Homepage

Two current and one former member of the Society’s governing Council have been chosen for the History subject panel, to undertake a pilot study of proposals for the ‘People, Culture and Environment’ (PCE) element of the next Research Excellence Framework (REF 2029).

Panel members include Professor Barbara Bombi (University of Kent) who is the Society’s Secretary for Research and an Officer of the Council, and Professor Olwen Purdue (Queen’s University, Belfast) who is a member of the Council.

Co-chair for the History PCE panel is Professor Jonathan Morris (University of Hertfordshire) who was until late 2022 the Secretary’s Vice-President for Research Policy. Full membership of the History PCE panel is available here.

‘People, Culture and Environment’ develops the previous ‘Environment’ element of assessment, with a greater focus on research culture and more weighting (25%) in the final results.

The pilot seeks to identify those indicators of ‘People, Culture and Environment’ that should, on grounds of practicality and feasibility, be carried forward for this element of the REF assessment.

History is one of eight ‘Units of Assessment’ selected to take part in the PCE pilot, from a total of 34 subject areas that will submit to REF2029 across Medicine and the Life Sciences; Physical Sciences, Engineering and Mathematics; Social Sciences; and Arts and Humanities.

Further details of the terms of reference for the History and other subject panel are available here; REF has also provided an overview of the aims and purpose of the pilot.

In the pilot, 40 universities will produce submissions for assessment in a selection of REF Units of Assessment, including History. These submissions will in turn be assessed by the eight UoA-level pilot panels.

Assessment by the History PCE panel is expected to take place between May and August 2025, with panel reports and a statement on PCE Indicators for REF2029 currently scheduled for September 2025. REF2029’s timetable is also available.

---

For more on the Royal Historical Society’s resources relating to REF2029, please see here.

---

 

 

At its latest meeting on 22 November 2024, the RHS Council elected 47 Fellows, 35 Associate Fellows, 49 Members and 86 Postgraduate Members, a total of 217 people newly associated with the Society, from today.

The majority of the new Fellows hold academic appointments at universities, specialising in a wide range of fields; but also include curators, librarians, heritage specialists, independent researchers and writers. The Society is an international community of historians and our latest intake includes Fellows from seven countries: Canada, Fiji, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The new Associate Fellows include not only early career historians in higher education but also historians with professional and private research interests drawn from heritage, learned societies, libraries and archives, teaching, and public and community history.

The new Members have a similarly wide range of historical interests, and include individuals working in universities, culture and heritage, education, the civil service and broadcasting – together with independent and community historians and genealogists.

Our new Postgraduate Members are studying for higher degrees in History, or related subjects, at 52 different universities in the UK, Canada, China, France, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United States.

All those newly elected to the Fellowship and Membership bring a valuable range of expertise and experience to the Society.

New Fellows and Members are elected at regular intervals through the year. The current application round is open and runs to 13 December 2024 with dates for submissions in 2025 now available. Further details on RHS Fellowship and Membership categories (Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member and Postgraduate Member); benefits of membership; deadlines for applications; and how to apply, are available here.

New Fellows, elected November 2024

• Abigail Armstrong
• Sarah Ashbridge
• Malcolm Baker
• Richard Bates
• Paul Botley
• David Brydan
• Brian Casey
• N. W. Collins
• Daniel Cook
• Simon Coupland
• Ruth Davidson
• Stephen Davis
• Samuel DeCanio
• Andreas Demetriades
• Rachel Gillett
• Conor Patrick Heffernan
• Victoria Hoyle
• Erin Jessee
• James  Kirchick
• Simeon Koole
• Sakul Kundra
• Yajuan Liu
• Alice Marples
• Matthew Miller
• Martin Moore
• David Paulson
• Hans Pawlisch
• Madeleine Pelling
• Margarert Roberts
• Anna Marie Roos
• James  Ryan
• Florence Harriet Rose Scott
• William Spencer
• Teresa  Sutton
• Natalia Telepneva
• Robert (Robin) Thomas
• Claudia Tomlinson
• Adam Twycross
• David Vassallo
• Christian Velasco
• Lewis Wade
• Paul Webster
• Richard Wendorf
• William White
• Andrew Wild
• Daniel  Wilson
• Sharon Wright

