The Royal Historical Society and partners, the Institute of Historical Research and DC Thomson, are very pleased to announce Dr Sadie Levy Gale and Dr Matthew Stephens as the recipients of a new programme of Applied History Fellowships.
The Fellowships are an initiative by the Society, the IHR and the publisher DC Thomson to support early career historians who have recently completed a PhD.
The Fellowships seek both to expand the range of professional futures open to post-doctorate historians, and to enhance the applied skills of those who do pursue a university career. Fellowships offer a bursary of £12,000 per award, generously provided by DC Thomson, for a 6-month period. Sadie and Matthew take up their Fellowships from May 2026.
The programme provides financial and other support for historians to develop the wider impact and application of their academic research. It also includes a two-day per week online placement with DC Thomson’s The Social History Archive (TSHA) to enable Fellows to gain skills and experience within a commercial history context. In addition, Applied History Fellowships provide time for holders to develop publication, impact and engagement profiles.
During her Fellowship, Dr Sadie Levy Gale will focus on record collections concerned with social welfare in The Social History Archive, including material relating to healthcare, urban development, and social reform. Sadie will also work on publications based on her doctoral research, which examined the visual culture of social reform in early twentieth-century Britain.
I am delighted to be starting as a fellow in Applied History at the Institute of Historical Research, in partnership with The Social History Archive. TSHA has a vast and fascinating digital archive that I’ll be curating, alongside working on my own research. A dream role that I can’t wait to begin.
During his Fellowship, Dr Matthew Stephens will curate new collections for TSHA Primary Source Series. This work will focus on digitised newspaper archives which are central to Matthew’s own research.
I’m thrilled and excited to be starting my role as an Applied History Fellow, which will give me the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing development of vital digital historical archives, working with an incredible network of people in the Royal Historical Society, the Institute of Historical Research and publisher DC Thomson.
On the appointment of the Applied History Fellowships, Lee Wilkinson, Managing Director DC Thomson History said:
We are delighted to announce this partnership between DC Thomson History, the Institute of Historical Research, and the Royal Historical Society, bringing together three organisations committed to rigorous, impactful historical scholarship. This fellowship programme will give two exceptional early career historians dedicated time at The Social History Archive, working with our teams to develop commercial collections from our archival holdings.
By embedding early career historians directly in the creation of new products, we are supporting their professional development and demonstrating how the study of history can be applied in a commercial context, while ensuring our collections are shaped by those at the forefront of research, for the benefit of academics and students alike.
In addition to the Fellowships, Sadie and Matthew will become Fellows of the IHR and be offered a 12-month Associate Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society, where they will receive professional mentoring from members of the Society’s Council. Both Fellows will also be invited to become members of the TSHA editorial board.
By collaborating on this initiative and partnering with DC Thomson History, the Institute for Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society are supporting work that develops and showcases the value of applied history.
We are pleased to be working with early career historians who are demonstrating the range of skills developed through historical practice, helping to bring the collections held by The Social History Archive together in new and exciting ways while engaging with the practice of history in a commercial context. We look forward to supporting them throughout their projects, and to extending opportunities for other historians to apply their professional skills outside of academia.
Claire Langhamer, Director, Institute of Historical Research
Lucy Noakes, President, Royal Historical Society
