Modern Linguists receive Musgrave Awards

Two of Merton's Modern Linguists, Lucy Williams and Victoria Lawrence, have received Musgrave awards for their plans for their years abroad. The Musgrave prize is a competition for students in their second year, to fund projects on their third year abroad that will lead into academic work in their final year. It is a highly competitive scheme, and will allow both Lucy and Victoria to take on ambitious and innovative research projects during their year abroad. Their plans are further supported by Year Abroad travel grants from College.

Lucy Williams (2nd yr, Spanish and Beginners’ German):

'I have received the Musgrave prize for a project which I will complete between Madrid, Barcelona and Salamanca in the summer of 2027. The trip will be an investigation into the Spanish Civil War and historical memory in Spain, specifically in the post-Franco era, and I plan to visit museums, photography archives, galleries and universities, as well as doing a walking tour of Barcelona's anarchist sites of memory. Academically, this experience will be invaluable for my study of contemporary Spanish literature written during the Transition. Personally, I hope that this trip also allows for a better understanding of Spain's political and regional dynamics, which will be intriguing to compare to those of my other year abroad destination, Buenos Aires!'

Victoria Lawrence (2nd yr, French and Spanish):

'During the three months that I will spend in the Dominican Republic, I will undertake a volunteer placement at the Museo Memorial de la Resistencia Dominicana. This museum is dedicated to the preservation of historical memory and personalised approaches of resistance to Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship in the country. My role with the organisation will include providing technical and academic support for a preliminary research project which will examine the commodification and sexual exploitation of women during Trujillo’s regime. This project has the aim of addressing a historically under-researched aspect of the dictatorship, as well as contributing to efforts to explore gendered perspectives and experiences within historical narratives of political repression. As part of my placement, although not directly related to this specific project on women’s experiences under the dictatorship, I will also conduct research on the treatment of ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and religious minorities under the Trujillo regime.

My main aim for this trip is to improve my spoken Spanish (and as a result increase my confidence), as I will be living and working completely in Spanish. This research project will also help with my dissertation, in which I am hoping to explore the representation of women within literature about Trujillo's dictatorship. '