New Associate Fellows, elected November 2024

• Deji Abdulsalami
• Arda Akıncı
• Francisco Amor Martín
• Jessica Betik
• Maxine Beuret
• Caroline Bourne
• Felicity Brown
• Diane Budden
• Ioannis Chountis de Fabbri
• Adam Culling
• Claire Day
• Victoria de lorenzo
• Simon Toby Campbell Ewin
• Xi Fang
• John Fisher
• Fabrice Flückiger
• Catherine Freeman
• Tim Galsworthy
• John Harrison
• Kate Jamieson
• Marc Adam Kolakowski
• Gabriel Lawson
• Benoit  Leridon
• Daniel  McKay
• Samantha Middleton
• Mohd Shazwan Mokhtar
• Anna Molnár
• Anna Parker
• Janet Remmington
• Thomas Sojka
• Katalin Straner
• Grace Waye-Harris
• Rujia Wen
• Alexander White
• Yang Yang

New Members, elected November 2024

• Paul Allen
• Jayaprakash Ankam
• Edmund Arnong
• Oluwanifemi Omolara Ayodele
• Fennec Bann
• David Bentley
• Michael Bobroff
• Timour Boudkeev
• Trudy Brown
• Elizabeth Burrell
• Gemma Campbell
• Thomas Cohrs
• Meera Dandekar
• Charlie Day
• Richard Deakin
• Patricia Delara
• Stuart Dennison
• Nicholas Grall
• Thomas Greenwood
• Thomas Grove
• Mary Haik
• Stephen Halloran
• Lawrence Hendra
• Laura Herrod
• Jamie Hooton
• Maggie Jessen
• Antony Jones
• Ravichandar K
• Raegan Kingett
• Anna Kirsch
• Olivia Kumar
• Sharon Lefroy
• Alexander Lehane
• Laura Leman
• John Little
• Kimberly Mack
• Matthew Marsh
• Karolina Motylinska
• Duncan Parnell
• Dee Radford
• Kashnar Rakhi Anjan
• Philip Rayman
• Emilia Rayner
• Prema S
• Cenker Sarıkaya
• Joseph Schneider
• Iurii Sergieiev
• Daniel Townend
• Oliver Wessex

New Postgraduate Members, elected November 2024

• Zachariah Addei-Thompson
• Mark Atherton
• Carlos Balula
• Maggie Blackburn
• Quinn Bouabsa Marriott
• Sarah Bremer
• Ellie-Mae Britton
• Katie Broomfield
• Minja Bujakovic
• Emily Calcraft
• Thomas Chambers
• Wang Ching Chan
• Huirong Cheng
• Carissa Chew
• Harriet Clark
• Suzie Cloves
• Peter Crellen
• Amy Crinnion
• Pratyusha Dasgupta
• Benjamin Davies
• Thomas Davies
• Katherine Delaney
• Kimmy Delsuc
• Razvan Dumitru
• Stephen Dunning
• Nimesha Ekanayake
• Simon Flynn
• Yat I Fung
• Julie Garner Rudman
• William George
• Susan  Greenwood
• Aayushi Gupta
• Michelle Gwynn
• Emma                   Hall
• Paul Hartjens
• Hannah Hassani
• Siobhán Hayes
• Laura Hesketh
• Zuzubee Huidrom
• Evgeniya Ivanova
• Rhys Jones
• Lisa Kinch
• Jenna King
• Lorenzo Maria Latella
• Andrew Lawler
• Deguang Li
• Kiegan Lloyd
• Lele Lu
• Joshua MacRae
• Filipe Marques Fernandes
• David Martin
• Elizabeth Martin
• Toma-Jin Morikawa-Fouquet
• Patricia Mulvey
• Issi Lucia Murillo Balderas
• Jacob Newbury
• Oluwatomisin (Tomi) Onabanjo
• Konstantinos  Pappas
• Arianna Parisi
• Michael Partington
• Nick Phillips
• Aine Poland
• Alison Price MBE
• John Pullin
• Matt Ryan
• Alexander Ryland
• Mrittika Shahita
• Harsh Vikram Singh
• Jake Stattel
• Rena Takiguchi
• Shehnaz Tharia
• Manya Trivedi
• Balint Urmos
• Sonia Latha Uthirapathy
• Blessing Uzairue
• Yue Wang
• Anjie Wang
• Michael Wang
• Caleb Ward
• Jennifer Worsh
• Chenye Xiao
• Jiajie Xu
• Jialin Zhang
• Wanqiang Zhang
• Zhen Zhang
• Xianglong Zhu

 

HEADER IMAGE: Quilt, c.1850, unknown, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Public Domain.

