Inspirational Essex graduate Dr Aisha K Gill has been awarded a Celebrating Impact Prize by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

She received the award for the Outstanding Impact in Public Policy for her research on countering ‘honour’ crimes and forced marriage.

Dr Gill, who is now a Reader in Criminology at the University of Roehampton, began her research addressing violence against women while at Essex, where she received an ESRC Scholarship.

A graduate of the Department of Sociology, where she studied for her BA, MA and PhD degrees, Dr Gill was awarded Essex’s Alumna of the Year Award in 2012. This recognised her achievements in tackling the problems of violence against women.

Dr Gill is an ambassador for Essex’s Women of the Future Appeal, led by Shami Chakrabarti, which is raising funds for 25 Masters scholarships for talented women from around the world to study at Essex and use their ideas and education to help make the world a better place.

Dr Aisha Gill explains how Essex helped launch her career

She explained: “Essex gave me a fantastic foundation for a career as an academic, a teacher, and as an activist, together centred on the desire to throw light on difficult social problems in order to nurture change.

Essex is a place where you can become who you really want to be. A place where diversity is respected, valued and nurtured. It’s a place where you can really get stuck in whatever profession you decide to go into. Essex gave me wings to fly – it is an empowering place to study and grow.”

The Celebrating Impact Prize supports high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. Dr Gill received a trophy and £10,000 to promote the economic and social impact of her research. The results were announced at an awards ceremony held at Central Hall, Westminster, hosted by Laurie Taylor, Presenter, BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed.