Ulster University law graduate Mia Nash has won the first-ever Paving the Way award, created by the Next 100 Years to recognise undergraduate law students whose work sheds light on women’s legal history.

Paving the Way encourages the study of women’s legal history and the recognition of women’s experience within legal studies.

Miss Nash’s dissertation, The Female Political Prisoner: Exploring the Gendered Dynamics of Imprisonment During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, was submitted as part of her LLB (Hons) at Ulster University. Her research explored the often-overlooked experiences of female political prisoners at locations such as Armagh Gaol, drawing on qualitative data analysis to bring a more complex understanding of the Troubles — incorporating the frequently disregarded accounts of female prisoners into the historical record.

About the award
Paving the Way invited entries from male and female undergraduate law students who submitted dissertations in the 2024–2025 academic year at non-Russell Group law schools, broadly covering women’s legal history.
The judging panel included Professor Rosemary Auchmuty (Professor of Law Emerita, University of Reading, and a pioneer of feminist legal studies in the UK), Professor Caroline Derry (The Open University), legal scholar Professor Uma Suthersanen, and Dr Katie Broomfield (barrister, public historian and postgraduate researcher at Royal Holloway).
The Next 100 Years will contact participating universities again in October 2026, with the next Paving the Way awards granted in 2028.