Laidlaw scholars

7 November 2017

Two of St Mary's College students, Josh Holloway and Tom Miles, successfully completed an undergraduate scholarship programme that culminated in poster presentations on 30 October 2017. The Laidlaw Undergraduate Scholarship Programme in Research and Leadership allows students to undertake a research project of their choosing. Josh and Tom, under the supervision of Drs Eric Stoddart and Bill Hyland respectively, were two of 50 scholars who worked full-time on their project for 10 weeks in the summer. As an important part of the scheme, scholars participated in an extensive leadership programme.

Josh Holloway Josh Hollway's project, 'Exploring Spirituality in Schools' involved interviews with practitioners in order to consider how spiritual development of young people is interpreted and practiced in four Church of England schools. Tom Miles explored the legacy of John Duns Scotus in the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Tom Merton in a project entitled, 'Praising God, Celebrating Individuality'.

J‌osh: 'I found that schools with the most pronounced articulation of spirituality understood spirituality as an important component of holistic personhood, and saw primary education as having a responsibility to develop this alongside academic education. The church was unanimously seen as aiding this endeavour as church practitioners could call upon their tradition to add depth to the school's own spirituality practice as well as giving pupils the opportunity to engage with a spiritual tradition that they may wish to incorporate aspects from into their own spirituality.'

'The Laidlaw internship provided me with the fantastic opportunity to have some hands-on experience of doing academic research, which will be invaluable when writing a dissertation this year, and in potential further study in the future.'

Tom: 'My main findings were that Hopkins was influenced heavily by Scotus' notion of the individual nature - haecceitas - of all things. Hopkins had a keen eye for detail, and saw, as did Scotus, that things in their individuality were part of the overall artwork of God's creation.'

'The project forced me to learn greater perseverance as I faced up to mountains of books and philosophical nuances. It also provided valuable experience in conducting largely self-directed research.'