Finnish-born PhD student Wilhelmiina Toivo, from the University’s School of Psychology, has won the Economic and Social Research Council’s 2016 -17 writing competition “Making Sense of Society”, in partnership with SAGE Publishing.

Wilhelmiina, who is in the first year of her ESRC-funded post-doctorate degree, received a £1,000 cash prize at an awards ceremony at the Royal Society. She also took part in a masterclass on “how to get published”, delivered by SAGE Publishing; her competition entry will be published in print and online.‌

Wilhelmiina ToivoBrought up in Helsinki, she came to Glasgow in 2011 to study psychology as an undergraduate student; last year she completed an MSc I Psychology and is currently six months into her PhD.

The competition, which is now in its second year, celebrates and fosters the writing skills of the next generation of social scientists.

This year students were asked to write 800 words about why their research matters, and how it helps us make sense of and understand the society in which we live.

There were nearly 300 entries which demonstrated the incredible breadth and depth of social science research taking place across the UK. Topics ranged from Big Data, to climate change, class, immigration, dementia, the economy and education.

Personal insight

In her winning essay, “Once more, with feeling: life as bilingual”, Wilhelmiina wrote about her experiences growing up in Scotland speaking English as a second language, and how speaking in her non-native tongue gave her a sense of liberation when it came to swearing and discussing her emotions.

This personal insight linked well to her PhD research project, which focuses on why many bilinguals report feeling less emotionally connected to their second language, a phenomenon known as the reduced emotional resonance of language.

She said: “I was really surprised to win this prize - apparently there were about 280 entries in total. During my first year of PhD I have really got into science communication and it was great to see that I have learnt something - the task was to write a popular science piece explaining how your research makes sense of the society.

Her research aims to find out what exactly it is about speaking in a second language that makes it less emotional, by using eye tracker technology to measure people’s emotional reaction to reading words in their native and second language. In the first part of her project, she is exploring which factors in a person’s language background contribute to reduced emotional resonance, whether it matters how frequently and in which context a person uses the language, and whether your emotional experience of a language can be predicted based on whether you dream or can do maths in it.

Wilhelmiina writes that "not being able to fully structure your surroundings through language might leave you feeling alienated; not a part of the society you live in. Or perhaps you are perceived as rude or socially awkward for using the wrong words in the wrong emotional context.

"However, not all the implications of reduced emotional resonance are negative – bilinguals can actually benefit from being able to approach things in a less emotionally involved way. For example, bilinguals have been shown to be able to make more rational decisions in their second language. Also, switching languages can be used as a tool in therapy when working through emotionally difficult or traumatising experiences."

Martin Rosenbaum, ESRC Council member and an executive producer in the BBC Political Programmes department . He said: “I really liked Wilhelmiina’s essay and it will stay with me, I am glad I read it. She gave a very clear explanation of the social science of speaking in a second language and it was a very engaging read.”

Entries were judged by a panel of science communication experts. As well as Martin Rosenbaum, the judging panel included Martin Ince, President of the Association of British Science Writers; Miranda Nunhofer, Executive Director at SAGE Publishing; and Tash Reith-Banks, Production Editor for the Guardian's Science desk.

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First published: 23 March 2017

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