Congratulations to alumna Elizabeth Leach-Leung who has been awarded the Toby Jackman Prize (2024/2025) for academic excellence. Elizabeth reflected on her win and what it means to her.
First, I would like to sincerely thank the St Edmund’s College Tutorial Office for this prestigious award and the St Edmund’s alum for their generous donation. I graduated with my PhD in Education in May 2025 after spending four wonderful years at Cambridge. My doctoral thesis, titled Representations of Dyslexia Across Genres in Children’s and Young Adult Literature, investigated the underexplored intersections of disability studies, literacy studies and genre studies within children’s literature. By acknowledging that the stories we tell about certain populations can influence cultural perceptions of them, my thesis sought to interrogate how the stories we tell about dyslexia – and the genre conventions which influence how these stories are told – can affect the youth who share this lived experience. This thesis received the Faculty of Education’s Student Excellence Award and I am honoured for my research to be likewise recognised by St Edmund’s College.
PhD alumna recognised with Toby Jackman Prize
My academic success while at Cambridge was supported by the College's community which provided my home-away-from-home during my studies.
Even when I matriculated in Michaelmas 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 restrictions, St Edmund’s welcomed me with socially distant arms. Even amidst the global pandemic, I have fond memories of my first year bubbled with my floormates at Mount Pleasant Halls. As the COVID restrictions lifted, I joined the Eddies’ Bar staff to help serve the CR. The CR is truly the heart of the College and it was magical to feel the social side of St Edmund’s come alive after the pandemic through its vibrant Friday nights and spectacular BOPs. While I fit into the cliché of students who originally joined the Boat Club to complete ‘The Cambridge Experience’, I found myself falling in love with the early mornings at the 99’s Boat House. I experienced the highs and lows of college rowing: from spooning in my first Lent bumps to becoming the Women’s Captain and leading W1 to blades in May 2024. As I write this, I am looking at my blade proudly hanging upon my wall at home – a piece of Eddies that I will take with me wherever I go.
“Since graduating, I have returned to my home country of Canada and am currently working as an academic assistant at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario). As I apply for post-doctoral and other academic positions, I am working on publishing elements of my PhD thesis. Aspects of my thesis are already published or are awaiting publication in several well-regarded children’s literature journals including Children’s Literature in Education, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature, and Children’s Literature Association Quarterly. This past year, I have been hard at work drafting my first monograph, currently titled The Magic of Misreading: Dyslexia, Lexism and Literacy in Young Adult Fantasy. As the nature of writing can be an isolating experience, your support through the Toby Jackman Prize has helped to reinforce the importance and value of my work as I continue to draft and revise this project.
“Like the blade that hangs upon my wall, I know this award will follow me wherever my academic career shall lead. St Edmund’s was such an essential part of my Cambridge experience and I am honoured to be recognised not just for my academic achievements, but for my contributions to the college community. I hope that this formal recognition from St Edmund’s will help open the doors needed to establish my academic career and I am proud to bring a part of St Edmund’s with me wherever I go.
Please join us in congratulating Dr Elizabeth Leach-Leung.
About The Jackman Prize
The Jackman Prize was established in memory of the late Professor Toby Jackman, a Fellow Commoner of the College, to celebrate the highest mark or recommendation in any PhD (except in Economics). Since it was established in 2013 the Jackman Prize has been awarded to PhD students for theses on topics ranging from “Determining the stem cell dynamics of intestinal tissues and cancer” to “Improvising Goethe’s Faust Part One in two Berlin high-school theatre classes for cross-cultural dialogue among Turkish-German students,” demonstrating the full breadth and depth of the research that St Edmund’s supports.
Professor Toby Jackman left a generous legacy to the College, and through this prize, and the other components of his gift, he has made a lasting impact that will go on for many years to come.
If you are considering your legacy, and would like to know about making a bequest to St Edmund’s, the Development Office would be happy to speak with you in confidence. Contact William at development@st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk to arrange a meeting.
