Presenting your work

Mary Vincent writes:

Mary Vincent LSA history PhD establishes expertise. The focus is on knowledge, interpreting that knowledge and situating it within a published literature. This is careful, detailed work, referenced with full scholarly apparatus. But none of that knowledge actually matters if it stays locked up inside the researcher’s own head. Presenting your work is about communicating that knowledge, often to different audiences.This is a skill in its own right and, ironically, the scholarly skills learnt over the course of a PhD are poor preparation for it.

Historians in our own field or subfield are in some ways the least intimidating audience. They understand and appreciate the detail and subtle debates you are engaging with and will need far less in the way of context or introduction. But such audiences are rare. Even at an academic conference you are likely to be speaking to people with different specialist interests, whether of period, place or theme.  Making what you are saying accessible and intelligible is key.

Preparing and presenting a seminar paper

There is a lot of advice available on the internet; some of it is extremely detailed and not all of it is good.  UK and US university websites are a reliable source of sensible advice but this can be prescriptive, and not all of it will work for you.  READ MORE

Preparing and presenting a conference paper

Conference papers are shorter than seminar papers—commonly twenty minutes—and run more tightly to time.  You will present as part of a panel, and you should determine the kind of audience you are speaking to—whether specialist or general, historical or interdisciplinary—and be clear as to how long you have to speak. READ MORE

Intervening in academic discussion

Questions after a seminar or conference paper provide an important opportunity to participate in academic debate.  This can be nerve-racking.  Some university cultures have a robust style of questioning, which can lead to a critique, for example from the panel chair, to which you are expected to reply. In others, questions are much longer than the repartee style of question and answer than is common in Britain.  Try to find out as much as you can in advance about what to expect. READ MORE

What happens in a viva?

A PhD viva is a unique opportunity to discuss your research with two experts. They will have read every word of your thesis and all their attention will be on you and your work.  Though any examination is nerve-racking, you should try to enjoy the viva; this detailed, thoughtful consideration of your work doesn’t happen very often. READ MORE

Further information can be found at these useful websites:

 

RHS Events Programme 2024

New events will be added to this programme as the year progresses; please check back for updates which will also be announced via social media


Tuesday 23 January 2024 at 5.30 pm

Clare Anderson (Leicester)
‘Convicts, Creolization and Cosmopolitanism: Aftermaths of Penal Transportation in the British Empire’
Joint RHS-GHIL Lecture, at the German Historical Institute London and Online


Thursday 1 February 2024 at 6.00 pm

Levi Roach (Exeter)
‘Charting Authority after Empire: Documentary Culture and Political Legitimacy in Post-Carolingian Europe’
RHS Lecture, Mary Ward House, London, and Online


Tuesday 20 February 2024 at 6.00 pm

In Conversation with Greg Jenner: ‘Finding the Funny in Public History’
RHS Event, Mary Ward House, London, and Online


Wednesday 6 March 2024, 10.00 am – 5.00 pm

‘Historical Legacies: collecting history, historical collections and community voices’
History and Archives in Practice, 2024
Annual event in association with The National Archives and the Institute of Historical Research. This year in partnership with Cardiff University
Day Conference, at Cardiff University


Wednesday 13 March 2024 at 5.00 pm

Fay Bound Alberti (King’s College London)
‘Why History Matters to Medicine: The Case of Face Transplants’ 
RHS Sponsored Lecture, at the University of York. Part of the Society’s Visit to historians at the universities of York and York St John.


