The Department is delighted to announce the results of this year’s competition, which bore the theme "Global Sociology".
We received a wealth of high quality images and thoughtful reflections, and would like to thank all of the students that took part in the competition (as well as the teachers for their support).
We hope that students involved enjoyed the challenge to think sociologically! If you’re in interested in the subject and thinking applying for University, have a look at our pages for prospective applicants.
Shortlist:
Bonnie Barfield "Liminal Spaces" (The Abbey School)
Bonnie's excellent entry used features of airports as metaphors for sociological analysis: "When studying people, it is useful to group them into different categories - sorting them into various lanes and lines. But these lines are themselves arbitrary, man-made and impermanent - like the barriers in the background of the photograph."
Rebecca Moody "Cracking the Conundrum" (Barton Peveril College)
Rebecca's intriguing image was accompanied by a thoughtful reflection on the role of international trade "as a key factor in a rapid development of the global world".
Winner:
George Smith "Kingdom of King's" (The Kings' School)
"This piece of work is based on the diversity of my school community. I decided to present the diversity of my year group in this way because it got people involved in the making of it, allowing them to show off their culture and feel proud of who they are, as opposed to them just being told to sit down on a stool and smile! One of the models commented during the shoot, “man, I feel so cultural right now, I’m going to go home and speak to my Dad in Urdu” - exactly what I wanted to hear.
The project was a logistical nightmare. It started with 34 people signing up, which I was blown away by. Since we could only shoot in break times and lunchtimes, and with the face paint being very time consuming, it was next to impossible to match availability, but I ended up with a great group of people who were more than happy to take part. This resulted in lots of happy faces, as you can see!" - GS.
The judges were impressed with George’s entry:
“We found the text and the photograph delightful and thought provoking in a number of ways. We enjoyed how the project plays with the orthodox pause of the school photo and juxtaposes itself to it by showing fun and cultural diversity. Regarding the latter, the use of humour illustrated agency and fluidity. We also appreciated the narration of the messiness associated with running a project, which led to a polished result. We thought that it was a good depiction of what research is, more broadly. Congratulations George!"
We will be running the competition again next year, be sure to sign up to our mailing list to receive alerts for the next theme and deadline!
