Women's History Association of Ireland 2026 conference Award

The WHAI/MIC best paper at the 2026 conference Award

The Women’s History Association of Ireland in conjunction with Mary Immaculate College EDII were delighted to award Julien Santos de Mello with a book token for best conference paper at our recent conference at Mary I.

Julien Santos de Mello is a PhD student based at the University of Limerick. Since completing her history degree and master’s, she has been actively engaged in research on gender studies and the history of medicine. Her previous research focused on women’s practices in oppressive settings, such as witch hunts and anti-Jewish persecutions, in Scotland and France. Julien’s paper was based on her current PhD work, which explores Irish female representations and folk medicine practices in the National Folklore Collection through artificial intelligence and geographic approaches. This study sets out to investigate the ways in which Irish female practitioners were represented in these cultural sources, as well as to comprehend the extent to which their informal roles impacted their local communities.

This was Julien’s first time presenting at conference and her paper was well received by everyone at conference. A massive thank you to Mary I EDII not just for sponsoring the book prize but also for their support across the two days of the conference