An internationally renowned sociologist of the body. Her doctoral project, subsequently published as ‘Body Work’, established her as an expert on the body as a site for the cultural construction of the self. In 2003 she took up a lectureship and quickly became a highly valued member of staff and colleague in the Department of Sociology, taking up the position of Head of School in 2014. Professor Gimlin was dynamic, intelligent, immensely respected and above all truly kind and her sudden death in February 2017 shocked all who knew her.
Kirsty Kernohan, a post-graduate student from within the School of Social Science will be the first to receive this inaugural award. Kirsty is working on a programme of research entitled Pursuing Gendered Experience through Material-Social Relationships which looks at female modes of object acquisition. Kirsty’s project will examine the Stonehaven collections, held in the University of Aberdeen’s Library, Special Collections and Museums, which were amassed by the Kintore family, particularly Lady Kintore and her daughters, between 1873 and 1944. During these years, the family travelled extensively as a result of their diplomatic careers and opportunities for leisure. Consequently, the collections have an almost global scope, from Australia and the Pacific Islands, Asia, including Japan and India, the Americas, and Africa, with approximately 700 objects. These objects are a diverse range of ethnographic and natural history specimens, souvenirs, photographs, journals, and associated papers, held at the University, with additional material in the National Library of Australia and South Australian Museum.
The selection panel for the award, all close friends and colleagues of Professor Gimlin, felt that Debra would have appreciated not only the value of Kirsty’s project, but would have also approved of Kirsty’s determination and work ethic as a truly exemplary scholar with an outstanding academic record.
If you would like to contribute towards The Professor Debra Gimlin Award please give online here or if you are based in the USA you can donate here. The University of Aberdeen secure online giving pages provide the opportunity to donate to a number of our priorities - to make sure that your donation is sent to the correct area please ensure that 'Professor Debra Gimlin Award' is selected from the drop-down designation menu. For more information or to discuss further please contact Kelly M. Anderson at the University of Aberdeen Development Trust at kellymanderson@abdn.ac.uk, phone +44 (0) 1224 273057.