March 6, 2023// 12:00 p.m. CST
The University of Oklahoma Graduate College is proud to announce the winners of the 2023 Three Minute Thesis competition (3MT®). Emily Bonner won first place with her research presentation, “The Price is Not Right: Grocery Taxation and Food Insecurity in the Pandemic.” She won $2,000 and is with the Department of Sociology.
Gloria Nakyagaba with the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability was Runner-up as well as the People’s Choice Award winner for her research presentation, “The Other Toilet: Risks and Opportunities in Kampala.” She received $1,500 as Runner-up and $1,000 for the People’s Choice Award.
Bonner continued representing OU in Chicago at the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools 3MT competition.
She said she would encourage other graduate students to participate in 3MT, adding she would participate again.
“It was a powerful and practical tool to synthesize my work in a way that makes it accessible to a broad audience, and I have found myself relying on this newly acquired skill multiple times since then, when discussing my research,” Bonner said. “I recently met two sociologists at a conference, and when they asked me what my research discussed, I replied, ‘Well, do you have three minutes?’ And I ran with it. They thought it was awesome.”
Despite legislation meant to mitigate hardship, Bonner’s research on grocery taxation in Oklahoma demonstrates how high grocery tax has led to even more acute food insecurity for families during the pandemic. Bonner’s research supports ending regressive grocery taxation on the state legislative level.
“Since I presented my research, Oklahoma has passed a bill in the house to repeal the state-level grocery tax,” Bonner said. “I have offered my research to state-level policymakers in the hope it will have an impact.”
Nakyagaba’s research focuses on different types of toilets used in Kampala, the Capital of Uganda. Her research demonstrates how the “biogas” toilet may point to a solution in a world grappling with serious water and environmental challenges by generating gas, providing employment opportunities for youth, and contributing to the urban food basket in cities.
Nakyagaba took home two prizes - runner-up and people’s choice - and had a large following on Zoom from Uganda.
3MT® is a research communication competition initiated by The University of Queensland, Australia, in 2008. Competitions are now held in over 900 universities in more than 85 countries. Graduate students are challenged to present their master’s or doctoral research in just three minutes in language appropriate for a non-specialist audience.
For OU, this is an excellent opportunity to advocate for graduate education. These presentations are often of outstanding quality and they provide a stage for students' stories and for the remarkable research conducted at OU.
Learn more about 3MT on the OU Norman campus on the Graduate College website.
