RHS News

Applications now invited for the Society’s 2026 ‘Funded Book Workshops’ for mid-career historians

The Society’s Funded Book Workshops Grants support historians, currently working on a second or third major research project, and which will lead to publication of a monograph. The Book Workshops enable an author, typically at a mid-career stage, to bring together fellow scholars to discuss and develop the manuscript of a scholarly monograph.

Applications are now invited for two Book Workshop Grants to take place in the academic year 2026-27.

For further details of the scheme, eligibility and how to apply, please see here. Please note: this programme is reserved for current Fellows and Members of the Royal Historical Society.*

Funded Book Workshops enable recipients to bring together scholars of their choosing to discuss and debate a second or third major research project which will result in a monograph, currently at the draft manuscript stage.

Each award provides up to £2000 to an author to host a day-long book workshop to consider a project and monograph text in detail. Funds may be spent to invite up to six scholars (based in the UK or European Union) to attend the workshop, and is intended to cover travel, hospitality and overnight accommodation where required.

The programme seeks to address a lack of intellectual support that many historians face in mid career. This lack of support is often in contrast to that provided when studying for a PhD, and writing first articles or monograph derived from a doctorate.

Workshops provide a constructive environment in which work-in-progress is developed to become a richer book on publication. In this way, the initiative extends — to those later in their careers — the Society’s existing New Historical Perspectives scheme of author workshops for early career historians.

*If you are interested in joining the Society, please see here for details of our Fellowship and Membership categories and the benefits that come with membership.

Launched in 2023, the programme has supported day workshops for the following authors and their book projects:

  • Rachel Bright (Keele University) for her project ‘Becoming British? A digital history of women’s migration and naturalisation in early twentieth century Australia’ (Manchester University Press)
  • Mark Williams (Cardiff University) for his project ‘The Uneasy World: A Cultural History of the East India Company, 1600-1757’ (Princeton University Press)
  • Jodi Burkett (University of Portsmouth) for her project: ‘International Students in Post-Imperial Britain: Experiences of Activism, Community, and Racialisation, c.1960-1990′ (Manchester University Press)
  • Selena Daly (University College London) for her project: ‘The World is Our Homeland: A Global History of Italian Emigration’ (Hodder & Stoughton)
  • Jennifer Aston (Northumbria University) for her book: Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th-Century England and Wales, published with Bloomsbury in November 2024
  • Tim Grady (University of Chester) for his book: Burying the Enemy. The Story of Those who Cared for the Dead in Two World Wars, published with Yale University Press in April 2025

 

Sasha Handley on a ‘Haunting at the Rectory’: recordings now available.

Video and audio recordings of Professor Sasha Handley’s recent lecture (1 May 2026) are now available. Sasha’s lecture, entitled ‘The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives in Early Modern England’, closed the Society’s recent day visit to historians at the University of Warwick and from the surrounding region.

Watch the lecture

Listen to this lecture

 

Sasha’s lecture took us to Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire — home of the Wesley family, and later celebrated as the cradle of evangelical Methodism — to explore family members’ accounts of a supernatural presence in the house during the winter of 1716-17. Central to these accounts were the Wesley daughters whose reports of a ghost reveal the rectory to have been a place of longstanding family divisions and deprivation and trauma, but also serve as acts of resilience and strategic protest.

A former PhD graduate of the University of Warwick, Sasha Handley is now Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Manchester.

Many thanks to Sasha for her excellent lecture, and to all who joined us, at Warwick and online, for this event and the reception with members of the RHS Council which followed.

Sasha’s lecture is one of many recordings of recent Society events — including lectures, panel discussions and workshops — available to watch again in the Society’s Events Archive.

 

Applications now invited for the Society’s history Teaching Fellowships, 2026-27

The Royal Historical Society’s Jinty Nelson Teaching Fellowships are awarded annually to support innovative practice in UK higher education. The Society is pleased to open the call for Fellowships for the academic year 2026-27 and now invites applications before the closing date of Friday 10 July 2026.

Fellowships support historians in higher education who wish to introduce new approaches and initiatives to their teaching — and for which funding, at one of three levels (£500, £1,000 and £1,250 per award), is required to make this possible.

Fellowships may also support those seeking to undertake a short study of an aspect of history teaching in UK higher education: for example, within a department or more widely. Recipients for the current round are expected to undertake their project within the academic year 2026-27, with the Fellowship lasting for the duration of the project or period of study.

Fellows also meet with members of the Society’s Council, including the Secretary for Education, during the year to discuss and develop their projects, and to share insights on history teaching.

