Prize Scholar: Kate Stanton

I am a third-year history DPhil from Sydney, Australia. My doctoral project investigates the East German women’s movement, underpinned by my oral history interviews with activists regarding their experiences in illegal women’s groups in the German Democratic Republic and how their lives were altered by the collapse of socialism and the advent of liberal democracy. My research is generously funded by Merton’s John Roberts Doctoral Scholarship in History.

I spent my second year as a Visiting Researcher at Berlin’s Humboldt University. As I am tracing the underground women’s movement, my source material is not housed in a national archive. This has led me to travel across the former East, exploring smaller and often overlooked archives that capture the revolution’s regional nuances. These research trips were made possible through my DPhil Scholarship from Merton, supplemented by the Merton Graduate Research Expenses Grant.

Merton’s financial support has not only made my research ambitions a reality but has also welcomed me into a vibrant scholarly community. To me, there is no better college for an international student on the other side of the world from her family. I am forever grateful to Merton for its supportive environment, its MCR members for brightening my day over chats and laughs in hall, and its beautiful fellows garden, where I like to read chapter drafts and sip oat iced lattes in the summer.