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The 2024 RHS Prothero Lecture will reflect ‘On the Challenges and Purposes of Global History’ with Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford. Booking for the lecture, which takes place at 6.30pm BST on Wednesday 3 July in central London and online, is now open for in-person and online attendance. All are welcome.

The Prothero Lecture is one of the high points of the Society’s annual events programme. It is followed by our annual summer party to which all attendees are very welcome. The party is an opportunity to meet fellow historians and members of the Society’s governing Council.

In this year’s Prothero Lecture, Peter Frankopan will ask what is global history; should historians think globally – and is it even possible to do so? How does macro-history fit alongside microhistories and regional and periodic specialisations; and what do these questions mean for the teaching of history at school and university? Professor Frankopan’s lecture will consider problems of traditional periodisation and regionalisation and show how global history can be instructive and helpful from teaching at primary school level to high-level academic research to public history.

About this year’s Prothero Lecturer

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he is Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He is also Professor of Silk Roads Studies and a Bye-Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge.

His publications includeThe Silk Roads: A New History of the World (Bloomsbury, 2015), The New Silk Roads: The Future and Present of the World (2018) and The Earth Transformed: An Untold Story (2023). Silk Roads was named The Daily Telegraph‘s History Book of the Year 2015 and was lauded as one of the ‘Books of the Decade’ 2010-20 by the Sunday Times. His latest book, The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, was named History Book of the Year by The Times in 2023. His books have have been translated into forty languages.

About the RHS Prothero Lecture

First given in 1968, the Prothero Lecture — named after George W. Prothero (President of the Society, 1901-05) — has featured some of the world’s leading historians. Former Prothero Lecturers include Joanna Bourke, Linda Colley, Roy Foster, Olwen Hufton, Sujit Sivasundaram, Brenda E. Stevenson and Keith Thomas.

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For more on the Society’s events programme in May, June and July, please see here. Forthcoming events include lectures, training workshops and panels discussions.

 

The Royal Historical Society’s recent online introduction to history podcasts (held on 25 April) is now available to watch or listen to as an audio recording. Presented by the experienced podcasters, Bob Nicholson and Dave Musgrove, this presentation and Q&A session explored creating and developing a podcast on a historical topic. Bob and Dave share their considerable experience and emphasize the importance of engaging content and story-telling over hi-tech production values.

Dr Bob Nicholson is a historian based at Edge Hill University who has written and presented items for BBC Radio 4, Radio 3, ‘History Today’, and ‘BBC History Magazine’. Most recently, he wrote and presented the podcast documentary series ‘Killing Victoria’ for BBC Sounds (2023), which explored the lives of seven men who attacked Queen Victoria and reached the top 5 in the UK History charts. Dr Dave Musgrove is content director of ‘BBC History Magazine’ and the HistoryExtra podcast and website.

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Forthcoming training events

 

2pm BST, Friday 14 June 2024 online.

‘Getting Published: A Guide to Monograph Publishing for Early Career Historians’

Speakers: Meredith Carroll (Manchester University Press), Elizabeth Hurren (New Historical Perspectives), Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London) and Jane Winters (Royal Historical Society).

Booking for online attendance at this training workshop is now available.

 

On Friday 3 May the Royal Historical Society hosted the latest in its 2024 series of lectures. Friday’s lecture —  ‘Possible Maps: Ways of Knowing and Unknowing at the Edge of Empire (Newfoundland c. 1763-1829)’ — was delivered by Professor Julia Laite (Birkbeck, University of London).

Julia’s lecture explored official and unofficial, and colonial and Indigenous, ways of mapping and knowing Newfoundland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The island’s foreshores and coastal waters were considered of vital economic and strategic importance to the British, while its hinterland was thought too barren and empty for landward expansion. With the aide of four ‘possible maps’, Julia’s lecture reconsidered the place of this ‘unknown’ island and its difficult history within the British Empire.

Recordings of Julia’s lecture will be available soon.

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Forthcoming lectures and events from the Royal Historical Society

On Thursday 23 May, the Society visits historians at Brunel University. The visit concludes, at 5pm, with a guest lecture by Professor Corinne Fowler (University of Leicester) who will be speaking on ‘Country Walks Through Colonial Britain’.

