In October 2018 the Royal Historical Society published Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History. A Report and Resource for Change. Today the Society releases an Update to this Report.

The 2018 Report presented a troubling picture of the underrepresentation and experience of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) History students and academic staff in UK Higher Education. This included statistics relating to BME representation and attainment.

The June 2024 Update focuses on this data for representation and attainment to trace developments over five additional years. The original Report drew on figures for the academic year 2016/17 which are extended now to 2021/22, which is the latest year available, following the annual release of ethnicity profiles for students and staff in UK Higher Education.

The picture that emerges is mixed. There is a welcome increase, year-on-year, in the number and percentage share of BME student enrolments for History undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. The period also sees a decrease in the BME awarding gap for First-Class degrees in Historical and Philosophical Studies. As regards staffing, there has been an increase in the number and percentage share of BME historians employed in UK Higher Education, alongside initiatives by selected UK departments. These include the creation of a number of dedicated and permanent, full-time lectureships in Black British and/or British Asian History, with a further broadening of the curriculum, undertaken by historians across the sector.

At the same time, there remain areas of concern. Absolute numbers of BME History students and staff remain extremely low. The BME academic pipeline – from GCSE and A-Level to undergraduate study and doctoral research – continues to be underpopulated and precarious. The number of UK-trained BME historians remains very low indeed, with numerical increases owing more to recruitment of staff from overseas than of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority historians who are UK nationals.

The Update also reviews recent developments in teaching provision for Black and Asian History. A growing number of UK departments now include one, and sometimes two, dedicated appointments in Black British and/or Asian British History. At the same time, the current environment in Higher Education management and financing is one in which the creation and continuation of dedicated appointments in Black and Asian History remains uncertain.

In addition, the Update summarises recent and current work undertaken by the Royal Historical Society as an agent for reform, with obligations to effect positive change at the levels of the individual, department and sector. Confronting racial and ethnic inequality in the historical profession is integral to all aspects of the Society’s work. This Update also marks the Society’s broader move to provide historians with the fullest possible picture of History in UK Higher Education, at sector-level, through the regular provision of data as generated by external providers.

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Please see here for copies of the Society’s 2018 Race, Ethnicity & Equality in UK History. A Report and Resource for Change, and the ‘Roadmaps for Change’, 2019 and 2020.

 

On 20 June, the Royal Historical Society held the second 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 are taking 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 second session in the series, held on 20 June, considered Doing History in the Print Media. This conversation brought together historians who have published their work in print genres, including newspapers and popular history journals, as well as writers for prominent history blogs, and authors of trade books working with commercial publishers.

Topics raised in this second conversation included current publishing trends in print media, balancing authority and accessibility when writing for popular print outlets, ensuring accessibility for historians to publish in the print media, and the ethical and legal responsibilities which come with writing for a wider public audience.

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

The next seminar — Conversation 3 in the series considers ‘Doing History in the Broadcast Media’, and will bring together historians, journalists, producers and podcasters to discuss attendees’ experiences (positive and negative) of working with different forms of broadcast media. Further details of the third conversation, which takes place on Wednesday 18 September, will be announced shortly.

 

The Society now invites applications for its Funded Book Workshops programme, 2024-25. Funded Book Workshops support historians currently writing their second or third monograph to bring together up to six specialist readers for a day to discuss a manuscript in detail, prior to its completion and submission to a publisher.

Established in 2023, Workshops support mid-career historians in the writing and development of a monograph. The Society looks to make two awards for the next round of Workshops to be held in the academic year 2024-25.

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. Where convenient, the Society welcomes applications to hold workshops at its office at University College London.

Further information on the programme is available here.

The closing date for applications for this round is Friday 9 August 2024 and we seek to inform successful applicants by late September.

Applications for this current round of Funded Book Workshops may be made vis the Society’s application platform.

In its first year, Workshops were awarded in 2023-24 to:

• Jennifer Aston (Northumbria University) for her project: ‘For Wives Alone’: Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in Nineteenth Century England and Wales
• Tim Grady (University of Chester) for his project: ‘The Unwelcome Gravediggers’: War, Memory and the Unmaking of British-German Relations

Questions relating to this call may be sent to administration@royalhistsoc.org.

