Tze Shin Low, who received her Geography BA(Hons) from the University of Brighton last summer, analysed the spaces and environments in shows including Take Me Out, Naked Attraction, First Dates and Love Island and “how social structures in the shows shape audiences’ perception of romantic love”.
The RGS-Institute of British Geographers (IBG) judges said: “Tze Shin’s findings powerfully assert the significance of space/place in producing hetero-romantic affect, offering a real contribution to an underexplored area of geographies of sexualities.”
Tze Shin, who studied at the University’s School of Environment and Technology, said: “Practices of romantic love such as speech, physical acts and gestures between heterosexual and non-heterosexual identities, in particular curated spaces, can result in the forms in which love is socially un/accepted, contributing towards the social construction and understanding of love."
Her prize was awarded by the RGS-IBG’s Space, Sexualities & Queer Research Group.