Prizes

Undergraduate Prizes

As part of our aim to showcase excellence in gender and sexualities studies and advocacy, we offer a range of undergraduate prizes that recognise important contributions from students. The prizes cover both academic aspects of students' work as well as their commitment to the study of gender and sexualities and their feminist advocacy work outside of their curriculum. Each year, we are pleased to award our prizes to students who bring new ideas and points of view, who enact important change on campus and who show a great commitment to improving gender equality whether through scholarship or campaigning.

On this page, you will find out more about the prizes we offer as well as how you can nominate others or yourself for an award.

You can read about previous prize winners here.

The Yuan Changying Prize

The Yuan Changying Prize recognises outstanding ‘gender observations’ written by students (and nominated by tutors) in the pre-honours course Understanding Gender in the Contemporary World. Gender observations require students to link material from the course to their own day-to-day experiences and observations. The prize is named after Yuan Changying in consultation with students, in recognition of the first female Chinese graduate in the University of Edinburgh’s history.

Students are nominated for the Yuan Changying Prize by course instructors and tutors.

The Queer Futures Prize

As part of our fifth anniversary celebrations, GENDER.ED instituted the Queer Futures Prize for the undergraduate years 1 and 3 course, Introduction to Queer Studies (lead convenor Dr Merlin Seller, ECA) that GENDER.ED also supports. This prize seeks to acknowledge and celebrate thoughtful and innovative work in queer studies inspired by classroom discussions and learning. The winners will be announced at our 24/25 Welcome Reception at the start of the next academic year and their work will be featured on our blog.

Undergraduate Feminist Trailblazers Awards

The Undergraduate Feminist Trailblazers Award seeks to recognise extraordinary commitments to feminist scholarship and change on campus. The award takes into consideration all kinds of student contributions such as activism, volunteering, and research. Launched in 2022, the award has seen some fantastic nominations across the two years it has run. Each year, winners are chosen from a pool of nominees by a panel of members from GENDER.ED and EUSA. The winners are announced at our annual showcase in May each year and are featured on our blog in autumn.

Past Winners

2025:

Rutendo Hoto and Claudia Efemini - First Prize

Thulsa Miqdhaadh Moosa - Second Prize

Aagoon Chakraborty - Third Prize

Emmi Wilkinson - Honourable Mention

2024:

Ash Scholtz - First Prize

Aditi Jain- Second Prize

Kirsten Hay and Kate Wilson - Third Prize

Ishita Parakh and Alina Paczesna - Honourable Mention

Emily Rose Coupe - Honourable Mention