Thursday 25 April 2024 at 2.00 pm

‘History Podcasting: An Introduction and Guide’
with Bob Nicholson (Edge Hill) and Dave Musgrove (BBC History Magazine)
Online Training Event


Tuesday 30 April 2024 at 2.00 pm

‘Doing History in Public 1: Galleries, Libraries, Archives & Museums’
with Andrew Smith (QMUL), Olwen Purdue (Queen’s University Belfast) and Caitriona Beaumont (London South Bank)
Online Conversation Series


Friday 3 May 2024 at 6.00 pm

Julia Laite (Birkbeck)
‘Possible Maps: Ways of Knowing and Unknowing at the Edge of Empire (Newfoundland c. 1763-1829)’
RHS Lecture, Mary Ward House, London, and Online


Thursday 23 May 2024

Corinne Fowler (Leicester)
‘Our Island Stories: Country Walks through Colonial Britain’
RHS Sponsored Lecture, at Brunel University London. Part of the Society’s Visit to historians at Brunel University.


Friday 14 June 2024 at 2.00 pm

‘Getting Published: a Guide to Monograph Publishing for Early Career Historians’
with Meredith Carroll (Manchester University Press), Elizabeth Hurren (New Historical Perspectives), Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London) and Jane Winters (V-P for Publications, Royal Historical Society)
Online Training  Event for Early Career Historians


Thursday 20 June 2024 at 10.00 am

‘Doing History in Public 2: Print’
with Andrew Smith (QMUL) and Caitriona Beaumont (London South Bank)
Online Conversation Series


Wednesday 3 July 2024 at 6.00 pm

The RHS Prothero Lecture: Peter Frankopan (Oxford)
‘On the Challenges and Purposes of Global History’
At Mary Ward House, London, and Online

followed by the Society’s Summer Party, 2024


Wednesday 17 July 2024 at 2.00 pm

‘AI, History and Historians’
with Helen Hastie (Edinburgh), Matthew L. Jones (Princeton), Anna-Maria Sichani (School of Advanced Study, University of London) and Jane Winters (V-P for Publications, Royal Historical Society)
Online Panel Discussion


Friday 13 September 2024 at 6.00 pm

Caroline Pennock (Sheffield)
‘Catholics or Cannibals? Indigenous Brazilians at the Court of Louis XIII’
RHS Lecture, at Mary Ward House, London, and Online


Wednesday 18 September 2024 at 6.00 pm

‘Doing History in Public 3: Broadcast’
with Andrew Smith (QMUL), Olwen Purdue (Queen’s University Belfast) and Caitriona Beaumont (London South Bank)
Online Conversation Series


Tuesday 5 November 2024 at 6.00 pm

The RHS Public History Lecture: Janina Ramirez (Oxford)
‘Writing Women into History
In association with Gresham College, London


Friday 22 November 2024 at 6.00pm

RHS Presidential Address
Preceded by the Society’s Anniversary Meeting (AGM)
Mary Ward House, London, and Online

 

Privacy & cookies

The Royal Historical Society

Privacy and Data Protection

Updated 7 May 2020

 

Introduction

The Royal Historical Society is a company incorporated in England and Wales with the registered charity number 206888, whose registered office is: University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT.

The Royal Historical Society is committed to upholding and respecting your privacy. This policy explains how we use the personal data that we collect for the purpose of administering our membership categories, funding schemes and prizes.

Please read this information carefully.

 

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions about the Royal Historical Society’s privacy policy, the data we hold on you, the length for which we hold data, or you would like to exercise one of your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us FAO the Executive Secretary.

  • Email: enquiries@royalhistsoc.org
  • Telephone:  +44 (0)20 3821 5311
  • Post: The Royal Historical Society, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

 

Changes to this privacy policy

We regularly review this policy. Any updates will be made on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated on 1 May 2020.

 

Why do we collect personal data?

Personal data refers to the any information relating to you that enables you to be identified either directly or indirectly. In the United Kingdom, the use of personal data is regulated by the Data Protection Act (2018).

The Royal Historical Society relies on the lawful basis of our processing of personal data being necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests.