The lecture, which comes shortly after publication of Corinne’s new book, Our Island Stories. Country Walks through Colonial Britain, will explore the impact and legacy of British colonialism on the British countryside. The lecture is part of Brunel University’s Research Festival and all are welcome to attend. Booking is available here.

Other forthcoming events include training sessions and panel discussions on:

• Getting Published: A Guide to Monograph Publishing (2pm Friday 14 June 2024, online)
• AI, History and Historians: a Panel Discussion (2pm, Wednesday 17 July 2024, online)

 

 

 

On 30 April, the Royal Historical Society held the first in a new series of consultative conversations to consider ‘Doing History in Public’. The series takes the form of evidence-gathering ‘conversations’ — between historians and specialist professionals in related sectors — to identify the resources and guidance most useful to support those ‘doing history in public’.

Three seminars will take place between April and September 2024. Each session will draw on the experience of practitioners working across a range of formats to identify common interests, concerns, priorities and requirements for historians working publicly. From these, the Society looks to develop resources and guidance that will support the practice of public history and the communication of research on public platforms.

The first session in the series, on 30 April, considered Doing History in Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums. This brought together historians working with institutions in the GLAM sector, with curators, archivists and librarians responsible for academic engagement and collection promotion to a wide range of audiences.

Our panellists represented national museums, research libraries, private collections, and archives within the public sector.

Topics raised in this first conversation included collaborative working between academics and curatorial staff, audience engagement and communication, and the elements of successful and responsible public history.

Participants also began the work of identifying how the Society might best support the profession in Doing History in Public.

The next seminar in the series considers ‘Doing History in Print’, and brings together historians, journalists, and publishers to discuss attendees’ experience (positive and negative) of working with different forms of print media. Further details of the second conversation, which takes place on Thursday 20 June, will be announced shortly.

 

 

Each year, the Royal Historical Society funds four fellowships for current History PhD students to complete their research. Fellowships are intended as writing-up awards for those who can make a clear argument about the need for additional time beyond the three years of doctoral study (or equivalent in the case of part-time or international students with longer programmes of study). Applications are now invited for the RHS Marshall and Centenary Fellowships for the academic year 2024-25.

The 2024-25 Fellowships comprise:

• Two RHS Centenary Fellowships: each Centenary Fellowship runs for 6-months and is worth £8,295 for final-year PhD students to complete their dissertations and to develop their research career.
• Two RHS Marshall Fellowships: each Marshall Fellowship runs for 6-months and is worth £8,295 for final-year PhD students to complete their dissertations and to develop their research career.

Marshall Fellowships are supported by the generosity of Professor Peter Marshall FBA, formerly Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King’s College London and President of the Royal Historical Society from 1996 to 2000.

All Fellowships are open to candidates without regard to nationality or academic affiliation. They are jointly held with the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, where Fellows are based.

For more on the Fellowships and how to apply, please see the IHR website.

Applications should be made via the Institute of Historical Research applications platform.

Fellowships will be awarded to doctoral students who are engaged in the completion of a doctorate in history (broadly defined), on topics from 300AD to the present day. Applicants must have completed at least three years of full-time or four years of part-time research on their doctoral programme (and not more than four years’ full-time or six years’ part-time) at the beginning of the academic year in which the awards will be held. Adjustments to these timings will be made for international degrees, which may be longer in duration.

The closing date for this year’s RHS Marshall and Centenary PhD Fellowships is Friday 31 May 2024.

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Further research funding from the Royal Historical Society

In addition to the Marshall and Centenary PhD Fellowships, the Society currently welcomes applications for the following funding opportunities:

• Postgraduate Research Support Grants – for History students (who are Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society), currently studying for a Masters degree or PhD. Awards of either £500 or £1000 to support specified research activities. Next closing date for applications: Friday 7 June 2024.
• Early Career Research Support Grants – for early career historians (historians who are within 5 years of having submitted their PhD in a historical subject). Applicants must also be members of the Royal Historical Society. Awards of either £500 or £1000 to support specified research activities. Next closing date for applications: Friday 7 June 2024.
• Martin Lynn Scholarships in African History – to assist a postgraduate researcher of African history. The Scholarship is worth £1,500 and is open to Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date for applications: Friday 6 September 2024.

Applicants for Royal Historical Society funding must be members of the Society, with exceptions for several Postgraduate grants. To find out how to become a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member, please see our Join Us page.

