RHS News

At its latest meeting on 6 February 2026, the RHS Council elected 85 Fellows, 36 Associate Fellows, 47 Members and 82 Postgraduate Members, a total of 250 people newly associated with the Society, from today.

The majority of the new Fellows hold academic appointments at universities, specialising in a wide range of fields; but also include curators, librarians, heritage specialists, independent researchers and writers. The Society is an international community of historians and our latest intake includes Fellows from ten countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

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

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

Our new Postgraduate Members are studying for higher degrees in history, or related subjects, at 49 different universities in the UK, Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Spain, Ukraine, Switzerland, and the United States.

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

New Fellows and Members are elected at regular intervals through the year. The current application rounds are open and run to 9 March and 11 May 2026.

Those interested in applying to join the Society (as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member) should consult the Join Us pages of the RHS website. Full details of the benefits of Fellowship and Membership are available in the Society’s new Guide for Members.

 

New Fellows, elected February 2026

• Cindy Aalders
• Natalie Adamson
• Talat Ahmed
• Tahaney Alghrani
• Ross Anderson
• Edward Anderson
• Leah Astbury
• Emma Barker
• Cormac Behan
• Péter Bokody
• Lucy Bradnock
• Michael Bresalier
• Erica Buchberger
• Marouf Cabi
• Bruno Cianci
• Tania Cleaves
• Martin Comer
• John Condren
• Steven Cooke
• David Cowan
• Dennis Denisoff
• Hope Doherty-Harrison
• Steve Edwards
• Mohamad El-Merheb
• Jennifer Evans
• Daniel Finkelstein
• Gillian Glaes
• Xavier Guégan
• Joel Halcolmb
• Aaron Hanlon
• Barry Hazley
• John Holton
• Robert Houghton
• Antonio Iodice
• Arthur Keefer
• Kathryn Lamontagne
• Joseph Lawson
• Rúben Leitão Serém
• Cheng Li
• Thom Loyd
• Sirshendu Majumdar
• Holly Maples
• Russell Martin
• Stephanie Mawson
• Elizabeth McKellar
• Narrelle Morris
• Hannah-Rose Murray
• Bob Nicholson
• Alison  Oram
• Stephanie ORourke
• Alison Pedley
• Michelle Pfeffer
• Rebecca Preston
• Jessica Purdy
• Benjamin Redding
• Gordon Reynolds
• Nicola Ring
• Ojel Rodriguez Burgos
• Nadine Rossol
• Lucy Santos
• Cathleen Sarti
• Papia Sengupta
• Fabio Simonetti
• Holly Smith
• Richard Sowerby
• James  Strong
• Matthew Sweet
• Filomena Viviana Tagliaferri
• Derya Tarbuck
• Ghoncheh Tazmini
• Melanie Torrent
• Ben Tosland
• David J. Ulbrich
• Lena Vosding
• Ciarán Wallace
• Owen Walsh
• Sarah Walters
• Phyllis Weliver
• Hugh Willmott
• Nicole Willson
• Philip Withington
• Susan Woodall
• Tom Woodin
• David Wright
• Andrew Yu

New Associate Fellows, elected February 2026

• Thomas Archambaud
• Louise Bell
• Henry  Brown
• Melissa Chim
• Nelson Cummins
• Thomas Dillon
• Mathieu Gotteland
• Kevin Hall
• Timothy Hallett
• Elizabeth Hines
• William Jones
• Yuna Lee
• Shu Fung Leung
• Di Liu
• Igor Maver
• Al Meggs
• Neval Milanlioglu
• Soren Steven Miller
• James Miller
• Kate Morris
• Sarah Moxey
• Clodagh Murphy
• Matthew Payne
• Adam Quibell
• Rosie Ramsden
• Andrea Rizzi
• Ruadhán Scrivener-Anderson
• Edwin Sheffield
• Rhea Sookdeosingh
• Yichang Sun
• Barnabás Szabó
• Brandon Taylorian
• Camilo Uribe Botta
• Bret Werner
• Abby Whitlock
• Verna Yu