Details of other Research Funding opportunities from the Society are available here.

 

The Royal Historical Society has today submitted a response to the Research Excellence Framework 2029 open access consultation.

The consultation, launched in March 2024, proposes the extension of open access requirements for eligible publications for REF2029. The proposals relate both to journal articles and, now, what REF terms ‘longform’ publications, principally monographs, edited collections, book chapters and scholarly editions. These formats are a very significant part of History, and Humanities publishing, and comprised 55% of publication submissions for History for the previous REF (2021).

• The Royal Historical Society’s statement on the consultation is available here. This Society’s response draws on answers provided by RHS members to a Survey (conducted in May 2024) on attitudes to open access and the REF more widely.
• Further information on the REF2029 OA proposals is available here; these were the subject of a Society blog post published in March.

In its response to the consultation, the Society expresses concern about the scale and pace of the proposals, especially with regard to mandatory OA publication of books for which the necessary infrastructure, resources and financial support are absent.

The Society believes REF’s OA proposals for book publishing go too far, too fast. We are concerned that mandating these proposals will alienate humanities academics, and their support networks, and risks delegitimising REF as a measure and reward of research excellence in the opinion of those it seeks to assess.

We therefore recommend that REF’s OA proposals for books are not mandated for the next research exercise; rather the next cycle is used to explore sustainable future models that increase access to high-quality research.

The closing date for responses to the REF OA proposals is Monday 17 June 2024.

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IMAGE HEADER: Credit: Natalie_ iStock

 

The Royal Historical Society is pleased to announce calls from early career historians of colour for two mentoring and workshop programmes running in the summer / autumn of 2024. These programmes will provide support in the following two areas of early academic career development:

• Applying for an Academic Job in History
• Writing and Publishing First Academic Articles in History

Applications to both programmes are now open. Both programmes include one-to-one mentoring (online) with an academic historian at a later career stage, and a concluding group workshop (online) for all participants in the programme.

Further details of both programmes are provided below.

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Applying for an Academic Job in History

Closing date 19 July 2024

This is a bespoke workshop programme hosted by the Royal Historical Society for early career historians of colour. Now in its fourth year, the programme brings together early career historians with more senior colleagues to discuss making applications for academic careers in History in UK Higher Education.

The event combines one-to-one mentoring (online, to be held by arrangement between 19 August and 20 September 2024), followed by a group Workshop to be held online at 2pm on Friday 27 September 2024.

In order to tailor our support of participants during this event, we will be limiting the number of attendees to 25 in the first instance. This programme is being led, on behalf of the Society’s Council, by Dr Adam Budd, RHS Secretary for Education.

Further information on this programme, and how to apply is available here.

The closing date for applications is: Friday 19 July 2024.

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Writing and Publishing First Academic Articles in History

Closing date 17 June 2024

This programme offers guidance to early career historians of colour who are engaged in writing one of the first articles of their academic career.

Invitations are invited from early career historians of colour who are in the process of preparing a historical research article for publication in an academic journal. Applicants may have already published one article / book chapter / literature review and still be eligible to apply for the programme. Successful applicants must be able to provide mentors with a draft article in line with the timetable of the programme. 

The event combines one-to-one mentoring (online, to be held by arrangement between 14 October and 14 November 2024), followed by a group Workshop for all participants, to be held online at 2pm on Friday 15 November 2024.

In order to tailor our support of participants during this event, we will be limiting the number of attendees to 10 early career historians of colour. This programme is being led, on behalf of the Society’s Council, by Dr Rebekah Lee.

Further information on this programme, and how to apply is available here.

The closing date for applications is: Monday 17 June 2024.

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Questions regarding these two mentoring and workshop programmes may be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

 

The recording of Corinne Fowlers’s recent RHS Sponsored Lecture is now available. Corinne’s lecture discussed her new book, Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain (May 2024) and the colonial connections and legacies found when walking the British countryside.

Corinne’s lecture, ‘Country Walks in Colonial Britain’, was given at Brunel University, on Thursday 23 May as part of the Society’s Visit to historians at Brunel.