The 2026-27 Fellowships are open to current Fellows, Associate Fellows and Members of the Society who teach in higher education — either in the UK or internationally. The 2026-27 Fellowships are supported by the Scouloudi Foundation, to which the Society is very grateful, and are — as ever — named for Dame Jinty Nelson FBA (1942-2024), President of the Society between 2000 and 2004.

For more on this year’s call, eligibility, and how to submit an application, please see here.

Applications for the Fellowship should be made, before the closing date of Friday 10 July, via the Society’s applications portal.

Established in 2023, recent recipients of Teaching Fellowships include:

 

Society visits historians at the University of Warwick

On Friday 1 May, the Council and staff of the Society visited historians and students from the University of Warwick and the surrounding region.

Our day visit combined a workshop with independent historians who undertake research without an institutional affiliation; a meeting of the Society’s Council; and a public lecture given by Professor Sasha Handley, a Warwick PhD graduate and now Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Manchester.

Our morning workshop with independent historians brought together 25 researchers, in person and online, to discuss the experience and challenges — as well as the positives — of teaching, researching and publishing. The meeting included historians from a range of backgrounds: among them early career researchers; those who have recently left higher education, both by choice or unwillingly; and others who have developed successful careers as authors and public speakers.

The discussion highlighted the particular needs of independent historians, the barriers to their work, and what organisations like the Royal Historical Society currently provide and how it might further support their practice. Importantly, the session also focused on the very many important, scholarly contributions made by independent historians to research, regional and public history, and popular appreciation of the past. Our thanks to members of the Independent Historians’ Working Group, based at the University of Warwick, for co-hosting this event with the Society and to all who took part. Thank you also to staff at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, for providing a tour for visiting historians later in the day.

Our evening lecture, with Professor Sasha Handley, took us to Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire — home of the Wesley family, and later celebrated as the cradle of evangelical Methodism. Sasha’s lecture — ‘The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives in Early Modern England’ — explored family members’ accounts of a supernatural presence in the house during the winter of 1716-17. Central to these accounts were the Wesley daughters whose reports of a ghost reveal the rectory to have been a place of longstanding family divisions and deprivation and trauma, but also serve as acts of resilience and strategic protest. Video and audio recording’s of the lecture are now available.

Many thanks to Sasha for her excellent lecture, and to all who joined us, at Warwick and online, for this event and the reception with members of the RHS Council which followed.

 

Forthcoming visits and lectures by the Society

On Wednesday 13 May, members of the RHS Council visit historians at Aberystwyth University and the National Library of Wales for meetings with historians from these institutions and the wider region.

We will be discussing the teaching of Welsh history and the provision of history in Welsh higher education, along with sessions on oral history, AI and history teaching, and the role of the Society in supporting historians at this time.

The visit close with our next public lecture, by Professor Miri Rubin (QMUL) on ‘Black/Beautiful: Meanings of Blackness in a Biblical Verse’. This lecture, which starts at 6.00pm, is open to all. Further details and booking for this event is available here. Those unable to attend in-person may book to watch the lecture online.

 

Appointments to new-look Editorial Board for ‘Transactions of the Royal Historical Society’

The Society is pleased to announce 14 appointments to its Editorial Board for Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. This follows completion by previous board members of their terms of service following Transactions’ relaunch in 2022.

We are very grateful to those who have supported the journal in this role over the past four years and who now step down from the board.

We also welcome the incoming members of a new-look 20-person Editorial Board who will work with the journal’s Co-editors, Dr Jan Machielsen and Professor Paul Readman, in the coming years. Six historians on the new board are serving members who will remain in post for a further year to ensure continuity of knowledge and experience.

The 14 new members of the TRHS Editorial Board are UK and International Fellows of the Society selected from an open call earlier this year. Thank you to all who applied in this round. It is expected that a second call for new board members will be made later this year.

Editors
  • Dr Jan Machielsen, Cardiff University, UK
  • Professor Paul Readman, King’s College London, UK
Editorial Board
  • Professor Frank Bongiorno, University of Canberra, Australia
  • Professor Suryakanthie Chetty, University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Dr Angela Davis, independent scholar, France
  • Dr Sara Honarmand Ebrahimi, University of Exeter, UK
  • Professor Ilaria Favretto, Kingston University, UK
  • Dr Ann-Marie Foster, Robert Gordon University, UK
  • Dr Samuel Foster, University of East Anglia, UK
  • Dr Hao Gao, University of Exeter, UK
  • Professor Douglas Hamilton, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
  • Dr Naomi Lloyd-Jones, History of Parliament, UK
  • Professor Sumita Mukherjee, University of Bristol, UK
  • Professor Rosamund Oates, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
  • Dr Miles Pattenden, University of Oxford, UK
  • Professor Sara Elin Roberts, Bangor University, UK
  • Dr Helen Roche, Durham University, UK
  • Dr Fearghus Roulston, University of Strathclyde, UK
  • Professor Jennifer Tucker, Wesleyan University, USA
  • Dr Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany
  • Dr Koji Yamamoto, University of Tokyo, Japan
  • Dr Simon Yarrow, University of Birmingham, UK

