Sophie Creager-Roberts

Crown Thesis funding allowed me to conduct field research in Hanoi and Vinh, Vietnam, this past summer. For two weeks, I visited museums, monuments, and public spaces to examine how different instances of ecological imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries are memorialized today. Traveling to Vietnam as part of my thesis project was an incredibly rewarding and invaluable experience. It not only gave me a deeper connection with the country’s broader history and culture but also allowed me to access information that I could only have discovered within each place of memory I visited. Meeting incredible people, eating fantastic food, and experiencing stunning natural wonders were also benefits of this unforgettable trip!

Something that I hoped for but couldn’t concretely predict would happen was the number of additional sites I visited based on information I uncovered from my original visits. This was incredibly useful during my research process as I discovered even more evidence that supported my thesis project. I am now working on filing and coding all the images and text I recorded while abroad into an Excel database with field notes, museum descriptions, and what part of my project each object corresponds to. This will help organize my field research and help me coordinate my own evidence with prior literature reviews and ongoing research. This was an incredible opportunity and I encourage anyone who is passionate about research and travel to apply for this award.