The Royal Historical Society collects and processes your data so that we can:

  • administer our schemes for membership, fellowship or funding, and manage this membership for its duration;
  • administer prizes and events and carry out other initiatives organised solely or partly by the RHS;
  • work with authors to develop publications;
  • appoint to honorary, paid and voluntary positions within the RHS;
  • email you with information about RHS activities, events and notices and opportunities that we think will be of interest;
  • maintain our historical archives for the purpose of historical research;
  • carry out our stated mission to represent, promote, advocate for and support the historical community;

 

Special Category Data

Through our online applications system we collect special category data within the lawful basis of legitimate interest under the condition of explicit consent. Any personal data coming within special category data (e.g. relating to gender, age, disability, racial or ethnic origin) will only be used for the purposes of monitoring diversity and equality. It will be stored confidentially and any analysis will be undertaken anonymously and with disaggregated data.

If you wish to withdraw your consent for the Royal Historical Society to hold special category data about you, please do not hesitate to contact the Executive Secretary.

 

How do we collect Personal Data?

The Royal Historical Society collects and processes personal data in the following main ways:

  1. Information automatically collected about visitors through our websites. This includes:
  • IP address;
  • Web browser type and version;
  • Operating system;
  • A list of URLs starting with a referring site, your activity on this Website, and the site you exit to.

 

  1. Data provided directly by individuals such as when you:
  • register with our online submission system, submit an application for, and/or are elected to, one of our membership categories;
  • register online to apply for one of our funding schemes;
  • are entered for one of our prize competitions;
  • nominate either yourself or a colleague to a position within the RHS;
  • propose or accept an invitation to publish with us;
  • contact us via our email, website or social media channels;
  • register for or take part in an event hosted solely or in part by us, whether online or in person.

The personal data we collect commonly includes:

  • name
  • contact information including email, postal address, and phone number
  • institutional affiliation and status
  • “special categories of data” including information about gender, age, ethnicity, religion may be requested with your explicit consent for equalities monitoring purposes.

 

Who do we share personal data with?

The Royal Historical Society will not sell any personal data to third parties.

The Royal Historical Society will only share personal data with third-parties who

  • supply the online systems that are used for the purposes of administering our services.
  • are involved directly in the running of RHS activities  including working groups, prize committees and assessing funding applications.

Basic factual information (such as name, institutional affiliation, membership of any committees, Council or working groups may be made publicly available on our website for reasons including:

  • accuracy of meeting minutes and published reports;
  • notices of publications, prizes and grant awards;
  • records of events and other conferences that we host may also include the names of those attending;
  • providing authorial credit.

 

Transfers of personal information outside the UK

Data which we collect from you may be stored or processed in and transferred to countries outside of the area covered by EU GDPR legislation, for example if our servers or service providers are located in a country outside this area. If personal data is transferred in this way, we will aim to ensure that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this privacy policy e.g. through the receipt of a written guarantee of GDPR compliance.

 

How long do we store personal data for?

Data security is of great importance to the Royal Historical Society, and to protect your data we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial safeguarding procedures. We store personal data for different amounts of time, depending on the purpose:

  • In the case of data provided in the course of administering membership and fellowship, the Royal Historical Society will keep your data for as long as you remain a Member or Fellow.
  • Basic personal data (such as name, date of birth and contact details) from funding applications and unsuccessful nominations will be kept in order to confirm eligibility for future funding scheme applications.
  • Data that is necessary for financial audit purposes will be kept for 7 years.
  • When personal data is collected for other specific purposes (e.g. participation in an event, survey or temporary funding scheme) we will provide clear confirmation of the data retention period at the point the data is collected.

 

What are your Data Protection Rights?

The Royal Historical Society would like to make sure you are fully aware of all of your data protection rights. You are entitled to the following rights in relation to the data that we hold about you:

  • The right to access– You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
  • The right to rectification– You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we complete any information you believe is incomplete.
  • The right to erasure– You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to restrict processing– You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to object to processing– You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
  • The right to data portability– You have the right to request that we transfer the data that we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

 

If you make a request within these rights, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact the Executive Secretary of the RHS by:

  • Email: enquiries@royalhistsoc.org
  • Telephone:  +44 (0)20 7387 7532
  • Post: The Royal Historical Society, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT (please note that during the exceptional circumstances of COVID-19 we are not currenttly able to access the RHS offices)

 

Password Access

If password access is required to access certain parts of the Website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential.