 

Four years ago, we joined the newly formed UK Editorial Board of Transactions as it began its journey as a general history journal, open to submissions from across the discipline. Today, as editors, it is both a pleasure and a duty to thank the members of the inaugural Editorial Board and International Advisory Board for their service. Their expertise and commitment have been central to the journal’s development and success. 

As part of a broader effort to streamline our governance, we have now established a single, unified Editorial Board reflecting the Society’s international reach and membership. We are grateful to all Fellows who took the time to apply. The strength and number of applications received were striking. 

We are excited to work with the new board. A further round of applications will be launched early next year to establish a cycle of staggered appointments, ensuring continuity in the journal’s governance.

Jan Machielsen, Co-editor, TRHS

Paul Readman, Co-editor, TRHS

 

Submitting an article to Transactions

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society is a generalist journal publishing research articles and commentaries on a broad range of historical topics, geographies and chronologies. In addition to research articles, the ‘Common Room’ section of the journal provides shorter ‘Comment’ essays on historical practice, historiography and approaches to historical research and teaching, within and beyond higher education.

The journal’s Co-editors and Editorial Board welcome the submission of research articles and comment essays from historians from a range of backgrounds and career stages. This breadth of experience and career stage is also reflected in those appointed to the new Editorial Board.

New Transactions articles are published online via FirstView on the Cambridge University Press website. All TRHS content is published Open Access with APC fee waivers for those without institutional support.

Further information about the journal and how to submit an article is available here.

 

 

‘Protecting what matters’: a statement from the Royal Historical Society, Institute of Historical Research, History UK and Historical Association

The following is a joint statement from the Historical Association, History UK, Institute of Historical Research, and the Royal Historical Society following the most recent meeting of this quartet of organisations.

In March 2026 the British government published its policy paper on community cohesion: Protecting What Matters: Towards a more confident, cohesive and resilient United Kingdom.

The paper asserts that ‘throughout our history, the UK’s ability to withstand external challenges has been underpinned by a strong social fabric’. It goes on to state that this social fabric is partly reliant on a shared, critical and inclusive understanding of the past. It follows that the study of history is not merely an intellectual pursuit but a civic obligation, essential to the maintenance of a reflective, resilient and democratic society.

History helps us understand the world we live in. The skills learnt through the study of the past such as finding and assessing evidence, weighing different positions and analyses, and constructing an argument based on the use of accurate and searchable evidence, are vital to life in an age of social and digital media. In schools and universities, in the UK and elsewhere, history students are acquiring tools that will help them to navigate this complex and challenging information terrain now and in the future.

History contributes to individual and collective wellbeing, alleviating social isolation and connecting people to one another. As the Social Prescribing Foundation argues, ‘engaging with local history fosters pride, strengthens local identity and builds resilience.’

Historic England have shown how engagement with historical sites supports mental wellbeing.

And yet opportunities to learn the skills of historical practice are disappearing at an alarming rate. Those who teach or research the history that underpins social cohesion now face repeated challenges as funding and jobs are cut. Resources are focused in an ever-decreasing number of institutions, and school pupils and university students are encouraged to focus on apparently more practical and applied subjects.

This is a structural problem. A funding crisis in higher education means that some 45% of UK institutions are predicted to be in deficit in 2025-26 (OFS). Many have reacted by cutting humanities courses, and so — as the British Academy’s Cold Spots research shows — deprive students in regions across the UK of a chance to study their chosen subject. History teacher training is also in crisis. If the depletion of history teaching and research continues, the skills, knowledge and understanding that so many enjoy today may not be available to future generations. Recent decades have brought a welcome democratisation of history, but we risk a future where historical skills become the preserve of an elite.

What then is to be done? The government acknowledges the importance of history to social cohesion, and multiple studies demonstrate its wider value. Yet a lack of funding threatens to undermine the historical practice, knowledge and skills that are necessary for the history so many of us relish and benefit from. Likewise, a failure to acknowledge the craft and training required for history — and in turn for healthy societies — diminishes the expertise of those, in our universities and schools, who deepen our understanding of the past.