 

 

The Royal Historical Society invites applications for its First Book Prize, 2025 and Early Career Article Prize, 2025. The call for submissions opened on Monday 2 December 2024 and runs to Friday 31 January 2025. Applications for each of these prizes may be made via the Society’s application portal:

• RHS First Book Prize, 2025, for first history monographs published in 2024 by early career historians who received a PhD from a UK or Irish university.
• RHS Early Career Article Prize, 2025, for history articles / book chapters, published in 2024 by authors who are either current PhD students at, or within three years of having received their doctorate from, a UK or Irish university.

The Society looks to make two awards, in 2025, for the RHS First Book Prize (worth £1,000 per award) and a further two awards for the RHS Early Career Article Prize (each worth £250).

Further information on eligibility and how to submit an application for both prizes is available here: for first monographs and for early career articles.

---

The 2025 prize round introduces several changes. For the RHS First Book Award:

• the Society moves to a single book prize for which two winning titles will be identified each year. All books submitted will be considered for this single book prize, with no distinction made (as in previous years) for books relating to ‘British and Irish’ and ‘non-British and Irish’ history.
• in 2025, we also move to a system of self-nomination by authors of first books published in the previous calendar year. This replaces the previous application process of submission by publisher. We hope these changes will encourage submission of the widest range of first monographs by early career historians which reflects the diversity of the historical profession and practice.

For the RHS Early Career Article Prize:

• the Society extends the eligibility period to authors within three years of completing a PhD in history at a UK or Irish university. This replaces the previous criterion for authors currently studying for a PhD or within two years of having completed their doctorate.

All other eligibility requirements remain as for 2024 and previous years. The Society expects to announce the recipients of this coming round of first book and early career article prizes in summer 2025.

---

Details of changes to the 2025 RHS First Book and Early Career Article prizes were first circulated on 26 November 2024.

General enquiries about Society’s Prizes should be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

 

‘War and Peace: Mass Observation, Memory and the Ends of the Second World War in Britain’

 

About the event

Why does the Second World War continue to have such a hold over the popular imagination in early 21st century Britain? From Brexit to Covid, sporting competitions to environmental disasters, many public events are understood through reference to the Second World War and in particular the ‘signal events’ of 1940: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain and the Blitz. Unlike the First World War, the memory of this second conflict is largely positive, focused on an imagined past in which people came together in adversity, overcoming the divisions of social class, political belief, and economics that had so divided 1930s Britain to defeat- against the odds – a powerful and ambitious enemy. In short, the Second World War is still widely remembered as Britain’s ‘finest hour’.

In this talk, entitled ‘War and Peace: Mass Observation, Memory and the Ends of the Second World War in Britain’, Lucy Noakes will outline the history of this memory and argue that it has a particular resonance in times of turmoil and instability. Looking back at the ways Mass Observers were beginning to construct a memory of the war as it came to an end, in similarly uncertain times, this talk explores the ways in which people make use of the past in order to understand their presents.

Audio and video recordings of the panel event are now available.

 

Watch the event

Listen to the event

 

---

Coming soon and now available to book

Our first event of 2025 will be a joint lecture with the German Historical Institute London (GHIL) given by Roland Wenzlhuemer (LMU Munich) on ‘Raise, Reuse, Recycle: Global History and Marine Salvage in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century’. Attendance of Roland’s lecture is available in person at the GHIL and also online at 5:30pm GMT on 21 January.