Enquiries concerning these, and other RHS Research Funding programmes, please contact: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

Full details of all RHS funding programmes, across all career stages, and their availability through the year are available here.

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HEADER IMAGES: Dish with Hydrangeas, Japan, c.1690–1730, Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, public domain; Design for a Fruit Plate, anonymous, French, 19th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, public domain

 

 

The Royal Historical Society’s book series, New Historical Perspectives, publishes monographs and edited collections by early career historians within 10 years of a PhD.

Launched in late 2019, 18 titles are now available or forthcoming, with University of London Press. Earlier this month, the series reached its 100,000 book download.

All books in the series are available in paperback print and free Open Access, funded by NHP’s partners: the Society, the Institute of Historical Research and University of London Press. Contracted authors receive mentoring when writing their books and are offered an author workshop, with subject specialists, prior to submission of the final manuscript.

Recent titles in the series include Matthew Gerth’s Anti-Communism in Britain During the Early Cold War, A Very British Witch Hunt, and Hannah Parker and Josh Doble’s edited collection, Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750–2020.

 

Coming soon is Jon Winder’s monograph, Designed for Play: Children’s Playgrounds and the Politics of Urban Space, 1840–2010. Designed for Play is an original and accessible contribution to modern British history, urban and environmental history, and histories and geographies of childhood.

 

 

The Society is very pleased to announce the six projects receiving funding as part of its 2024 Workshop Grants programme. Grants support historians to come together to undertake group activities. Projects are broadly defined and may focus not only on academic research but also a wider range of activities. Grants offer £1000 for hosting a day event.

This year’s recipients and their projects are:

• 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 (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’

Projects will be held within the next 12 months with public sessions advertised by the Society. Each recipient will also write on their activity for the RHS blog, Historical Transactions. For further details of the RHS Workshops Grant programme, please see here.

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Research funding from the Royal Historical Society

Allocation of research funding is central to the Society’s work of supporting historians and historical research.

In 2023 the Society awarded over £110,000 in funding to historians through open competitions, generously assisted by partner organisations and donors. In 2024, the Society is developing and extending its funding programmes for historians, within and outside Higher Education, and at at all career stages.

The following programmes are now open and accepting applications (in order of deadline):

• Postgraduate Research Support Grants – for History students (who are Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society), currently studying for a Masters degree or PhD. Awards of either £500 or £1000 to support specified research activities. Next closing date for applications: Friday 7 June 2024.
• Early Career Research Support Grants – for early career historians (historians who are within 5 years of having submitted their PhD in a historical subject). Applicants must also be members of the Royal Historical Society. Awards of either £500 or £1000 to support specified research activities. Next closing date for applications: Friday 7 June 2024.
• Martyn Lynn Scholarships in African History – to assist a postgraduate researcher of African history. The Scholarship is worth £1,500 and is open to Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date for applications: Friday 6 September 2024.
• PhD Fellowships – for fourth-year doctoral students, providing funding of £8,295 over 6 months. Four awards (2 Centenary Fellowships and two Marshall Fellowships) are available for 2024-25. The call for this award opens on Monday 8 April 2024.

 

The Bibliography of British and Irish History seeks to appoint two new Section Editors with research and/or teaching expertise in the following areas:

• Imperial, Colonial, Commonwealth, and Indigenous histories since 1783
• Britain since 1960

Section Editors play a vital role in the Bibliography’s editorial process. They provide specialist advice on new content that has been prepared by the BBIH Editor (based at the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), by chronology, region, and subject.

We anticipate that these roles might be of interest to PhD students, early and mid-career academics and independent researchers. We particularly welcome applications from individuals at different career stages – working in any sector or context – and/or from individuals from under-represented groups, including those from minoritised ethnic groups, disabled people, LGBTQ+ people, and those who are ‘first generation’ in Higher Education.

The closing date for applications is 11.59PM (GMT) on Friday 31 May 2024.

Ideally, the successful candidates will be able to take up the positions before 1 September 2024.

About the Bibliography of British and Irish History

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved with an internationally recognised resource for historical scholarship, learn new editorial skills, as well as stay informed of the latest academic developments in your research and/or teaching field.

BBIH is an essential tool for the study, research, and teaching of British and Irish history. It is the largest and most comprehensive guide available to what has been written about British and Irish history, from the early 1900s to the present. The Bibliography covers the history of the British Isles, the former empire and Commonwealth, the British world, and Britons’ activities on the global stage.