Our four organisations work together to advocate for and support history, modelling effective collaboration through programmes that support applied history, provide opportunities for early career scholars to share their research with wider publics, and offer training and engage with curriculum reform. In 2027 we are planning a nationwide Festival of History that will showcase the vibrancy and value of academic-community collaboration. But we cannot do this alone. We need the help of our communities, as well as those many non-historians who, while valuing history’s contributions, need to better support those who teach and research. Advocacy for history, and action to demonstrate its value is the responsibility of every one of us.

If the government is serious in its stated aim of strengthening the social contract, it needs to act now to support and sustain the study and practice of history across all sectors of education, in communities and in public discourse. If we are to collectively ‘protect what matters’, we challenge educational leaders, policy makers and politicians to protect and defend history.

 

Claire Langhamer, Director of the Institute of Historical Research

Lucy Noakes, President of the Royal Historical Society

Antonio Sennis and Sarah Holland, Co-chairs of History UK

James Daybell and Rebecca Sullivan, President and CEO of the Historical Association

 

Society co-hosts ‘History and Archives in Practice’, 2026

On Thursday 16 April, the Society was pleased to co-host this year’s ‘History and Archives in Practice’ (HAP) day conference, with partners The National Archives, Institute of Historical Research and — for 2026 — University of Sheffield Library.

HAP is an annual gathering of historians and archivists to discuss collaborative projects and research. This year’s event took as its theme ‘Shaping Societies, Improving Lives: the Impact of Archives and Historical Research’ and took place at Frith Hall, University Sheffield.

Over the day, more than 120 attendees participated in 15 panels, workshops, displays and tours by 40 historians and archivists. Participants represented 30 archives, museums and universities from across the UK which highlighted current projects in which historians and archivists collaborate to effect social change.

You can read more about History and Archives in Practice, 2026 here.

 

 

On the day after HAP26, the government published its ‘Vision for Archives in England’ which speaks of ‘the integral role of archives at the heart of society’, and archives’ (and archivists’) role in supporting social justice, community, civic identity and democracy. The participants at HAP26 spoke powerfully and eloquently to this theme, and we hope their projects and good practice are recognised.

We will be continuing the discussion on ‘Shaping Societies, Improving Live’ with a series of online lunchtime panels in the summer. Further details of these will be announced shortly.

HEADER IMAGE: Society President Professor Lucy Noakes and Councillor Dr Jesús Sanjurjo attend History and Archives in Practice 2026.

 

Master’s Scholarships programme, 2026-27: supporting groups underrepresented in academic history

Each year the Society awards Scholarships to support students who will study for a Master’s degree in history at a UK university. Master’s Scholarships, each of £5000, support students from groups currently underrepresented in academic history who seek to study for a career in higher education or a related historical profession.

The Society is pleased to announce, today, the call for applications for Master’s Scholarships for the academic year 2026-27.

Further details of the scheme, eligibility, and how to submit an application, are available here.

The programme, established in 2022, aims to actively address underrepresentation within the discipline, and enable Black and Asian students, along with those of other minorities, to consider academic research in history.

By supporting Masters students the programme focuses on a key early stage in the academic training of future researchers. With these Scholarships, the Society seeks to support students who are without the financial means to study for a Master’s in history. By doing so, we hope to improve the educational experience of early career historians engaged in a further degree.

Scholarships support students during their Master’s degree, allowing them to focus as far as possible on their studies. There are no conditions on what the award may be spent (for example, to part cover support fees, or living expenses etc.) during the degree course.

Recipients also become Postgraduate Members of the Royal Historical Society and receive mentoring during their degree course from members of the Society’s Council.

Supporting the Scholarships programme, now and for the future

Since 2022, the Society has awarded Scholarships to 22 Master’s students from underrepresented backgrounds, many of whom who would not otherwise have been able to undertake an MA degree. Previous recipients have since gone on to undertake PhD research or to take up roles in the heritage, conservation and teaching professions.

In the first four years of the programme, the Society has received additional financial support from the Past & Present Society, the Scouloudi Foundation, the Thriplow Charitable Trust, and a generous donor. The RHS seeks to offer as many Scholarships as we can to talented eligible early career historians.

If you or your organisation would like to help support this or future rounds of this programme, please email [email protected] to discuss options with the Society’s President, Professor Lucy Noakes.

All other enquiries about the programme should be addressed to: [email protected].

 

Latest title in Society’s book series explores ‘Organised Militarism’ in interwar Britain

The Society is very pleased to announce publication, today, of the 26th title in its ‘New Historical Perspectives’ book series: Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire, by Rowan Thompson.