New Members, elected February 2026

• Alicia Bonar
• Sasha Chiappe
• Chen-yuan David Chuang
• Shannan Claxton
• Harry Cole
• Joseph Andrew Collins
• Yufan Dai
• Wouter de Boer
• Marine de Rocca Serra
• Ruby Dunn
• Adam Fenwick
• Max Fontana-Reval
• Joe Geldard
• Martin Glen
• Jon Gould
• Caroline Green
• Priyanka Guha Roy
• Li-Chi Huang
• Bernd Huppertz
• Christian Alexander Brewster James
• Farrah Janjua
• Michelle Jimerson Morris
• Janis  Johnson
• Nabil Khan
• John Loffhagen
• Harry Marson
• Aaron Matthews
• Andrew Mawson
• Julian  Millar
• Chris Morton
• Asif Nazir
• Omedi Ochieng
• Edward Oreilly
• Paul Orourke-Walker
• Aqsa Rajpoot
• Richard Rawlinson
• Helen Reynolds
• Isabel Schöps Thiel
• James Selwood
• Misha Svarevskis
• Nicholas Tanner
• Deatra Thompson
• Richard Vize
• Joe Wasilewski
• Christine Wise
• Peter Wood
• Fadilah Zaini

New Postgraduate Members, elected February 2026

• Caspar Allen
• Jameelah Almulad
• Aishwarya Anam
• Rachael Andrews
• Mistura  Bello
• Mark Blundell
• May Brown
• Megan Buhr
• Laura Calnan
• Jessica Carey-Bunning
• Lynne Charlesworth
• Andrew Colquhoun
• Greg Cotton
• Reece Cox
• Matheus Da Silva-Armson
• Ali Daud Ul Rehman
• Mathias Deuel
• Caroline Devonport
• David Dillard
• Lisa Dudek
• Jeanne Dufresne
• Nilanjana Dutta
• Zoe Edwards
• Arvand Fata
• Abbie Fray
• Nat Gibbard
• Lydia Gray
• Lukasz Grzymski
• Cameron Harrad
• Chloe Heslip
• Eilidh Megan Hornigold
• Anne-Marie Hutchinson
• Salomé Jacques
• Lily Jeannin
• Esther Jones
• Rostyslav Kasyanenko
• Cormac Keenan
• Jude Kershaw
• Musavvir Khan Noorpuri
• Breanna Kubat
• Aman Kumar
• Eduard Kuzmenko
• Davide Lamparelli
• Antonis Leontiou
• Caitlin Lewis
• Joshua Locke
• Eugene Luning
• Anna Malczyk
• Matthew McDaniel
• Daniel McLean
• Adam Melone
• Vittorio Mirabile
• Pranav Mohan
• Robert Morse
• Sakiru Olalekan
• Nidanu O’Shea
• Jason Palmer
• Wing Pang
• Lucas Radford
• Miranda Rainbow
• KK Aruna Rajeswari
• Raphael Redmond
• Dorna Shafieioun
• Jill Shankleman
• Adyan Sharda
• Amrapalli Mohan Sharma
• Robert St John Smith
• Sophie Stanford
• Alexander Stewart
• Harry Stones
• Aisha Tahir
• Karl Taps
• Caroline Tran Van
• Alexandra Viencek
• Simon Vincent
• Pierre Waddoups
• Haochen Wang
• Rainey Warren
• Sydni Zastre
• Keyi Zhang
• Ziquan Zhou
• Alison Zilversmit

 

HEADER IMAGE: ‘The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning’, 1899, Camille Pissarro, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, public domain, detail.

 

On 18 February, members of the Society’s Council visited historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield in the first in the 2026 programme of visits to universities across the UK. This joint meeting was an opportunity to learn more about historical studies at both institutions; to discuss shared priorities and concerns; and to consider how the Society can best support the work of historians across a range of career stages.

