Join us
Orange welcome sign that reads Royal Geographical Society with IBG.

Become a member and discover where geography can take you.

Join us
People sat around a table typing on laptops. One person is stood at the front pointing at square sticky notes stuck on a whiteboard.

Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG)

The RGS-IBG Participatory Geographies Research Group (PyGyRG) is pleased to offer two annual prizes of £100 for undergraduate dissertations that examine social justice themes and/or involve a participatory methodology. As there was no 2023 prize due to UCU Marking and Assessment Boycott two prizes will be offered this year, one for 2022-23 and one for 2023-24.

Reflective of the scale and type of research carried out at undergraduate level, we are eager to encourage and reward both excellent scholarship and innovation which includes any of the following:

  • Employs a participatory methodology.
  • Engages with participatory research literature.
  • Works with people, communities, or non-profit groups.
  • Explores social justice, community activist, social enterprises, or NGOs/CSOs.
  • Addresses issues of exclusion and marginalisation.
  • Involves minority or vulnerable groups.
  • Incorporates tangible outcomes for community groups/NGOs.

Nominated dissertations should:

  • Be a strong theoretical and/or empirical piece of work.
  • Be submitted for formal assessment for the past 24 months to a UK Higher Education Institution for a BA/BSc level geography degree programme.
  • Include a full set of references and images (as relevant).
  • Be written in English.

To nominate a student, please:

  • Submit their dissertation as a single pdf file with a post-university email and contact address for the student.
  • Provide a statement (minimum a short paragraph – maximum one A4-page) that summarises in which respects the dissertation engages with a social justice theme and/or involves a participatory methodology.

We are keen to contact students directly so that we can follow up winners and ask them to provide us with blog entries and short summaries for our website, hence asking for a post-September email address for the student. Please let nominees know that they have been nominated.

Please send submissions to PyGyRG Dissertation Co-Ordinator Jeremy Auerbach at jeremy.auerbach@ucd.ie

Deadline: to be announced.