We are pleased to announce the winner of our essay competition this year: Mercy Muroki from QMUL (nominated by Philip Cowley and Daniel Gover), with Katie Power from Surrey (nominated by Louise Thompson) as the runner-up. They will receive their certificates at our conference in autumn.
- Read Mercy’s winning entry: Substantive Representation: Ethnic Minority and White Lords’ Participation in Parliamentary Question ‘Debates’ on Ethnic Minority Issues
- Read Katie’s runner-up entry: Are select committees powerful watchdogs over government?
All of the essays were judged by a panel of senior academics and clerks: Michael Rush (Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Exeter), Cristina Leston-Bandeira (Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds) and Martyn Atkins (clerk in the House of Commons). In particular, the panel described it as ‘an original, clear and compelling piece of work’, with excellent primary research demonstrated throughout.
We would like to thank everyone that took part, and especially for the judging panel who gave up their time to read through all the entries we received this year.
And an extra special thank you to Michael Rush, who has been chairing the competition for a number of years. He has indicated that this was his last time as chair of the competition. We are hugely grateful for all the work that Michael has done to support this initiative.
We are looking forward to holding this competition again next year, so please do look for a call in the autumn and spread the message far and wide! If you had any ideas about how to improve the competition, please get in touch.