Rowan’s book is the first full-length study of militarism and militaristic associational culture in interwar Britain. It argues that militarism was able to survive the 1914–1918 conflict, despite the competing rise of liberal internationalism, pacifism and anti-war sentiment.

Focusing on the ideas, aims and activities of the Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire – two extra-parliamentary organisations established to promote naval and aerial supremacy – the book examines how the Leagues negotiated the trauma of the First World War and how they contributed to the societal and military preparation for a second global conflict

Organised Militarism explains how these Leagues mobilised broad public and political support and what the story of each organisation tells us about the impact of war on British society and culture, civil-military relations, political and private activism, military theatre and commemoration, youth, and the politics of disarmament, collective security, internationalism and national defence.

 

 

As with all 26 titles in the New Historical Perspectives series, Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire, is published as a free Open Access download and in paperback print by University of London Press.

Recent titles in the series also include: Forging Fraternity in Late Medieval Society. The Palmers’ Guild of Ludlow, by Rachael Harkes, Gareth Roddy’s Atlantic Isles: Travel and Identity in the British and Irish West, 1880–1940, and Waterscapes: Reservoirs, Environment and Identity in Modern England and Wales, by Andrew McTominey.

 

 

‘New Historical Perspectives’ is a collaborative publishing project of the Royal Historical Society, University of London Press and the Institute of Historical Research, with further support from the Economic History Society. Previous generous support for the series was also provided by the Past & Present Society.

The series publishes new work by early career historians within 10 years of completing their PhD, from a Uk or Irish university, in the form of monographs and edited collections.

Founded by the historians Simon Newman and Penny Summerfield in the late 2010s, the Series is now co-edited by Elizabeth Hurren (University of Leicester) and Sarah Longair (University of Lincoln), assisted by an editorial board.

All authors contracted to the series receive mentoring from members of the NHP editorial board. In addition, they receive a workshop, with specialist readers and co-editors, to review and discuss a near complete manuscript before a final draft is submitted to the publisher.

All titles in the series are published Open Access, as pdf downloads and in a Manifold Reader editions, with no charge to the author, to ensure the widest possible dissemination of new historical research. As of early 2026, titles in the NHP series have been downloaded on more than 200,000 occasions.

The Series Editors and Editorial Board welcome proposals for new NHP titles via the NHP book proposal form. Completed proposal forms should be submitted to the University of London Press publisher, Dr Emma Gallon: [email protected].

 

HEADER IMAGE: ‘Empire Air Day’, detail. 1950-306/59, Public Domain, CC BY 4.0. Science Museum Group Collection Online.

 

Society launches new funding programme for International Fellows and Associate Fellows

The Royal Historical Society is pleased to launch a new programme, from today, to support the work of International Fellows and Associate Fellows. Recipients will be members of the Society, resident outside the UK and Ireland, who seek to undertake research in the UK and / or the Republic of Ireland.

The Society’s new International Research Support Grants provide funds of up to £1000 per award to undertake historical research, for a defined project, in the UK and / or Republic of Ireland. In this opening round, the Society looks to make up to five awards.

This new scheme recognises that many of the Society’s International Fellows and Associate Fellows require financial assistance to access research materials in the UK and the Republic of Ireland for a wide range of historical projects.

Details of this new funding programme are available here. Applications are invited from current International Fellows and International Associate Fellows of the RHS before the closing date of Friday 8 May 2026.

The Society seeks to make this first set of awards in time to enable use during research visits to the UK and / or Ireland from summer 2026.

In addition to this new programme, in 2026 the Society is reintroducing an annual International Fellows’ Lecture. This will enable RHS Fellows, resident outside the UK and Ireland to present their research, via an online event to a wide audience.

We are very pleased that the 2026 International Fellows’ Lecture will be given by Professor Amy Froide (University of Maryland) on Friday 4 December. This lecture will be organised jointly with the UK’s Economic History Society in its centenary year. Professor Froide’s lecture is entitled: ‘The Charitable Corporation Scandal of 1732 and the Female Shareholders who stood up to Financial Fraud’.

Further events are currently being developed to enable international members of the Society — resident outside the UK or Ireland — to participate in RHS activities and work, in line with the proposals set out in the Strategy, 2026-28.

The Royal Historical Society is a membership organisation of more than 7000 historians of all career stages and interests worldwide, with representatives in over 60 countries in addition to the United Kingdom.

Applications to join the Society — as Fellows and Members — by historians in all regions are welcome at any time. For more, please see the Join Us pages of the RHS website.

HEADER IMAGE: Edward Collier, ‘Vanitas Still Life’ (1662), detail, Rijksmuseum, public domain.