Across a series of panels, participants discussed a wide range of concerns that will be common to many at this time: student enrolments; changes and cuts to PhD funding; the handling of institutional restructures; the training of researchers to undertake careers outside higher education; and the support of historians at mid-career and at the point at which academic careers end, be this through retirement or abruptly as part of enforced restructuring.

The Sheffield visit also brought together history school teachers and curators from the region. Panels considered the drop off of history students between A-Level, where our subject remains popular, and at university where choosing history is considered by some as limiting later career options. Members of the RHS Council also discussed findings of the Society’s 2024 briefing, The Value of History, which refutes these concerns with reference to employment data for history graduates.

This session also discussed closer working — between historians in schools and higher education, as well as in the field of history teacher training — to encourage more students to continue with the subject. Sessions in turn considered closer working between institutions in the same city, the benefits of this, and how barriers to shared experience as historians are best overcome.

The day concluded with a public lecture given by our guest speaker Professor David Stack from the University of Reading.

David’s lecture — ‘History and Well-being: a Historian’s Perspective’ — explored histories of well-being and the potential contribution of historical study for fostering well-being as personal and societal development and understanding. In the lecture, David argued for history’s unique contribution, both to the concept and the practice of well-being.

Our great thanks to David for his excellent lecture, and to Professor Matthew Stibbe (Sheffield Hallam) and Professors Adrian Bingham and Julie Gottlieb (Sheffield) for organising the visit and their welcome. Our thanks also to the many RHS Fellows and Members who attended David’s lecture and the reception which followed this.

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Royal Historical Society visits in 2026

The Society’s next visit is to historians at Aberystwyth University (Wednesday 13 May), where our guest lecturer is Professor Miri Rubin (Queen Mary, University of London) who will speak on ‘Black/Beautiful: Meanings of Blackness in a Biblical Verse’.

RHS visits later this year will be to the University of Strathclyde (October) and the universities of the West of England / Bristol in December.

Recent visits in late 2025 include to the universities of Aberdeen and Suffolk, and a joint meeting with historians from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and UCL’s Institute of Education.

 

On 10 February the Royal Historical Society co-hosted its annual Global History Lecture with the German Historical Institute, London. The partnership between the Society and GHIL is now in its third year and invites historians working in the UK and Germany to present new global historical research.

This year’s speaker was Professor Vinita Damodaran (University of Sussex) who spoke on ‘Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire’.

In this lecture, Vinita focused on the forms and legacies of botanical collecting in India under empire. Her lecture examined neglected indigenous literatures that were crucial to what, in the imperial context, was an early modern scientific renaissance in natural history and environmental understanding.

Vinita’s lecture also framed this forgotten literature on and knowledge of the natural world—one collected and organised in the context of the empire—in the light of recent historiographies on botany and empire. This reclamation and restoration of indigenous Indian studies and classifications of the natural world now includes the digital repatriation of botanical specimens held primarily in British institutions. In addition, the lecture drew attention to current work, undertaken by Vinita, in the field of cultural remediation.

An audio recording of this year’s RHS / GHIL Global History Lecture will be available shortly.

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Vinita Damodaran is Professor of South Asian History at the University of Sussex and a specialist in the history of modern India, with particular interests in environmental change, identity and resistance in Eastern India. 

Her research ranges from the social and political history of Bihar to the environmental history of South Asia, including using historical records to understand climate change in the Indian Ocean World. At Sussex, Vinita is also director of the university’s Centre for World Environmental History, which partners with UK institutions such as Kew Gardens, and the Met Office as well as universities and research centres in India and Canada. 

Our great thanks to Vinita for her fascinating lecture, to all who attended in person and online, and to colleagues at the German Historical Institute, London, for this event partnership.

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Our next lecture: Sheffield, 18 February 2026

On Wednesday 18 February, the Society hosts the first of its 2026 Visits to historians in universities across the UK. February’s visit, to Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield, includes a public lecture by Professor David Stack (University of Reading) on ‘Well-being: a Historian’s Perspective’.

David’s lecture considers how historians might engage with contemporary discussions of well-being? What does history have to tell us about the term and its use? Does the study of history contribute to or detract from well-being?