 

Listen to the Lecture

 

Corinne is Professor of Colonialism and Heritage at the University of Leicester

You can also watch and listen to this, and many other, Society lectures and panel discussions via the RHS Events Archive.

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Join us next for the Society’s 2024 Prothero Lecture

In this year’s RHS Prothero Lecture, Peter Frankopan (Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford) 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?

In a wide-ranging lecture that will include examples from Mesopotamia to the Indus Valley, from Mesoamerica and the Classic Maya period to the ages of the Silk Roads, Professor Frankopan will talk about the 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.

The RHS Prothero Lecture is followed, from 8.00pm, by the Society’s Annual Summer Party at Mary Ward House, London. The Society’s annual summer party is an opportunity for historians to meet together and to speak with members of the Society’s Council. All lecture attendees are warmly welcome to join us for the party after the Prothero Lecture.

6.30pm BST, Wednesday 3 July 2024 in person, at Mary Ward House, London.

Royal Historical Society Prothero Lecture, 2024: ‘On the Challenges and Purposes of Global History’

Speaker: Peter Frankopan (Oxford)

Booking for in-person and online attendance for this Lecture is now available.

 

 

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

In 2023 the Society has awarded £110,085 in funding to historians through open competitions, generously assisted by partner organisations and donors. In 2023-24, the Society is continuing to develop and extend its funding programmes for historians, within and outside Higher Education, and at at all career stages.

Full details of the Society’s Research Funding programmes are available here. The Society currently invites applications for the following three schemes with closing dates of Friday 7 June 2024 and 6 September 2024. For further information on each programme, eligibility and how to apply please follow the links below.

• 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.
• Masters’ Scholarships – eight grants of £5,000 each to students from groups currently underrepresented in History in UK Higher Education, who seek to study for a Masters’ degree in History, in the academic year 2024-25. Closing date for Stage One applications: Sunday 23 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.

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HEADER IMAGE: Design for a Fruit Plate, anonymous, French, 19th century, Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, public domain

 

Applications are now invited for the Society’s new mentoring and workshop programme: ‘First Academic Articles programme for Early Career Historians of Colour’.

The purpose of this programme is to provide guidance to early career historians of colour who are engaged in writing one of the first articles of their academic career. This programme is one of several run by the Society for early career historians of colour. The call for the Society’s second annual programme, ‘On CV Writing and Applying for an Academic Job’, will be announced later in the year.

Successful applicants will work with mentors to develop an academic article  (July-October) and then taken part on a workshop on journal publishing in November 2024. ‘First Academic Articles’ will be limited to 10 participants and is being led, on behalf of the Society’s Council, by Dr Rebekah Lee.

Invitations are invited from early career historians of colour who are in the process of preparing a historical research article for publication in an academic journal. Applicants may have already published one article / book chapter / literature review and still be eligible to apply for the programme. Successful applicants must be able to provide mentors with a draft article in line with the timetable of the programme. 

For more on the programme and how to apply please see here. Applications close on Monday 17 June 2024

Questions regarding this mentoring and workshop programme may be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.

 

On Thursday 23 May, members of the Society’s Council were in Uxbridge to meet with historians and senior managers at Brunel University.

The day brought together teaching staff, researchers and students, along with members of the university’s senior management. Panels considered the work of historians at Brunel, the state of History within UK higher education, and the Society’s engagement with politicians to raise concerns about cuts and closures in departments. A session with RHS Councillors also discussed 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 Brunel closed with a public lecture, ‘Country Walks in Colonial Britain’, given by Corinne Fowler (University of Leicester). In this lecture Corinne discussed her new book, Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain (May 2024) and the colonial connections and legacies found when walking the British countryside.

We are very grateful to historians at Brunel University for hosting the Visit, and especially Dr Alison Carol and Dr Inge Dornan for organising the day. We are also very grateful to those from across the university who took part in the panel discussions, and to the Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor Research for meeting with the Council to discuss History at Brunel. And special thanks to Professor Corinne Fowler for her excellent guest lecture which formed part of the 2024 Brunel Research Festival (13-31 May).