 

Cookies

Cookies are text files placed on your computer to collect standard Internet log information and visitor behaviour information. When you visit our websites, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology. For further information, visit allaboutcookies.org. The Royal Historical Society may use cookies to:

  • Keep you signed in
  • Understanding how you use our website
  • Improve your experience of using the Website and to improve our range of services. Before the Website places Cookies on your computer, you will be presented with a message bar requesting your consent to set those Cookies.

You can set your internet browser to not accept cookies; however certain features of the Website may not function fully or as intended.

 

Marketing

The Royal Historical Society would like to send you information about our services, events and publications that we think you might like. If you agree or register on our websites to receive these emails from us, you have the right at any time to stop us from contacting you for these purposes.

If you no longer wish to be contacted for these purposes please contact the Executive Secretary by email at enquiries@royalhistsoc.org.

 

Privacy policies of other websites

The Royal Historical Society websites contain links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our websites, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.

 

How to lodge a complaint with the appropriate authority

Should you wish to report a complaint with respect to this privacy policy or if you feel that the Royal Historical Society has not addressed your concern in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office via their website: https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/.

 

Ukrainian Scholars at Risk: Fellowships in History and Slavonic and East European Studies 

 

Fellowships and Fundraising

On 23 March 2022, the Royal Historical Society (RHS), British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) and Past and Present Society (P&P) are offering funding towards three short-term fellowships (minimum 3 months) at higher education institutions in the UK, European Union or elsewhere in continental Europe to provide a place of academic refuge for three scholars from Ukraine.

From 29 March, we are delighted to be joined by the Ecclesiastical History Society (EHS) which is funding a fourth fellowship to provide a place of academic refuge for a scholar from Ukraine active in the study of the history of Christianity.

From 13 April, the German History Society (GHS) has announced funding for a fifth fellowship to support a Ukrainian researcher working on the history of Germany and the German-speaking world in the broadest sense. We are very grateful for the GHS’s involvement and provision of an additional placement.

The RHS and BASEES are also fundraising to provide additional fellowships.


Each grant is worth £5,000 (€6,000) to the Fellow and must be matched by equivalent funds AND / OR in-kind assistance from the host institution (for example, travel, accommodation, meals, office space and IT support, plus insurance) of a financial sum equivalent to £5,000 (€6,000) grant for a minimum duration of three months, to begin as soon as possible.

To best support Ukrainian scholars at risk, we also welcome applications from host institutions willing to offer more than match-funding, whether as a financial sum or in-kind assistance.

Two grants (funded by the RHS and P&P) will be reserved for Ukrainian scholars displaced by the Russian invasion who are undertaking historical research in the broadest sense. A third grant (funded by the EHS) will support a Ukrainian scholar of the history of Christianity.

One grant (funded by BASEES) will be for any displaced Ukrainian scholar in the field of Slavonic and East European studies. Host institutions can offer these fellowships to PhD candidates, Early Career and established scholars.


How to make an application

  • The host institution names a scholar at risk who will be designated an RHS/BASEES/P&P/EHS/GHS Fellow.
  • The host institution will support the integration of the Fellow into the local academic community.
  • The host institution will appoint a designated mentor to support the Fellow.
  • The host institution will support the Fellow in drafting and submitting applications for long-term funding and/or more permanent academic positions at the host or another HE institution.
  • The host institution will match-fund each Fellowship via a direct payment to the Fellow; and/or provide an equivalent in-kind contribution (comprising accommodation, meals etc.)
  • In addition, the host institution will provide the Fellow with library, internet, and research resource access, and health insurance, as well as visa support if applicable.
  • The length of the fellowship is a minimum of three months.