It is an essential resource for study, research and teaching, providing up-to-date information (and links) on over 650,000 history books, articles, chapters, edited collections and theses. New records are added in three annual updates, with c.10,000 new publications added each year. These records are searchable by a wide range of facets including: title, author, chronology, date and form of publication, historical topic and geographical region.

The Bibliography is a research project of the UK’s Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and the Royal Historical Society (RHS), and is published by Brepols.

About the Section Editor roles

Responsibilities of the Section Editors include:

• Assessing, correcting and/or amending records for new books, articles, chapters, edited collections and theses relevant to your section (4 per year)
• Recommending new books, articles, chapters, edited collections and theses relevant to your section
• Collaborating with the BBIH editor to help promote the Bibliography on social media (e.g. guest posts for the IHR’s digital magazine On History) and through your wider academic networks.

The positions attract an annual honorarium.

Successful candidates will be fully supported by the outgoing Section Editor, the Academic Director and BBIH Editor. The successful candidates will have a six-month trial period before committing to take on their positions.

How to apply

Please apply via the Royal Historical Society’s applications platform (You will be asked to create an account or to login as an applicant if you already have an account).

Those interested in making an application for the Section Editor posts should send:

• a CV (no more than 3 pages)
• a summary of 200-250 words outlining their interest in the Bibliography
• please make clear in your application which Section Editor position you are interested in

Enquiries

Informal enquiries about the roles, including honorarium payments, can be made to: Professor Roey Sweet, Academic Director (BBIH@sas.ac.uk)

Questions about the application process may be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

Deadline

Deadline for applications: 11.59PM (GMT) on Friday 31 May 2024.

 

On Wednesday 13 March, members of the Society’s Council were in York to meet with historians from the universities of York and York St John.

The day brought together teaching staff, researchers and students, along with representatives of the city’s schools, museums, archives and civic trust to consider ‘History Matters’. Panels discussed the communication of history — to students, visitors and the city’s residents — and public perceptions of history with a focus on public history which connects York’s universities to its heritage industry.

‘History Matters’ was followed by a discussion on the role and work of the Royal Historical Society, and how the Society can best respond to the needs of historians, of all kinds, at the regional and national level.

The RHS Visit to York closed with a public lecture, ‘Why History Matters to Medicine. The Case of Face Transplants’, given by Fay Bound Alberti (King’s College London). In the lecture Fay discussed her work on this new area of surgery, and the importance of its historicisation to humanise a procedure whose emotional outcomes are little understood.

We are very grateful to historians at the University of York for hosting the Visit, and to colleagues from York St John, York College, The Borthwick Institute, Bar Convent Museum and York Civic Trust for taking part in ‘History Matters’. A special thanks to Fay Bound Alberti for her extremely powerful lecture on the need for the humanities in medical science.

The Society’s next Visit will be to historians at Brunel University on 23 May. This event will include a public lecture from Corinne Fowler (Leicester) on ‘Country Walks Through Colonial Britain’. The lecture is open to all and booking is now available.

 

On Wednesday 6 March, the Society co-hosted its annual day conference on History and Archives in Practice, with The National Archives and Institute of Historical Research. This year’s event explored ‘Historical Legacies’: how historians and archivists work together to reclaim ‘lost’ archives, preserve at risk archives, ensure access to historical content, and work with digital platforms to broaden engagement.

History and Archives in Practice 2024 took place at Cardiff University with our fourth partner, the School of History, Archaeology and Religion. This year’s programme featured 30 speakers who discussed conference themes with reference to 15 collaborative projects, many with a focus on collections and work taking place in Wales. In addition to panel events, HAP24 included walking tours of the Cardiff and showcases from a further 9 collections from across the UK, viewed by 130 delegates.

Our thanks to the historians and archivists at Cardiff University for partnering with us for HAP24, all at the University who made the event possible, and those who presented and attended. Following HAP’s launch in London 2023, this was the first ‘History and Archives in Practice’ conference to take place with a fourth partner. Invitations to  archives and universities, UK-wide, to partner with the RHS, TNA and IHR for HAP25 will be made later this year.

For details of forthcoming events from the Royal Historical Society, please see here. We look forward to welcoming you to an RHS event in the near future.