Call for Submissions, deadline – 1 March 2023
The Trustees of the Mortimer History Society wish to announce the seventh round in 2022 of the annual prize of £750 called: ‘On the Borders: The Mortimer History Society’s Essay Prize’.
This will be awarded for the best essay submitted; a second-placed prize of £300 will also be awarded, and a third-placed prize of £200. The winning essay, second-placed, third-placed and some of the commended ones (if any) will be published in the Journal of the Mortimer History Society (ISSN 2397-9267). The winner, second-placed, third-placed and any other commended entrants will be awarded three years’ free membership of the Society. The Society may also invite the winners and any commended entrants to present their papers at its conferences and other events.
Purpose
The aim of the competition is to promote and stimulate scholarly research into and popular interest in:
- the history of the medieval Mortimer family of Wigmore (and its cadet branches, eg. Chirk, Chelmarsh) and its impact on the history and culture of the British Isles, or
- the history, geopolitics, topography, laws, economy, society, and culture of medieval borderlands including comparative studies, between 1066-1542.
It will also enable more people, particularly those who are perhaps aiming to write on the Welsh Marches or medieval borderlands in general for the first time, to submit material for the journal of the Mortimer History Society.
Call for Submissions
Submissions are invited for the seventh round in 2022. The closing date for entries is 1st March 2023. Please contact the essay prize administrators Dr Paul Dryburgh, Principal Records Specialist at the National Archives and editor of the Journal (Paul.Dryburgh@nationalarchives.gov.uk) or Philip Hume, secretary of the Mortimer History Society (secretary@mortimerhistorysociety.org.uk) for more information.
Essays should be submitted to chair@mortimerhistorysociety.org.uk. The rules are available on the Mortimer History Society website – www.mortimerhistorysociety.org.uk and click on the Essay Prize tab.
Eligibility
Essays will be accepted on:
- any aspect of the medieval Mortimer family of Wigmore (and its cadet branches, eg. Chirk, Chelmarsh) and its impact on the history and culture of the British Isles, or
- any aspect relating to the history, geopolitics, topography, laws, economy, society and culture of medieval borderlands including comparative studies, between 1066-1542.
The submitted essays may, therefore, reflect any disciplinary perspective. Applications are invited from anyone who can meet the assessment criteria set out below:
Essays must be based on original research and should not have been previously published. The length of contributions shall not exceed 8,000 words, inclusive of footnotes, with a maximum of six illustrations. Prizes will only be awarded if the essays are considered by the judges to be of sufficiently high standard to merit an award and publication in the Society’s journal.
Assessment
The assessment panel for 2022 will consist of:
Chair: Emeritus Professor Chris Given-Wilson – University of St. Andrews
Professor Louise Wilkinson – University of Lincoln
Professor Helen Fulton – University of Bristol
Dr. Ian Mortimer – Author and Vice-President of the MHS
Dr. Paul Dryburgh – National Archives, President of the MHS and Editor of the journal
Philip Hume – Author and Secretary of the Mortimer History Society
The panel will judge essays based on:
- the originality of the entry;
- the author’s use of source material and command of evidence;
- the author’s clarity and quality of writing for an intelligent but not exclusively scholarly audience;
- the extent of the contribution to the knowledge and understanding of the medieval Mortimer family or medieval borderlands.
Image: Wiki Commons – Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license – (c) Ian Capper