The RHS Early Career Article Prize is awarded for an essay or article based on original historical research, by a doctoral candidate or an early career historian within three years of being awarded a doctorate, published in a journal or an edited collection of essays.
Two prizes of £250 each are awarded annually.
The 2027 Prize Round: call for submissions now open
The call for submissions to the 2027 RHS Early Career Article Prize is now open. Details and copies of eligible articles may be submitted via the Society’s applications portal.
The closing date for submissions is 23:59 on Monday 14 December 2026.
Shortlists for the 2027 prizes are expected in May 2027 with the final winners made known in July 2027.
Eligibility for the RHS Early Career Article Prize, 2027
To be eligible for consideration for the prize:
- applicants must be doctoral students in a historical subject at a UK or Irish institution, or be within three years of having a submitted a corrected thesis in a historical subject in a UK / Irish institution at the time of the closing date for entries.
- the article or essay must have been published in a journal or edited collection during the calendar year 2026 for the 2027 prize round. Advanced access publisher versions are also eligible, but an item cannot be entered more than once in subsequent years.
- an electronic copy of the publisher’s version the article or essay will need to be uploaded to the entry form.
Winners of the RHS Early Career Article Prize in 2026
On 1 July 2026, the Society announced the following two winners of this year’s Early Career Article Prize:
- Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh for his article ‘Colonial world-making and global knowledges at the early modern Cape of Good Hope‘, in Past & Present
- Stephanie Wanga for her article ‘Rereading Ujamaa, rethinking freedom’, in Development and Change
Our congratulations to Gianamar and Stephanie, and to the six other authors shortlisted in 2026. For more on the winning titles, please see below.
Judges’ citation for Gianamar Giovennetti-Singh’s article:
The panel is delighted to award the 2026 Early Career Article Prize to Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh for his brilliant article, ‘Colonial World-Making and Global Knowledges at the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope’.
Gianamar presents a sweeping, transoceanic history that fundamentally challenges our understanding of early modern geography and knowledge production. By seamlessly weaving together the ambitions of the Dutch East India Company, the astronomical diplomacy of French Jesuits, and the anticolonial resistance of the Indigenous Khoekhoe, the author vividly demonstrates how the Cape was actively reimagined as an extension of the East Indies. The article stands out for its staggering intellectual ambition, its rich source base, and its masterful execution of global history.
Dr Jesús Sanjurjo, chair, Early Career Article Prize, 2026
Judges’ citation for Stephanie Wanga’s article:
We are similarly delighted to award the 2026 Early Career Article Prize to Stephanie Wanga for her outstanding article, ‘Rereading Ujamaa, Rethinking Freedom’. Stephanie presents a bold and highly original intervention that reconceptualises the Tanzanian political project of Ujamaa as a radical theory of freedom. By combining sophisticated political theory with a compelling historical case study of the Ruvuma Development Association, she powerfully challenges entrenched assumptions about postcolonial statehood, sovereignty, and stateless freedom.
This is an intellectually ambitious and methodologically innovative study that successfully bridges African political thought and global theoretical frameworks to chart new conceptual avenues for the discipline.
Dr Jesús Sanjurjo, chair, Early Career Article Prize, 2026
- A full listing of previous winners of the Royal Historical Society’s article prizes, previously known as the Alexander Prize (1898-2026) is available here.
General enquiries about Society’s Prizes should be sent to: [email protected].
IMAGE: ‘Specimens of Penmanship after Jan van de Velde and other Calligraphy Books, Conrad Baumann’, c. 1620, Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections, public domain