Marina Martin has been awarded the Master's thesis prize of the German Society for Social Medicine and Prevention (DGSMP ) for her Master's thesis in the Management of Social Change course at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the HSZG. The thesis entitled "The healthcare system in the field of tension between trust and conspiracy theories" was supervised by Prof. Nadine Jukschat and is an empirical study of the COVID-19 protests in Saxony. Marina Martin was already part of a research group investigating the protests during the research semester of her studies. As she originally comes from the healthcare sector, it made sense for her to stay on the topic.

To this end, she spent several months observing the protests and conducted narrative interviews with medical professionals from Saxony who had different levels of involvement with the protests.

Looking back, she finds researching the topic challenging but also enriching: "Much of what I was confronted with left me stunned and angry. There was understandable criticism of some infection control measures, but also widespread trivialization of the Holocaust and demonization of healthcare institutions. But I have gained deep insights into how these beliefs have developed and I am grateful for that. It helps me to better understand the world and also political developments."

Driven by the positive experience from her studies at the HSZG and the Master's thesis colloquium, which she describes as an "appreciative and encouraging framework for pursuing scientific questions together", she joined a scientific society, the DGSMP, in order to have such a framework after her studies as well.