Booking for this event is available by following the links below:

• In person: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/royal-historical-society-lecture-at-the-ghi-london-in-person-tickets-1099019098709?aff=oddtdtcreator
• Online: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/royal-historical-society-lecture-at-the-ghi-london-zoom-tickets-1099020703509?aff=oddtdtcreator

 

The Royal Historical Society is pleased to announce the publication of its latest two titles as part of the Camden and New Historical Perspectives book series.

Both titles are published, online and in print, by Cambridge University Press and University of London Press respectively.

 

Adulthood in Britain and the United States from 1350 to Generation Z, edited by Maria Cannon and Laura Tisdall (New Historical Perspectives, published by University of London Press, November 2024).

Adulthood has a history. This collection, edited by Maria Cannon and Laura Tisdall, explores how concepts of adulthood have changed over time in Britain and the United States with reference to eleven case studies. Expectations for adults have altered over time, just as other age-categories such as childhood, adolescence and old age have been shaped by their cultural and social context.

In historicising adulthood, this collection is the first to employ adulthood as a category of historical analysis, arguing that consideration of age is crucial for all scholarship that addresses power and inequality.

Collectively, the authors explore four key ideas: adulthood as both burden and benefit; adulthood as a relational category; collective versus individual definitions of adulthood; and adulthood as a static definition.

Adulthood in Britain and the United States from 1350 to Generation Z is the 20th volume in the Society’s New Historical Perspective series for early career historians within 10 years of completion of a PhD at a UK or Irish university.

All 20 titles are available for free Open Access download from University of London Press, as well as in paperback print. For more on this volume, please see Maria and Laura’s post for the RHS blog.

 

---

 

The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke, at Holborn and Warwick, 1640-1649, edited by Stewart Beale, Andrew Hopper and Ann Hughes (RHS Camden Series, November 2024).

Robert Greville, 2nd Lord Brooke, was a prominent figure amongst the opposition to Charles I, a religious radical and intellectual who emerged as a successful popular leader in the early months of the English Civil War. This volume publishes the richly detailed household accounts kept for Brooke and his widow, Katherine, on an annual basis between 1640 and 1649.

These texts have scarcely been studied by historians. They are an illuminating source for Brooke’s capacious intellectual, religious, and political networks, and for his mobilisation of support for Parliament in 1642. They also uncover the administration of his estates and households in London, Warwickshire, and the Midlands before and after his premature death.

These accounts are crucial sources for political, economic, and military historians, and equally important for social and cultural historians interested in the history of the family, childhood, and widowhood, as well as consumption and material culture.

The Household Accounts of Robert and Katherine Greville, Lord and Lady Brooke is published online and in print by Cambridge University Press (November 2024). Fellows and members of the Society may purchase print copies of this, and other available Camden titles, for £16 per volume by emailing: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

 

 

The Royal Historical Society is pleased to announce the appointment and election of four new members to its governing Council. These appointments follow this year’s election round for new Councillors, in autumn 2024, and the appointment of a Secretary for Professional Engagement following an open call for this Council role earlier in the year.

The newly elected Officer and Councillors were announced at the Society’s AGM, held on 22 November 2024, and now join the President, Officers and fellow Councillors as trustees of the Society. They join the Society alongside Professor Lucy Noakes,(University of Essex), the incoming President of the Society, who also began her term on 22 November.

---

Dr Catherine Feely (University of Derby), RHS Councillor

Dr Catherine Feely (generally known as Cath) is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Derby and a social and cultural historian of modern Britain.

Cath’s research focuses on the consumption and adaptation of ideas in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly through the study of publishing and press cultures, and the history of reading and writing. Articles and essays have appeared in journals including History Workshop Journal, Journal of Victorian Culture, European Review of History and edited collections. She co-edited Historical Networks in the Book Trade (2016) with John Hinks. She is currently writing a book on the publishing history of Karl Marx’s Capital in English.

Prior to being appointed at Derby in 2014, Cath taught at the universities of Manchester, Durham and Sheffield. She has led curricular innovation in Derby’s provision of public history teaching and is College Lead in External Engagement for the College of Arts, Humanities and Education. She is active in forming partnerships with museums and heritage sites, leading to collaborative research and knowledge exchange as well as opportunities for students.  Cath also conducts pedagogic research on civic engagement and creativity in historical training and considers teaching an integral part of her research process.