 

Applications from the host institution must be submitted via the RHS’s online application system.

The closing date for applications from host institutions was Wednesday 20 April 2022, however applications for the Fellowship on the History of Germany and the German Speaking World now closes on Monday 9 May 2022.

 


The following information will be required:

  • information on the support provided by the hosting institution, including intended dates of the fellowship

In addition, the application requires information regarding:

  • EITHER a description of the situation of the proposed Fellow, and short CVs for both the proposed Fellow and the designated mentor.
  • OR a description of the proposed recruitment process, including time-lines.  Please note that funds are paid to Fellows, not institutions, therefore funds will only be released once the institution has successfully appointed a fellow.

Make an application vis the RHS applications portal.

Successful host institutions will be notified as soon as possible after the closing date of Weds 20 April. Questions about the application process may be sent to: administration@royalhistsoc.org.


Fundraising for additional Ukraine fellowships

The RHS and BASEES are also fundraising to increase the number of grants available via a JustGiving page https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/baseesandrhsSARfellowships 

Additional funds raised will support extra fellowships. We will announce these to interested universities as soon as the funding for one or more additional fellowship becomes available.

We also welcome involvement from other learned societies / organisations in the historical and social sciences who wish to partner on future Ukraine fellowship grants. Those wishing to do so may contribute via the RHS/BASEES JustGiving page or contact the Society’s CEO: adam.hughes@royalhistsoc.org.

Thank you, in advance, for any contribution you are able to make.

 

 

Website terms of service

The Terms and Conditions were last updated on 21 July 2021

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Without prejudice to our other rights under these Terms and Conditions, if you breach these Terms and Conditions in any way, we may take such action as we deem appropriate to deal with the breach, including temporarily or permanently suspending your access to the website, contacting your internet service provider to request that they block your access to the website, and/or commence legal action against you.

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You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us harmless, from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses and expenses, relating to your violation of these Terms and conditions, and applicable laws, including intellectual property rights and privacy rights. You will promptly reimburse us for our damages, losses, costs and expenses relating to or arising out of such claims.

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Failure to enforce any of the provisions set out in these Terms and Conditions and any Agreement, or failure to exercise any option to terminate, shall not be construed as waiver of such provisions and shall not affect the validity of these Terms and Conditions or of any Agreement or any part thereof, or the right thereafter to enforce each and every provision.

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These Terms and Conditions will be interpreted and construed exclusively in English. All notices and correspondence will be written exclusively in that language.

18. Entire agreement

These Terms and Conditions, together with our privacy statement and cookie policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and Royal Historical Society in relation to your use of this website.

19. Updating of these Terms and conditions

We may update these Terms and Conditions from time to time. It is your obligation to periodically check these Terms and Conditions for changes or updates. The date provided at the beginning of these Terms and Conditions is the latest revision date. Changes to these Terms and Conditions will become effective upon such changes being posted to this website. Your continued use of this website following the posting of changes or updates will be considered notice of your acceptance to abide by and be bound by these Terms and Conditions.

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These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by the laws of United Kingdom. Any disputes relating to these Terms and Conditions shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of United Kingdom. If any part or provision of these Terms and Conditions is found by a court or other authority to be invalid and/or unenforceable under applicable law, such part or provision will be modified, deleted and/or enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to give effect to the intent of these Terms and Conditions. The other provisions will not be affected.

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22. Download

You can also download our Terms and Conditions as a PDF.

 

BALH ‘Meanwhile Nearby’ historical resource – call for contributors

BALH is currently in discussions with education experts at the University of Reading to develop an exciting new education resource for local history, and we are reaching out to our members and member societies for your help and expertise.

‘Meanwhile Nearby’ is a fantastic resource that allows teachers to bring more local history into the classroom, by getting pupils to research (and then discuss in class) local history that was happening at the same time as the topics that they are studying in their taught curriculum. BALH is now teaming up with this project, to provide expertise and support for teachers across the country.

