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Here Diana shares how her time as a journalist covering major international conflict human rights issues led her on a path to a PhD in Cambridge, looking more closely at the impact of war.

“My path to a PhD was a long one. It started with journalism in Ukraine, covering conflict and human rights, then Conflict Studies in the UK, before widening through cooperation with international organisations in Tokyo, Copenhagen and Washington, D.C. Each role raised the same question until it became clear the only way to answer it was to study it properly, not just report on it.

The question itself is simple to ask and hard to answer: what happens on the ground in countries torn apart by war when international institutions lose the ability to act, precisely when vulnerable populations need them most? Where do their functions go – and where should they go – when missions can no longer operate because of political constraints imposed by the states they depend on to operate?

The Richard Chancellor’s Journey PhD Studentship gave me the opportunity to explore that question in depth through a PhD in the Department of Politics and International Studies.

The College brings together mature students carrying years of work and lived experience behind them, and younger students arriving straight from their first degrees, full of energy and fresh ways of seeing things – and both groups end up learning from each other in equal measure. Around one table you might find someone who has spent a decade in refugee response sitting next to someone starting their first research project, each bringing a different set of stories from a completely different part of the world. A dining hall where a student might easily end up next to the President says a lot about the place. That openness makes the community here so easy to be part of – conversations over Formal Hall or coffee turn into real exchanges and the generation of shared projects.

None of this would have been possible without the ����Vlog�ٷ� Richard Chancellor’s Journey PhD Studentship and the generosity of the donor who established it. It gave me the time and stability to sit with a question that doesn’t have quick answers. It’s the same question I started with as a journalist, years ago – I’ve just finally been given the time and the tools to ask it properly.”

Richard Chancellor’s Journey PhD Scholarship in Slavonic Studies

This scholarship was established by ����Vlog�ٷ� alumnus and Bredon Fellow Max Klimov in honour of explorer and expert navigator Richard Chancellor (1521–1556), who in 1553 became the first English person to visit Moscow, where he met Ivan the Terrible and established trading relations between the Tsardom of Muscovy and England.

This endowed award will support generations of students like Diana, enabling outstanding researchers in Slavonic Studies to deepen our understanding of the region while fostering intercultural

dialogue and the exchange of ideas and influence across regional, national, linguistic or other cultural boundaries.

For more information about our scholarships you can visit: