Chiara’s Travel Grant Experience
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History undergraduate Chiara Simpson-Gregory (2022) shares her research journey at Oxford. Thanks to a travel grant supported by the generous one-off and ongoing donations of Brasenose alumni, Chiara was able to pursue archival research for her thesis on 1980s teenage girls in Britain through magazines.
Spending time at the LSE Women’s Archive and the Feminist Archive South at the University of Bristol allowed Chiara to explore magazines of the period and give voice to the girls behind feminist publications such as Shocking Pink. The travel grant enabled her to build a richer source base than what is available online, deepening both her analysis and her conclusions. She also valued engaging with archivists, learning first-hand about the vital work of preserving feminist history and the role of the University of Bristol in housing these collections.
Stories like Chiara’s illustrate the transformative impact of philanthropic support on student experiences at Brasenose. Gifts to Student Support remove financial barriers, making ambitious, original research possible. By enabling access to archives, specialist collections, and expert knowledge, alumni generosity opens doors to opportunities that enrich learning, deepen academic inquiry, and allow students to contribute fresh perspectives to their fields.
