RHS News

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.

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.

‘Pitch my Project’ selects speaker for Chalke History Festival, 2026

The Society’s ‘Pitch my Project’ reached its final at an event on Friday 20 March. This initiative — a partnership between the Society, Institute of Historical Research (IHR) and Chalke History Festival — invited early career researchers to pitch a proposal for a session at the 2026 Chalke Festival.

We received 40 proposals in the first round and, on 20 March, seven finalists met at the IHR to present their pitches in front of an invited audience and judging panel. The quality of the talks was extremely high and wide ranging.

We are delighted to announce that the winner of this year’s competition is Dr Charlotte Gauthier for her talk on ‘The Cardinal’s Spies Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII, and the Race to Save Christendom, 1526–27’. Charlotte, who is currently a research assistant at Royal Holloway, University of London, received her PhD in 2024 for a thesis entitled ‘Crusading Diplomacy and the English Kings, 1461–1529’.

Charlotte will present a longer version of her talk in the ‘Chalke Introduces’ session of this year’s Chalke History Festival, 22-28 June. As part of her prize, she will also receive mentoring on presenting and communicating her work to a general public audience.

‘Pitch my Project’ is one in a series of current activities, from the Royal Historical Society and IHR, which promote the application of history scholarship to audiences and professions beyond higher education.

These programmes demonstrate that much of the history that so many of us enjoy — as podcasts, TV programmes and films, festivals and trade books — originates from the training and expertise of historians in universities, archives, museums and galleries.

Our thanks to the judges, the audience, and especially to all our finalists who took part in this inaugural ‘Pitch my Project’.

RHS / Scouloudi grants for public history and conference panels, 2026-27: applications now invited

The Royal Historical Society is pleased to launch the latest round of grants supporting collaborative public history and panel conference formation. Both grants for 2026-27 are made possible thanks to a generous subvention from the Scouloudi Foundation.

This is the second year of the RHS / Scouloudi Public History Grants and Panel Grants.

Applications are now invited for the following:

Scouloudi Public History Grants: providing funds of £1000 per award to support innovative practice in public history for defined projects by historians working in higher education with practitioners from other sectors. One of the two lead applicants for this grant must be a current member of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date: Friday 5 June 2026.
Scouloudi Panel Grants: providing funding of £1500 per award to enable the creation of panels to present, in-person, research on a shared historical theme at an academic conference, or equivalent event, in history or a cognate discipline. The lead applicant for this grant must be a current member of the Royal Historical Society. Awards will make possible participation by panellists with no alternative source of funding. Next closing date: Friday 5 June 2026.

Further details of these programmes and how to apply are available by following the links above.

The 2025-26 recipients of these awards were as follows:

Public History Grants

Rachel Dishington (University of Nottingham) and Sarah Colborne (University of Nottingham Archives) , ‘Living and Working Along the Leen’. More about this project.
Iqbal Singh (The National Archives) and Eleanor Newbigin (SOAS, University of London), ‘Participatory workshops on colonial history for historians in higher education, the GLAM sector and community history groups’
Kathleen McIlvenna (University of Derby) and Kate Crossley (Arkwright Society), ‘Re-interpreting Florence Nightingale in Derbyshire’
Rachel Delman (University of Oxford) and James Spellane (The Charterhouse), ‘London’s Watery Heritage: Co-producing New Knowledge about the Charterhouse Water Maps’

Panel Grants

‘Commons and Communities: Celebrating Professor Andy Wood’, with speakers Lily R. Chadwick, Mark Hailwood, Susannah Ottaway and Steve Hindle: to enable Lily Chadwick (Woodbrooke Centre, Birmingham) to participate in the panel, to take place at the 2025 meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) in Montreal in November.
‘Continuities and Challenges: Women’s Politics and Activism in 1970s Britain’, with speakers Jessica White, Caitríona Beaumont, Ruth Davidson, Lyndsey Jenkins, and Laura Beers: to support members of the panel without alternative means of institutional financial support to participate in the panel, to take place at the 2025 meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) in Montreal in November. More about this project.

For all current open funding programmes, please see the Research Funding pages of the Society’s website.

Forthcoming Society events in Warwick, Aberystwyth and Sheffield

We are pleased to announce that the Society’s next three public events take place at locations across the UK.

Booking is now open for in-person attendance at our forthcoming lectures:

‘The Haunting at the Rectory: Ghost Stories and Women’s Lives in Early Modern England’, with Professor Sasha Handley (University of Manchester) on Friday 1 May. Sasha’s lecture is part of the Society’s visit to the University of Warwick.

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

‘Black/Beautiful: Meanings of Blackness in a Biblical Verse’, with Professor Miri Rubin (QMUL) at 6pm on Wednesday 13 May. Miri’s lecture is part of the Society’s visit to historians at Aberystwyth University and the National Library of Wales. Booking for in-person attendance is now available.

Lectures are open to all and we welcome especially Fellows and Members of the Society from the region. Both events will be followed by a reception and chance to meet the Society’s President, Professor Lucy Noakes, and members of the RHS Council.

On 16 April, the Society will be in Sheffield for its annual day conference, ‘History and Archives in Practice’, which is co-hosted with The National Archives and the Institute of Historical Research. HAP26 is organised with a fourth partner, the University Sheffield Library.

HAP26 takes as its theme ‘Shaping Societies, Improving Lives: the Impact of Archives and Historical Research’. This event is now fully booked.

Events at Warwick, Aberystwyth and Sheffield are part of the Society’s programme — as set out in its Strategy, 2026-28 — to ‘extend the activities the Society hosts beyond its London base, to ensure we better reflect and engage with the Society’s UK and international membership.’

Later this year, Society lectures will take place in Glasgow and Bristol. Recent events (2025-26) include public lectures in Penryn, Cornwall, Aberdeen, Ipswich and Sheffield.

IMAGE HEADER: Aberystwyth from Constitution Hill, postcard, c. 1910

Forthcoming publications from the Royal Historical Society

On 9 April, we publish the next in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives book series for early career historians: Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire, by Rowan Thompson.

While militaristic and patriotic organisations formed an important part of Edwardian political culture, 1918 often marks a terminus for histories of organised militarism in Britain. Taking the end of the First World War as its starting point, Organised Militarism is the first full-length study of militarism and militaristic associational culture in interwar Britain.

Rowan Thompson 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 as the clouds of war gathered in the late 1930s.

Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain 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. In doing so, it demonstrates that martial and militaristic sentiment remained an important part of mainstream British political culture, despite the ravages of war.

Organised Militarism in Interwar Britain. The Navy League and the Air League of the British Empire is published by University of London Press on 9 April as a free Open Access volume and in a paperback print edition.

About the New Historical Perspectives series

Rowan Thompson’s new monograph will be the 26th title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series, published by University of London Press and supported by the Economic History Society.

All titles in the series are published in free Open Access editions as well as paperback print. The series offers monographs and edited collections from historians within 10 years of completion of their PhD. Details of all 26 titles, including other recent and forthcoming volumes, are available here (University of London Press, UK and Rest of World) and via University of Chicago Press for order in North America).