To accomplish this, we are looking for volunteers from amongst our members to help to identify stories and locate resources which could be used to build a ‘Meanwhile Nearby…’ resource.

A list of potential projects has already been identified, and we are looking for contributions in the following areas:

– London in the Industrial Revolution (particularly the Clapham area)

– The impact of the Industrial Revolution in the Cotswolds

– The slave trade and local landowners in Northumberland

– Working women in Derry (NI) in the Industrial Revolution.

This resource will be hosted on BALH’s new educational resources web section and used by teachers across the country.

If you feel you might be able to help BALH in this exciting new collaboration

Please get in touch with Claire Kennan at digital@balh.org.uk

More information and example resources can be found at https://meanwhileelsewhereinhistory.wordpress.com/meanwhile-nearby/

We look forward to hearing from you!!

https://www.balh.org.uk/

 

RHS Whitfield Prize Winners

1977
K.D. Brown, John Burns (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1977)

1978
Marie Axton, The Queen’s Two Bodies: Drama and the Elizabethan Succession (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1978)

1979
Patricia Crawford, Denzil Holles, 1598-1680: A study of his Political Career (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1979)

1980
D. L. Rydz, The Parliamentary Agents: A History (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1979)

1981
Scott M. Harrison, The Pilgrimage of Grace in the Lake Counties, 1536-7 (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1981)

1982
Norman L. Jones, Faith by Statute: Parliament and the Settlement of Religion, 1559 (Royal Historical Society Studies in History: 1982)

1983
Peter Clark, The English Alehouse: A social history, 1200-1830 (Longman, 1983)

1984
David Hempton, Methodism and Politics in British Society, 1750-1850 (Hutchinson, 1984)

1985
K.D.M. Snell, Annals of the Labouring Poor (Cambridge University Press, 1985)

1986
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Suffolk and the Tudors: Politics and Religion in an English County,1500- 1600 (Clarendon Press, 1986)

1987
Kevin M. Sharpe, Criticism and Compliment: The politics of literature in the England of Charles I (Cambridge University Press, 1987)

1988
J.H. Davis, Reforming London, the London Government Problem, 1855-1900 (Clarendon Press, 1988)

1989
A.G. Rosser, Medieval Westminster, 1200-1540 (Clarendon Press, 1989)

1990
Duncan M. Tanner, Political change and the Labour party, 1900-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 1990)

1991
Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and Popular Piety, 1550-1640 (Cambridge University Press, 1991)

1992
Christine Carpenter, Locality and Polity: A Study of Warwickshire Landed Society, 1401 -1499 (Cambridge University Press, 1992)

1993
Jeanette M. Neeson, Commoners: common right; enclosure and social change in England,1700- 1820 (Cambridge University Press, 1993)

1994
V.A.C. Gatrell, The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English people, 1770-1868 (Oxford University Press, 1994)

1995
Kathleen Wilson, The Sense of the People: Politics, Culture and Imperialism in England, 1715-1785 (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

1996
Paul D. Griffiths, Youth and Authority: Formative Experience in England, 1560-1640 (Clarendon Press, 1996)

1997
Christopher Tolley, Domestic Biography: the legacy of evangelicalism in four nineteenth century families (Clarendon Press, 1997)

1998
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Women’s Lives in Georgian England (Yale University Press, 1998)

1999
John Walter, Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution: The Colchester Plunderers (Past and Present Publications, 1999)

2000
Adam Fox, Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700 (Clarendon Press, 2000)

2001
John Goodall, God’s House at Ewelme: Life, Devotion and Architecture in a Fifteenth Century Almshouse (Routledge, 2001)
and
Frank Salmon, Building on Ruins: The Rediscovery of Rome and English Architecture (Ashgate, 2001)

2002
Ethan H. Shagan, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 2002)

2003
Christine Peters, Patterns of Piety: Women, Gender and Religion in Late Medieval and Reformation England (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