My experience in UK HE over the last fifteen years has led both to a profound commitment to the role of history and heritage in civic life and an insight into the myriad threats to the widespread survival of the discipline at University-level across the sector.

As Councillor of the Royal Historical Society for the next four years, I hope to aid the Society in making the case for historians and historical thinking as crucial to a society facing major technological and environmental disruption, and its consequences.

---

Professor Karen Harvey (University of Birmingham), RHS Councillor

Karen Harvey is Professor of Cultural History at the University of Birmingham. Prior to this, she was Professor of Cultural History at the University of Sheffield.

Karen’s research focusses on the history of gender, masculinity, sexuality, the home and material culture in eighteenth-century Britain. Her books include Reading Sex in the Eighteenth Century: Bodies and Gender in English Erotic Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2004), The Little Republic: Masculinity and Domestic Authority in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Oxford University Press, 2012) and The Imposteress Rabbit-Breeder: Mary Toft and Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford University Press, 2020), a microhistory of the well-known rabbit-birth hoax.

Her current project is the Leverhulme-funded ‘Material Identities, Social Bodies: Embodiment in British Letters c.1680-1820′ which uses thousands of familiar letters by men and women to explore people’s intimate experiences of the body.

I am proud to have been elected to Council. Over 25 years, mainly at the Universities of Sheffield and Birmingham, I have developed a strong record in research, teaching, public engagement, leadership and management and I will draw on this experience as I represent the broad community of historians served by the Society.

I am especially committed to EDI and to the social value of outstanding historical research: these will be my principal drivers as a Councillor.

---

Professor Matthias Neumann (University of East Anglia), Secretary for Professional Engagement and RHS Councillor

Matthias Neumann is Professor of Modern History at the University of East Anglia and the Society’s Secretary for Professional Engagement. A historian of the Soviet Union, Matthias is a former President, and current Vice President, of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES).

Matthias’s publications include The Communist Youth League and the Transformation of the Soviet Union, 1917-1932 (2011) and the edited volume Rethinking the Russian Revolution as Historical Divide: Tradition, Rupture and Modernity (2017). His current research project examines cultural exchange programmes which enabled American children to visit the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

As Secretary for Professional Engagement and a member of the RHS Council, Matthias will lead the Society’s work on training, skills and careers development.

---

Dr Jesús Sanjurjo (University of Strathclyde), RHS Councillor

Jesús Sanjurjo is a Leverhulme & Chancellor’s Fellow in Atlantic World History at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Before joining Strathclyde, he taught at the universities of Cambridge, Cardiff and York. He obtained his PhD in 2018 at the University of Leeds, supported by an AHRC-WRoCAH PhD scholarship.

Sanjurjo is a historian of the Atlantic World who specialises in radical politics, race, slavery, carceral systems, and state violence in Spain’s Atlantic Empire ca. 1700-1900. His first book, In the Blood of Our Brothers. Abolitionism and the End of the Slave Trade in Spain’s Atlantic Empire, 1800–1870 (University of Alabama Press, 2021) was a finalist for the Paul E. Lovejoy Prize. In December 2023, Editorial Comares published its Spanish edition.

Since then, Jesús has been working on two major research projects: one focused on the political repression unleashed by the colonial authorities in the aftermath of Manuel Lorenzo’s failed revolution in Santiago de Cuba in 1836 (funded by the Leverhulme Trust) and a second project centred on tracking the genesis of systemic racism in the Spanish Empire’s carceral system.

Jesús was elected as a member of the Society’s Council in November 2024 on a platform to represent the experiences of early career members from across the country.

 

The Royal Historical Society is delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Lucy Noakes as its new President. Lucy began her Presidency at the Society’s Anniversary Meeting (AGM) held on Friday 22 November 2024.

Lucy is the 36th President of the Royal Historical Society since its formation in 1868. As President, Lucy will lead the Society’s work to advocate for the historical profession and to promote the value of historical knowledge and understanding, in higher education, related professional sectors and the wider community.

