The Society’s Research Funding supports a large number of historians across a range of activities: from studying for a Masters’ degree and finishing a PhD, to undertaking research and working on a project, such as writing an article.
The following individuals are current holders of RHS Fellowships and Grants in 2023. Each year, the Society awards c.£95,000 in research funding to historians through open competitions. In 2022, the Society is allocating a further £30,000 in one-off programmes (including its Ukraine Scholars at Risk Fellowships), generously assisted by partner organisations and donors.
Full details, and call timetables, for all Royal Historical Society research funding are available here.
1. Centenary and Marshall Fellows, 2023-24
Held for 6 months, jointly with the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, the Centenary and Marshall Fellowships enable historians to complete their PhDs and receive research training:
Clare V. Church, is an RHS Centenary Fellow held jointly with the Institute of Research, University of London. Clare is a fourth-year PhD researcher at Aberystwyth University, studying within the Department of History and Welsh History under the supervision of Dr Siân Nicholas and Dr Miguel Hernandez. Originally from Canada, Clare completed her Master of Arts at New York University and attained her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo.
The subject of her doctoral research focuses on the cultural representations of women celebrities, and their subsequent influence on gender roles and national morale during the Second World War. Specifically, the project applies the concept of ‘patriotic femininity’ – originally developed by Phil Goodman within the context of British Second World War studies – transnationally, exploring celebrity case studies in the UK, US, and France. Studying the mediated depictions of celebrities such as Vera Lynn, the Andrews Sisters, and Joséphine Baker, the project endeavours to understand how the ‘ideal woman’ was framed within these distinct national wartime contexts.
John Marshall is an RHS Centenary Fellow, held jointly with the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. John is a fourth year PhD candidate at Trinity College Dublin, having previously obtained a BA and MA from Dublin City University.
John’s research analyses transnational lordship and politics in thirteenth-century Britain and Ireland. John’s thesis focuses on the Marshal earls of Pembroke and lords of Leinster, in particular how their influence on the ‘peripheries’ of the Plantagenet empire in Ireland and Wales brought them influence and patronage at the core. His thesis will also provide the first edition of the partition of the Marshal estates in 1247 after the male line of the family died out.
In addition to his membership with the RHS, John is also an associate member of the AHRC-funded Noblesse Oblige research network and has published on aspects of his research in History: The Journal of the Historical Association (108:382) and Irish Historical Studies (2023).
Helena Neimann Erikstrup is an RHS Marshall Fellow, held jointly with the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Helena is a fourth-year DPhil student in History of Art at the University of Oxford. Her thesis ‘The Colours of Martinique: The (Re)making of the Modern Subject in French-Caribbean Art, 1847-1930’ focuses on visual representations of race and ecology made in Martinique as vital sites in which French national identity was negotiated in the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, a period in which the definition of being, and not being, French was redefined. It looks at understudied visual material of lesser-known or completely unknown, sometimes ‘amateur’, artists alongside work of a canonical artist such as Paul Gauguin.
Considering these artists in a relational, non-hierarchical way, Helena’s research examines their experimentation with different colour palettes to reassert racial and environmental control of Martinique in the decades following the abolition of slavery in 1848. The thesis uses colour (as a pigment, a racial marker and visual effect) as the main prism through which engage with the work and the questions they ask.
Stefano Nicastro is an RHS Marshall Fellow, held jointly with the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. Stefano studied History at the University of Milan and spent a semester abroad in Istanbul at the Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi via the Erasmus programme. Subsequently, he completed an MSc in Middle Eastern Studies with Arabic at the University of Edinburgh and I further studied Arabic in Egypt at the International House Cairo – ILI.
Stefano is currently a History PhD Student at the University of Edinburgh, working on a thesis entitled, ‘Genoa in the Islamicate Mediterranean: Diplomatic and Economic Relationships between the Genoese and the Qalawunid Sultanate of Egypt and Syria, 1279-1382′. Stefano’s research looks at cross-cultural and trans-regional interactions in the Mediterranean during the later Middle Ages. Specifically, it studies the diplomatic and commercial relationships between the commune of Genoa and the Mamluk sultanate with a focus on the practices and the modality of these trans-Mediterranean exchanges.
2. Early Career Fellowship Grant holders, 2023-24
Held for up to 6 months, Early Career Fellowship Grants provide support for post-doctoral researchers to work on a defined project, such as writing an article or book proposal:
- Matthew White – awarded November 2023
- Katie Snow – awarded November 2023
- Lisa Berry-Waite – awarded November 2023
- Janet Morrison – awarded November 2023
- Sandip Kana – awarded November 2023
- Callum Smith – awarded November 2023
3. Martin Lynn Scholarship in African History, 2023-24
Awarded annually, the Martin Lynn Scholarship supports research in the history of Africa:
- Pritam Singh (London School of Economics)
4. Masters’ Scholarships in History, 2023-24
Awarded annually, Masters’ Scholarships support students studying for a Masters’ degree in History at a UK university. Scholarships are reserved for early career historians from groups underrepresented in academic history:
- Roqibat Adebimpe, to study at the University of Sheffield
- Matthew Dickinson, to study at the University of Manchester
- Baryana Ivanova, to study of the University of Cambridge
- Nawajesh Khan, to study at Cardiff University
- Marielle Masolo, to study at the University of Oxford
- Charlotte Willis, to study at Cardiff University
5. Postgraduate Research Support Grants, 2023
Introduced in Spring 2023, Postgraduate Research Support Grants are available to History students (who are Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society), currently studying for a Masters degree or PhD to undertake historical research.