This lecture argues that history can and should make a unique contribution, both to the concept and the practice of well-being. The study of history can deepen our understanding of the structural forces that shape well-being, and, by self-consciously integrating a well-being agenda into our research and teaching, we can simultaneously enhance the well-being of ourselves and our students and demonstrate the relevance of history to one of the most important public policy debates of our time.

This public lecture is part of the Society’s visit to historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield.

In-person booking for this lecture, which takes place at Sheffield Hallam, is now available.

 

On Friday 6 February the Society hosted the first lecture in its 2026 programme. Our great thanks to Professor Charles West (University of Edinburgh) who spoke on: ‘”Alike in Appearance but not in Scope”: Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe’.

 

Watch this lecture

 

Listen to this lecture

 

Charles’s lecture considered the mobility of queens in early medieval Europe. Whereas medieval kings tended to rule in the same place they were born, queens were routinely foreigners within their own realm.

This mobility ensured that queens, and their retinue, held a central place in the ‘making’ of post-Carolingian Europe, alongside that of the knights and clerics on whom historical attention has often focused.

Charles’s lecture explored the considerable extent of, and connections forged by, royal women travelling to become queens in realms outside those of their birth. Central to the lecture was the early medieval fascination with chess in which then, as now, it is the queen who possesses greater mobility on the board.

Through a set of case studies, Charles’s lecture looked at the role played by queens as cultural ambassadors in creating, both deliberately and unwittingly, a human network that transcended political borders.

Our great thanks to Charles for his lecture, and to all who attended this event in person and online. The recording of the lecture will be available shortly.

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RHS Events Archive

Charles’s lecture is one of many recent Royal Historical Society events now available to watch or listen to again via the RHS Events Archive.

Recent speakers include the historians Jane Ohlmeyer on early modern Irish women, Yasmin Khan on empire and war, Peter Gatrell on refugees in the twentieth century, and Mark Stoyle on Tudor rebellion.

 

On Friday 6 February the Society hosted the first lecture in its 2026 programme. Our great thanks to Professor Charles West (University of Edinburgh) who spoke on: ‘”Alike in Appearance but not in Scope”: Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe’.

Watch this lecture

 

Listen to this lecture

 

Charles’s lecture considered the mobility of queens in early medieval Europe. Whereas medieval kings tended to rule in the same place they were born, queens were routinely foreigners within their own realm.

This mobility ensured that queens, and their retinue, held a central place in the ‘making’ of post-Carolingian Europe, alongside that of the knights and clerics on whom historical attention has often focused.

Charles’s lecture explored the considerable extent of, and connections forged by, royal women travelling to become queens in realms outside those of their birth. Central to the lecture was the early medieval fascination with chess in which then, as now, it is the queen who possesses greater mobility on the board.

Through a set of case studies, Charles’s lecture looked at the role played by queens as cultural ambassadors in creating, both deliberately and unwittingly, a human network that transcended political borders.

Our great thanks to Charles for his lecture, and to all who attended this event in person and online. The recording of the lecture will be available shortly.

---

RHS Events Archive

Charles’s lecture is one of many recent Royal Historical Society events now available to watch or listen to again via the RHS Events Archive.

Recent speakers include the historians Jane Ohlmeyer on early modern Irish women, Yasmin Khan on empire and war, Peter Gatrell on refugees in the twentieth century, and Mark Stoyle on Tudor rebellion.

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Forthcoming RHS  lectures in February 2026

On Tuesday 10 February the Society partners with the German Historical Institute, London, to host its 2026 Global History Lecture. Our speaker is Professor Vinita Damodaran (University of Sussex) whose subject is: ‘Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire’.

Vinita’s lecture, with a focus on India, seeks to understand this important archive of knowledge of the natural world collected and organised in the context of the empire in the light of recent historiography on botany and empire. It highlights the importance of creating an inventory and digitally repatriating botanical specimens held primarily in British institutions, and highlights efforts for cultural remediation.

