Congratulations to our student Heathcliff Newman who has won the Mary MacPherson Essay Prize. Heathcliff is in the first year of a degree in Comparative Literature and Culture. The Mary MacPherson Prize is open to undergraduate students from any academic department of the College and is awarded for a piece of journalistic writing of high distinction.
The subject of the essay is chosen by the candidate, and Heathcliff's winning entry is entitled "Erasure, Alienation and Otherness for Queer members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."
It is a a personal article for Heathcliff (pictured above). Commenting on it, he says: 'My research into cults has encouraged me to pursue journalism as an exercise of questioning those aspects of life which ‘go without saying’. My choice of degree, Comparative Literature and Culture, develops not only a multi-cultural but a counter-cultural way of thinking. Investigative journalism helps us to look beyond what is presented to us and come to a better awareness of marginalised groups. My own experience within the Mormon Church, and my questioning of its dogma, have helped me to see its mechanisms of persuasion and to closely analyse the arguments that seek to suppress the marginalised. The journalism I wish to conduct is on marginalised, alienated and suppressed people. I wish to bring people into unknown worlds so that those who live in that world, through this increased awareness, can feel less alone."