Lucy is Rab Butler Professor of Modern History at the University of Essex and a social and cultural historian of early to mid 20th-century Britain. Before joining the University of Essex in 2017, Lucy held academic posts at the universities of Southampton Solent, Portsmouth and Brighton.

As a specialist in the history of modern Britain, Lucy researches the experience and memory of those who have lived through conflict, with a particular focus on the First and Second World Wars. Her recent publications include the monographs Dying for the Nation. Death, Grief and Bereavement in Second World War Britain (2020) and War and the British: Gender, Memory and National Identity 1939-1991 (revised edition 2023), and the co-edited collection Total War: An Emotional History (2020).

Lucy’s forthcoming monograph, The People’s Victory. VE Day Through the Eyes of Those Who Were There, is published next May. Her work makes extensive use of the Mass Observation Archive, of which Lucy is a trustee.

On 22 November, Lucy began her term with the Society’s 2024 Presidential Lecture: ‘War and Peace. Mass Observation, Memory and the Ends of the Second World War in Britain’. Video and audio recordings of the lecture will be made available shortly.

The 2024 AGM also marked the appointment of four new members of the Society’s governing Council: Dr Cath Feely (University of Derby), Professor Karen Harvey (University of Birmingham), Professor Matthias Neumann (University of East Anglia) and Dr Jesús Sanjurjo (University of Strathclyde). We welcome all four to the Society’s board of trustees.

 

---

The Royal Historical Society is the UK’s foremost learned society for the support of history and historians. Founded in 1868, today’s Society is an international membership organisation of more than 6,500 historians working in higher education, archives, museums, publishing and broadcasting, as well as independent researchers and in community history groups.

The Society undertakes advocacy for the historical profession and promotion of the value of history; policy and research in areas relating to the discipline; a programme of public lectures and events; provision of research funding; and a programme of scholarly publishing, including its journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (founded in 1872).

 

The Royal Historical Society now invites applications from institutions to become the fourth partner for ‘History and Archives in Practice’ (HAP) 2026.

History and Archives in Practice is an annual day conference, organised by the Society, the Institute of Historical Research and The National Archives. The event brings together historians and archivists to discuss current projects, practices, and questions relating to the vital working relationship between historical and archival specialists.

In alternate years, HAP works with a fourth partner to host the event at a venue outside London where the RHS, IHR and TNA have their offices. The first partnership with an fourth institution took place in 2024 when HAP24 was held at Cardiff University.

We now invite applications from UK archive centres, large and small, to partner with us for History and Archives 2026 which will be held at UK venue in March 2026.

Further details of the 2026 partnership call are available here (via the IHR’s website) and applications are welcome before the closing date of Monday 13 January 2025.

History and Archives in Practice 2025 will take place on Wednesday 5 March at Senate House, University of London: the theme for HAP25 is ‘Working with Memory: History, Storytelling and Practices of Remembrance’ and full details of the 2025 programme will be released shortly.

 

The Royal Historical Society’s annual first book and article prizes recognise excellent historical scholarship and achievement. These prizes are open to early career historians, either for their first monograph or an article published while a PhD student or soon after completion of a doctorate.

The call for submissions for the 2025 prizes will open on Monday 2 December 2024 and close on Friday 31 January 2025. A further announcement of the call will be made on 2 December.

For the 2025 prize round, the Society is introducing the following changes.

For the RHS First Book Award:

• the Society moves to a single book prize for which two winning titles will be identified each year. All books submitted will be considered for this single book prize, with no distinction made (as in previous years) for books relating to ‘British and Irish’ and ‘non-British and Irish’ history.
• in 2025, we also move to a system of self-nomination by authors of first books published in the previous calendar year. This replaces the previous application process of submission by publisher. We hope these changes will encourage submissions of the widest range of first monographs by early career historians which reflects the diversity of the historical profession and practice.

For the RHS Early Career Article Prize:

• the Society extends the eligibility period to authors within three years of completing a PhD in history at a UK or Irish university. This replaces the previous criterion for authors currently studying for a PhD or within two years of having completed their dissertation.

All other eligibility requirements remain as for 2024 and previous years. For full details and guidance on how to make a submission, please see the individual pages for the RHS First Book Prize and RHS Early Career Article Prize.