The lecture will examine neglected literature and networks in the imperial scientific network, which were crucial to what was a prodigious scientific renaissance in natural history and environmental understanding in the imperial context from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.

In-person and online booking for this lecture, which takes place at Mary Ward House, London, is now available.

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On Wednesday 18 February, the Society hosts the first of its 2026 Visits to historians in universities across the UK. February’s visit, to Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield, includes a public lecture by Professor David Stack (University of Reading) on ‘Well-being: a Historian’s Perspective’.

David’s lecture considers how historians might engage with contemporary discussions of well-being? What does history have to tell us about the term and its use? Does the study of history contribute to or detract from well-being?

This lecture argues that history can and should make a unique contribution, both to the concept and the practice of well-being. The study of history can deepen our understanding of the structural forces that shape well-being, and, by self-consciously integrating a well-being agenda into our research and teaching, we can simultaneously enhance the well-being of ourselves and our students and demonstrate the relevance of history to one of the most important public policy debates of our time.

This public lecture is part of the Society’s visit to historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield.

In-person booking for this lecture, which takes place at Sheffield Hallam, is now available.

 

 

 

 

The Society currently invites applications for the following three schemes — open to historians across a range of career stages and backgrounds — with closing dates of 6 March 2026.

For further information on each programme, eligibility and how to apply please follow the links below.

The next rounds of research funding calls will be announced in February and March 2026. Calls will include for the following four programmes: Postgraduate Research Support Grants and  Early Career Research Support Grants (opening in February), Scouloudi Public History Grants and Scouloudi Panel Grants (opening in March).

Applications are invited from current members of the Society. Applications to join the Society, as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member, are welcome at any time.

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Current funding programmes with closing dates in March 2026

• David Berry Fellowship in the History of Scotland and the Scottish People* provides an annual award of up to £2,500 to undertake research on the history of Scotland and the Scottish people worldwide. This grant is available to members of the Royal Historical Society at any career stage. Next closing date: Friday 6 March 2026.
• Early Career Fellowships Grants* provide funding of up to £2000 to historians to undertake discrete research projects lasting no more than six months. Applicants must be early career historians who are not in permanent full-time academic positions and within five years of submitting their PhD in a historical subject. These grants are available to members of the Royal Historical Society. Next closing date: Friday 6 March 2026.
• Open Research Support Grants* provide funding of either £500 or £1000 to historians to undertake historical research. Activities include visiting archives and historical sites, and travel to academic conferences. Open Research Support Grants may also be used to support travel to academic conferences. These grants are available to members of the Royal Historical Society who are not postgraduate students or early career researchers (within 5 years of completing a PhD). Next closing date: Friday 6 March 2026.

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*Applicants for these Royal Historical Society grants must be current members of the Society.

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Becoming a member of the Society

If you wish to join the Society, as a Fellow, Associate Fellow, Member or Postgraduate Member please see here for details and the benefits of RHS membership. Applications are welcome at any time.

The next closing dates for receipt of applications are Mondays 9 March 2025 and 11 May 2026.

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Details of current holders of Royal Historical Society Fellowships and Grants are available here.

All enquiries about Research Funding should be sent to the Society’s Membership and Programmes Manager at: [email protected].

 

HEADER IMAGE: Coffee cup (part of a service). Worcester factory, British, ca. 1770, Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain.

 

On 27 January, the Royal Historical Society was honoured to co-host and take part in a memorial event for the historian of India and empire, Professor Peter Marshall (1933-2025). This was an opportunity for former students, colleagues and friends to remember and celebrate what one speaker described as Peter’s ‘kindness as a person and dignity as a scholar.’

The memorial was held at King’s College London (KCL), where Peter taught between 1957 and 1993, and where, from 1980, he was Rhodes Professor of Imperial History. Though officially retired from the early 1990s, Peter remained closely involved with King’s, teaching courses into the 2010s.

Between 1996 and 2000 Peter was President of the Royal Historical Society, having previous served as a member of the Society’s governing Council between 1983 to 1987, thereafter becoming Vice President until November 1991.

