Lady Edwina Grosvenor PhD Studentship | Northumbria University

Our PhD programmes attract the brightest and best students, encouraging them to develop their expertise and make a contribution by producing research that will have a genuine impact on society and transform lives.

Alumna Lady Edwina Grosvenor has supported the establishment of a PhD studentship for a student working on intergenerational trauma, imprisonment and parenting. She and student Sophie Mitchell, who has been awarded this prestigious award, explain the impact it has made:

“I studied Criminology and Sociology at Northumbria and have gone on to have a long career in the prison service. Funding a PhD studentship is my way of giving back and saying thank you, by helping someone who might not have had the opportunity otherwise. I like to think that through this I am inspiring others in the area of prison and prison reform.”

Lady Edwina Grosvenor

“Receiving the PhD Studentship has been a great opportunity for me. Without it, it would have been very difficult for me financially to undertake a PhD and thanks to support from Lady Edwina Grosvenor I have been able to gain new skills and experience in an area I am extremely passionate about.

Lady Edwina and I share an interest in prison reform and my work is focused on intergenerational trauma, imprisonment and parenting.  I had worked with women on probation in the past and taking on the PhD has given me a valuable opportunity to step back and consider the reasons why some of the women I was working with were in the situation they were in. My ambition is that my work will eventually help to bring about better outcomes for women.”