The award for early career researchers aims to recognise scholarly research that ensures historically marginalised and under-represented voices are heard.
The award is named in honour and memory of Farah Jamal, an exceptional early career researcher who conducted innovative work on health inequalities. She believed that new approaches were needed for tackling long-term social problems, and she creatively blended the theories and methods of various disciplines to address complex research questions. Her PhD thesis comprised systematic reviews and qualitative studies aimed at understanding the interrelationship between institutional school structures and systems and local student culture and their influence on health and health inequalities for young people. Her research was founded on the concept of a “sociological imagination” to understand complex social processes.