As President, Peter was active in modernisation of the RHS, bringing it into closer contact with history beyond higher education, developing the Society’s policy and advocacy roles, and establishing partnerships with archives, publishers and others who make historical research possible. An account of Peter’s Presidency of the RHS, published in September 2025, is available here.

The KCL memorial event included contributions on Peter’s work on the history of early modern India, the British empire, North America, the Caribbean, and Atlantic in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

Peter’s membership of the history working group for the UK national curriculum in the late 1980s and early 1990s was also discussed, as was his considerable support of the Institute of Historical Research, including his creation and funding of the ‘Marshall Fellowships’ (2005-25) managed jointly with the Society. Peter’s many and lasting contributions to the Royal Historical Society were described by the current President, Professor Lucy Noakes.

The KCL event concluded with publication of Peter’s final book, Slave Owner and Paternalist. Sir William Young (1749-1815) in England and the Caribbean (Boydell & Brewer), on which he had been working in the months before his death.

 

On Wednesday 18 February, the Society visits historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield. This visit will include a public lecture by our guest speaker, Professor David Stack (University of Reading) who will speak on ‘History and Well-Being: a Historian’s Perspective’.

Booking for in-person attendance at this lecture — which takes place at 5.30pm on Wednesday 18 February at Sheffield Hallam University — is now available. The lecture will be followed by a reception and chance to meet with members of the Royal Historical Society’s Council who are attending the visit to historians in Sheffield.

All are very welcome to attend the lecture and reception, and we especially hope to meet with Fellows and Members of the Society living in the city and surrounding region.

David’s lecture considers how historians might engage with contemporary discussions of well-being. What does history have to tell us about the term and its use? Does the study of history contribute to or detract from well-being?

This lecture argues that history can and should make a unique contribution, both to the concept and the practice of well-being. The study of history can deepen our understanding of the structural forces that shape well-being, and, by self-consciously integrating a well-being agenda into our research and teaching, we can simultaneously enhance the well-being of ourselves and our students and demonstrate the relevance of history to one of the most important public policy debates of our time.

David is the author of ‘Promoting Well-being through History Teaching’ which was published in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society in 2024.

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The visit to historians at Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield is the first in the Society’s 2026 programme of meetings with historians and history professionals working across the UK. Later visits this year will include to historians at Aberystwyth University (May), the University of Strathclyde (October), and the University of the West of England / University of Bristol (December).

Recent visits (2025) include those to historians working at or associated with the University of Exeter (Cornwall Campus), University of Aberdeen, University of Suffolk and Suffolk Archives, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine / UCL Institute of Education.

 

Header image: Sunset Sky, John Frederick Kensett American,1872, Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection, New York, public domain.

 

On Tuesday 10 February, the Society hosts its annual Global History Lecture, in partnership with the German Historical Institute, London. This year we are delighted to welcome Professor Vinita Damodaran (University of Sussex) who will speak on ‘Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire’.

This year’s lecture takes place at 5.30pm, Tuesday 10 February, at Mary Ward House, 5-7 Tavistock Place, London, WC1H 9SN. Booking for in-person and online attendance is now available. The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception for attendees at Mary Ward House. All are very welcome to attend.

Vinita’s lecture, with a focus on India, explores an important archive of knowledge of the natural world, collected and organised in the context of the empire, in the light of recent historiography on botany and empire. It highlights the importance of creating an inventory and digitally repatriating botanical specimens held primarily in British institutions, and highlights efforts for cultural remediation.

The lecture will examine neglected literature and networks in the imperial scientific network, which were crucial to what was a prodigious scientific renaissance in natural history and environmental understanding in the imperial context from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.

The 2026 lecture is the third in the RHS / GHIL partnership which began in 2024, with previous lectures by Roland Wenzlhuemer (LMU Munich) and Clare Armstrong (University of Leicester).

