Maria Murad, second-year DPhil candidate in Anthropology, has won the Graduate Student Research Award from the American Ethnological Society (AES), the oldest professional anthropological association in the US. The award financially supports ethnographic fieldwork for DPhil candidates across the globe. She has also earned a grant to travel to the spring 2026 conference to present her research. Maria's research focuses on the training of colonial officers at Oxford in the 20th century on a course titled 'The Colonial Administrative Services Course'. She plans to write the first history of this course, which had large impacts in the British Empire.

Maria said, "I am so grateful to the AES, a leading organisation for anthropological research in my home country, for recognising and supporting my research while allowing me to present at their spring conference."