A graduating Carleton PhD student has won $10,000 for her research that focused on grandmothers taking care of orphaned children in Africa, according to a press release.

May Chazan, who received a PhD in geography from Carleton, won the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral prize, which is one of the Canadian research community’s highest honours, according to the release.

“It’s great to have the work recognized,” Chazan said. “I hope it brings some more visibility to the issues I want to talk about. That would be an honour.”

Chazan’s research centred around the Grandmothers for Grandmothers campaign, she said. It looks at how older women in Southern Africa are mobilizing in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region.

The campaign, which was started by the Stephen Lewis Foundation, raises money for grandmothers whose children have died through HIV/AIDS and now have to take care of their own grandchildren, she said.

Brent Herbert-Copley, vice-president (research capacity)‎ at the SSHRC, said the issue Chazan explores in her work is important.

“You’ve got a whole generation of grandparents and grandmothers who are in a position where they’re suddenly forced to be parents again at the same time that they’re mourning the loss of their own children,” Herbert-Copley said.

“In the process of Chazan’s research, she’s helping to dispel this notion that older women, this older generation in our society, are fragile, dependant and apolitical,” he said.

Carleton president Roseann Runte said the university is very proud of Chazan’s accomplishments.

“The entire Carleton University shares considerable pride in [Chazan’s] success and in her important research,” she said.

Chazan said she hopes the award will give her research more recognition. With the money, she said she hopes to support her continuing research.

“The money is to . . . do things like, travel to be able to do new research, get to conferences, and be able to hire some undergrad or grad students to work on some of the new research for me,” she said.

Chazan will be conducting her post-doctoral research at the University of Toronto, according to the press release.