Lizzie Evens winner of the 2020 Graduate Essay Prize by Forum for History of Health

Congratulations to Lizzie Evens on the award of the 2020 Graduate Essay Prize by the Forum for History of Health, Medicine, and the Life Sciences (FHHMLS), for her submission, “‘Footprint all babies, fingerprint all mothers’. Policewoman Mary Hamilton’s Campaign for Universal Fingerprinting in the Maternity Suite in the early-twentieth-century United States.”

The committee was impressed with the careful research, grounded argumentation, and communicative writing style. The author demonstrated excellent command of the historiographical literature and the originality of this contribution emerges clearly.

Lizzie is a doctoral student at the UCL Institute of the Americas, where she is in her final year. Her PhD thesis, 'Regulating Women' investigates how women entered the professions of medicine and law enforcement in the United States. She is working under the supervision of Professor Jonathan Bell and Dr Nick Witham.

The FHHMLS aims to create a venue for historians of the medical and life sciences (including nursing, traditional health practices, dentistry, veterinary medicine, public health, pharmacy etc.) to engage in conversations across disciplinary and chronological boundaries around shared themes and methodological questions, and to open a dialog between the HSS and other professional organisations. It takes an inclusive approach to its represented area, in order to promote chronological, geographic and thematic diversity and broaden the potential for collaborative interactions. They also thank the Cambridge University Press for their continuing sponsorship of the Graduate Essay Prize.

Links:

Link to the full announcement of the FHHMLS 2020 Graduate Essay Prize

Website of Forum for History of Health, Medicine, and the Life Sciences

Link to UCL Americas Graduate Research Students webpage

Professor Jonathan Bell - academic profile

Dr Nick Witham - academic profile

Images:

Top: headshot of PhD candidate Lizzie Evens

Bottom: Hospital nurses use a life-size baby doll to practice taking a child’s footprints at the Mary E. Hamilton Institute, New York’s first fingerprint school, Gramercy, New York, USA, 28th January 1939. Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.