York St John University student awarded dissertation prize

Natasha Alexander, MA by Research student in Fine Art, has been awarded the Henry Moore Institute’s 2025 MA Dissertation Prize for her dissertation titled “Doris Salcedo’s Work of Mourning”.  

The Henry Moore Institute’s undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation prizes “encourage research and writing that explores sculpture in its most expansive form” with “two awards for outstanding BA and MA dissertations focused on contemporary, modern, or historical sculpture, with a prize of £250 for each.”   

As the Henry Moore Institute summarises: “Submissions to this year’s prize included essays that examined the preservation of bronze sculptures, the depiction of widows, diasporic biographies, and those that explored sculpture through quilting, dissent, absurdity, heritage, and more.”   

Natasha Alexander’s prize-winning piece considers Doris Salcedo’s artistic practice alongside Jacques Derrida’s writing, positioning her practice as a work of mourning with a continuous temporality that exists within and beyond predetermined narratives and contexts.   

Natasha Alexander said:  

“I’m delighted to have been awarded the Henry Moore Institute’s MA Dissertation Prize which was an unexpected and humbling win. I’m especially grateful to my supervisor Dr Tilo Reifenstein for his patience and support while I was writing my thesis.   

“In addition to my Master of Arts by Research, I also studied a Fine Art undergraduate course at YSJ. The critical studies modules led by Tilo and Prof. Vanessa Corby were the inspiration for my continued interest in research, motivating me to pursue a career in academia. I hope to continue my research and aim to complete a PhD in the future.” 

Dr Tilo Reifenstein, Senior Lecturer in Critical Studies and Natasha’s dissertation supervisor, said:  

“It has been an absolute pleasure to accompany Natasha’s MA research project. Natasha is an enormously dedicated, diligent and intellectually rigorous researcher. Congratulations not only on her outstanding work, but also on this fabulous recognition of it.  

“It’s immensely gratifying to witness that our students are establishing a track record of national recognition of their high-calibre results in critical studies.” 

Professor Helen Julia Minors, Head of the School of the Arts, said:  

"We are thrilled to have supported Natasha's journey and we are delighted that she has been recognised for her creative and rigorous research."  

Postgraduate Research Lead for the School of the Arts, Professor Claire Hind said:  

“It is an absolute joy to receive the news about Natasha's prestigious prize and it is well deserved. Natasha's artistic practice and intellectual rigour, contributes to a vibrant postgraduate research culture within the School of the Arts. We are very proud of Natasha's nationally recognised achievement, many congratulations.” 

This is the second national award in a year for the Fine Arts programme at the University, after Tom Hardwick’s Association for Art History’s 2024 Undergraduate Dissertation Prize award last spring.  

You can read more about this year’s Henry Moore Institute Dissertation Prizes on their website. 

Read about the Fine Art course at York St John University.