 

 

Last month, Research England pressed ‘pause’ on REF2029. The run up to this had seen announcements on core elements of the current Research Excellence Framework: recruitment of Subject Panel chairs, deputies and members; piloting of the new People, Community and Environment (PCE) component; and statements on the terms and scope of ‘Cultures of Knowledge and Understanding’, which constitutes the new-look ‘outputs’ element of REF2029.

These are REF-wide initiatives, but also ones of considerable importance for history and those historians who will participate in the coming assessment exercise. History was one of the chosen subjects for the PCE pilot and colleagues who participated, including from among the Society’s Council, have provided guidance on its utility as a measure of how historians, and scholars in the humanities more widely, undertake research. Current debates over the potential portability and weighting of outputs are likewise of particular concern to historians for whom proper appreciation of their long-form, long process work is vital.

It is equally important to view REF’s current pause from this disciplinary perspective. Officially, the halt—called in September by the UK’s Minister for Science, Research and Innovation, Patrick Vallance—will enable REF leaders to ‘take stock, ensure alignment with government priorities and vision for higher education, and reflect on feedback from the sector.’ We’ve also been told that Research England ‘will announce any changes to the exercise by December 2025.’

What we don’t know is what’s happening behind the scenes, both in terms of the scale and content of this review. What is certain is that many are using this pause to lobby—publicly and privately—for their preferred outcome. What’s also likely is that those with the strongest voices, or the most direct access, are making their pitch for selected institutions and a particular vision of the purpose and outcomes of higher education.

This leaves little space for disciplinary perspectives, and even less opportunity for disciplines—predominantly in the humanities—already marginalised by misleading public rhetorics on value and beaten down by cuts in a financial crisis that is hitting our subjects with particular force. As a learned society the Royal Historical Society speaks for its discipline and those who practice history regardless of how and where they do so.

What, therefore, do we wish to see when REF’s current pause is lifted?

It’s clear that PCE is a major part of the current review. The recent pilot showed that some revision is needed: to ensure that assessments are based on data and pay full heed to narratives written at the disciplinary and department level. At the same time, these revisions should not undermine the premise which underpin the new PCE element. We urge decision makers to appreciate the very considerable advances that REF has fostered as a result of the greater importance it has placed on research culture in recent years.

REF has helped to shape some tangible improvements in historians’ experience of research in UK higher education, not least closer attention to professional development, and support for greater diversity in staffing and research practice. To risk and diminish these improvements by reducing the PCE element of REF2029 would be a major failing—one that would have a significant, negative impact on how historians, as skilled researchers, are able to undertake their work.

We also ask those assessing REF’s future to retain their current commitment to impact and public engagement—the third component in 2029’s big picture. Here too REF has encouraged significant advances in demonstrating the public value of universities, not least within their regions. Impact is an area in which historians excel, and is further testimony to the rewards of developing positive and collaborative research cultures. Within institutions, it has a dimension that’s given rise to closer—and more creative—working within and between departments and disciplines. Plans for REF2029 note the importance of this broader perspective which will take the form of an additional unit-level impact narrative alongside subject case studies. This rightly asserts the importance of impact while removing those burdens, especially acute in smaller departments, that might otherwise fall on individual, and identifiable, scholars. It is a change the Society and many historians welcome and one to which we expect REF to hold.

Impact forms a vital link between academic historians and the many who enjoy and pursue history outside formal education. This public interest is an asset on which we must build. Impact work is a positive good: for individuals, institutions, regional communities and economies, and civic culture. At a time when many glibly question the value of history and the humanities as a university subject, support for, and measures of, impact and public engagement must remain a core element of a REF exercise that considers scholarship in the round. To lose sight of this would be a serious mistake with far-reaching consequences for UK higher education, now more than ever.

History and the wider humanities currently battle numerous challenges. To do so effectively we need structures that best support research and allow us to work well and demonstrate the value of history. This is essential if—when REF restarts—we’re to pursue a healthy culture and future for our profession.

 

Professor Lucy Noakes, President, Royal Historical Society

Professor Barbara Bombi, Secretary for Research, RHS

Dr Philip Carter, Director, RHS