---

General enquiries about Society’s Prizes should be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

 

The Royal Historical Society is pleased to announce the next call for its RHS Workshop Grants for projects to take place in 2025. This scheme provides funding of £1,000 per Grant to enable historians to undertake activities, broadly defined, to pursue historical research, study and discussion. In this round, the Society will make up to six awards for Workshops to be held in 2025.

Applications are now invited via the Society’s online application portal, before the closing date: 23:59 on Friday 24 January 2025. Applicants / lead organisers of a Workshop must be current Fellows or Members of the Society.

This is the third round of RHS Workshops Grants since the scheme began in 2023; further details of the projects awarded funding in 2024 are listed below.

---

About the Call

RHS Workshop Grants enable historians to come together to pursue projects of shared interest. Projects are purposefully and broadly defined, and may focus not only on academic research but also on a wider range of activities relating to historical work. These may include but are not limited to:  

• discussion of a research topic or project by collaborators;  
• evaluation of historical methodologies, theories or practice; 
• workshopping and manuscript review of a proposed edited collection; 
• beginning and testing a research idea, leading to a future project;  
• piloting work relating to the teaching, research or the communication of history; 
• planning and writing a funding proposal;  
• undertaking networking and building of academic communities; 
• activities that combine, where appropriate, historians from a range of professional and other backgrounds, including higher education, related sectors of the historical professional, and community history groups. 
• Workshops may be open to an audience or closed to invited attendees according to the organisers’ preference.

The Society is particularly keen to support activities for which alternative sources of funding are very limited, or do not exist. The Society seeks to provide grants to those in greatest need of funding, where options for institutional support are minimal or not available.  

Each Workshop receives £1,000 from the Royal Historical Society to cover attendance and the costs of a day meeting. In this round the Society looks to provide up to six projects with Grant funding.

Workshops will be supported by the Royal Historical Society, with updates on outcomes reported via the RHS blog and social media. Projects leading to publishable work are warmly encouraged to submit content to the Society’s journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, for consideration.

Applicants are welcome to consider hosting Workshops at the Society’s offices at University College London, if desirable.

---

Eligibility

The Society looks to award up to six Grants to projects in this latest round. Eligible applications will be for projects that: 

• have applicants / lead organisers who are current Fellows or members of the Society. For more on how to join the Society, please see here;
• request funds to support travel, venue hire, hospitality and overnight accommodation when required, as well as travel bursaries for public events; grants will not be awarded to support paid work; 
• may include participants travelling from Europe in line with the Society’s carbon policy; attendance by participants from further afield will not be supported by the grant; 
• remain in contact with the Society before and after the Workshop and agree to contribute an article on their project to the RHS blog, where appropriate. 

---

How to apply

If you have an idea for a workshop and would like to submit a proposal, please provide a 750 to 1,000 word statement. This should outline:

• the academic focus of the Workshop and the topic / activity under consideration
• the purpose and proposed outcome from the Workshop
• costings for holding a one-day event
• the location of the proposed Workshop, and whether this may be the RHS Office at University College London
• the lead organiser(s) and proposed participants who would be involved in the Workshop
• the proposed date of the Workshop, to be held in 2025

Proposals should be submitted via the Society’s online application platform by the deadline of 23:59 on Friday 24 January 2025.

---

Recipients of RHS Workshops Grants, 2024

The following six projects were awarded funding in the second round of Workshops announced in 2024:

• Arunima Datta (University of North Texas) for ‘(Re)Visioning London through “Black” Dialogues’
• Helen Glew (University of Westminster) for ‘Pat Thane: Reflections on History, Policy and Action’
• Elizabeth Goodwin (York St John University) for a ‘Network Building Symposium for Historians in Post 92 Institutions’
• Claire Kennan (King’s College, London) for ‘A Workshop in Ruins’
• Aparajita Mukhopadhyay (University of Kent) for ‘Mobilising Imperial History: Crime, Policing and Control in the British Empire’
• Jamie Wood and Graham Barrett (University of Lincoln) for ‘Present and Precedent in the Church Councils of Late Antique Iberia’