- Shelley Castle – awarded August 2023
- Jones Patrick O’Dare – awarded August 2023
- William Rees – awarded August 2023
- Islay Shelbourne – awarded August 2023
- Francisca Valenzuela Villaseca – awarded August 2023
- Alexandra Watson – awarded August 2023
6. Early Career Research Support Grants, 2024
Introduced in Spring 2023, Early Career Research Support Grants are available to historians within 5 years of submitting their PhD in a historical subject (who are members of the Royal Historical Society) to undertake research.
- Thomas Burnham – awarded February 2024
- Nicolò Ferrari – awarded February 2024
- Yui Chim Lo – awarded February 2024
- Mariana Zegianini – awarded February 2024
7. Open Research Support Grants, 2023-24
Introduced in Spring 2023, Open Research Support Grants are available to all historians (who are members of the Royal Historical Society) who are not postgraduate students or early career researchers (within 5 years of completing a PhD). Open Research Support Grants provide funds to historians to undertake historical research.
- Lindy Brady – awarded November 2023
- Pia Jolliffe – awarded November 2023
- Stephanie Seul – awarded November 2023
- Sophie Scott-Brown – awarded November 2023
- Christian Cooijmans – awarded November 2023
- Tatyana Zhukova – awarded November 2023
8. Workshop Grants, 2023-24
Awarded annually from 2022, Workshop Grants provide support for groups of historians to meet and discuss shared projects in detail. Transactions Workshops enable work leading to publication in the Society’s journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, RHS Workshop Grants support historians to meet for a wider range of projects and activities. Workshop Grants are open to historian at all career stages.
Transactions Workshop Grant holders:
- ’80 Years of the Bengal Famine (1943): Decolonial Dialogues from the Global South’ — lead organisers: Priyanka Basu and Ananya Jahanara Kabir (King’s College London)
- ‘Transnational Activism in a Divided World: the Regional within the Global’ — lead organisers: Daniel Laqua (Northumbria) and Thomas Davies (City, University of London)
- ‘The Future of Our Past: Where is Environmental History Heading?’ — lead organiser: Alexander Hibberts (Durham)
- ‘Parliamentary Culture in Colonial Contexts, c.1500 – c.1700’ — lead organisers: Paul Seaward (History of Parliament Trust), Pauline Kewes (Oxford) and Jim Van der Meulen (Ghent)
- ‘The Myth of Barter. Perspectives from the Global Middle Ages’ — lead organiser: Nick Evans (Leeds)
- ‘Labour Pains: Mothers and Motherhood on the Left in the Twentieth Century’ — lead organisers: Lyndsey Jenkins (Queen Mary, University of London) and Charlotte Riley (Southampton)
- ‘Unofficial Diplomats: East Mediterranean Archaeologists and Britain’s Imperial Project’ — lead organiser: Anna Kelley (St Andrews)
- ‘Game Studies and History’ — lead organiser: Gavin Schwartz-Leeper (Warwick)
- ‘Collective Reflections on Oral Histories of Pakistan’s Women Constitution Makers’ — lead organisers: Mahnaz Shujrah and Maryam S. Khan (Institute of Development and Economic Solutions, Lahore)
RHS Workshop Grant holders for 2024:
- ‘(Re)Visioning London through “Black” Dialogues’ — lead organiser: Arunima Datta (North Texas)
- ‘Pat Thane: Reflections on History, Policy and Action’ — lead organiser: Helen Glew (Westminster)
- ‘Network Building Symposium for Historians in Post 92 Institutions’ — lead organiser: Elizabeth Goodwin (York St John)
- ‘A Workshop in Ruins’ — lead organiser: Claire Kennan (King’s College, London)
- ‘Mobilising Imperial History: Crime, Policing and Control in the British Empire’ — lead organiser: Aparajita Mukhopadhyay (Kent)
- ‘Present and Precedent in the Church Councils of Late Antique Iberia’ — lead organisers: Jamie Wood and Graham Barrett (Lincoln)
9. Funded Book Workshop Grants, 2023
First awarded in 2023, Funded Book Workshop Grants provide support for authors currently writing a second or third monograph to hold a day workshop with six invited readers to discuss a draft manuscript
Funded Book Workshop Grant holders:
- Jennifer Aston (Northumbria University) for her project: ‘For Wives Alone’: Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in Nineteenth Century England and Wales
- Tim Grady (University of Chester) for his project: ‘The Unwelcome Gravediggers’: War, Memory and the Unmaking of British-German Relations
10. Jinty Nelson Teaching Fellowships, 2023-24
First awarded in 2023, Jinty Nelson Teaching Fellowships provide support for historians to trial new approaches in teaching History in UK Higher Education, or to undertake surveys of current aspects of History teaching.
Fellowship holders in the academic year 2023-24:
- Natalya Cherynshova (Queen Mary, University of London) for her project to translate 20th-century Ukrainian and Belarussian primary source materials for undergraduate teaching.
- Liesbeth Corens and Jenny Bangham (Queen Mary, University of London) for ‘Histories of Disability Toolkit’.
- David Geiringer (QMUL) for ‘Placing Migrant Histories Centre Stage’
- Laura Harrison, Martin Simpson, Rose Wallis, Mark Reeves and Ian Brooks (University of the West of England) to develop a new history course to support teaching in computing and sustainability
- Amy King (University of Bristol) for ‘The F-Word: Understanding. European Fascism Then and Now’
- Karen Smyth (University of East Anglia) for ‘Paston Footprints heritage trails’
- David Stack (University of Reading) for ‘Promoting Wellbeing Through History Teaching’