2004
M.J.D. Roberts, Making English Morals: Voluntary Association and Moral reform in England,1787-1886 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)

2005
Matt Houlbrooke, Queer London: Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 (University of Chicago Press, 2005)

2006
Kate Fisher, Birth Control, Sex and Marriage in Britain, 1918-1960 (Oxford University Press, 2006)

2007
Stephen Baxter, The Earls of Mercia: Lordship and Power in Late Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford University Press, 2007)
and
Duncan Bell, The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 (Princeton University Press, 2007)

2008
Stephen M. Lee, George Canning and Liberal Toryism, 1801-1827 (RHS/Boydell & Brewer:2008)
and
Frank Trentmann, Free Trade Nation: Commerce, Consumption and Civil Society in Modern Britain (Oxford University Press: 2008)

2009
Nicholas Draper, The Price of Emancipation: Slave-ownership, Compensation and British Society at the end of Slavery (Cambridge University Press: 2009)

2010
Arnold Hunt, The Art of Hearing: English Preachers and their Audiences, 1590-1640 (Cambridge University Press: 2010)

2011
Jaqueline Rose, Godly Kingship in Restoration England: The Politics of the Royal Supremacy,1660-1688, (Cambridge University Press: 2011)

2012
Ben Griffin, The Politics of Gender in Victorian Britain. Masculinity, Political Culture and the Struggle for Women’s Rights, (Cambridge University Press: 2012)

2013
Scott Sowerby, Making Toleration: The Repealers and The Glorious Revolution (Harvard University Press: 2013)

From this point the prize is awarded for and presented in the year following publication.

2015
John Sabapathy, Officers and Accountability in Medieval England 1170-1300 (Oxford University Press, 2014)

2016
Aysha Pollnitz, Princely Education in Early Modern Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

2017
William M. Cavert, The Smoke of London: Energy and Environment in the Early Modern City (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
and
Alice Taylor, The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124-1290 (Oxford University Press, 2016)

2018
Brian N Hall, Communications and British Operations on the Western Front, 1914-1918 (Cambridge University Press, 2017)

2019
Ryan Hanley, Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c.1770-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

2020
Niamh Gallagher, Ireland and the Great War: A Social and Political History (Bloomsbury, 2019)

2021
Jackson Armstrong, England’s Northern Frountier: Conflict and Local Society in the Fifteenth-Century Scottish Marches (Cambridge University Press, 2020)
and
Lauren Working, The Making of an Imperial Polity: Civility and America in the Jacobean Metropolis (Cambridge University Press, 2020)

2022
Kristin D. Hussey for Imperial Bodies in London. Empire, Mobility, and the Making of British Medicine, 1880-1914 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

2023
Síobhra Aiken for Spiritual Wounds. Trauma, Testimony and the Irish Civil War (Irish Academic Press, 2022)

 

RHS Gladstone Past Winners

1997
Stuart Clark, Thinking with Demons: the idea of witchcraft in early modern Europe

1998
Patrick Major, The Death of the KPD: Communism and Anti-Communism in West Germany, 1945-1956

1999
Frances Stonor Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War

2000
Matthew Innes, State and Society in the Middle Ages: The Middle Rhine Valley, 400-1000

2001
Nora Berend, At the Gate of Christendom. Jews, Muslims and ‘Pagans’ in Medieval Hungary, c.1000-c.1300

2002
David Hopkin, Soldier and Peasant in French Popular Culture, 1766-1870

Guy Rowlands, The Dynastic State and the Army Under Louis XIV [JOINT WINNERS]

2003
Norbert Peabody, Hindu Kingship and Polity in Precolonial India and Michael Rowe, From Reich to State: the Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, 1780-1830

2004
Nikolaus Wachsmann, Hitler’s Prisons: Legal Terror in Nazi Germany

2005
Robert Foley, German Strategy and the Path to Verdun: Erich von Falkenhayn and the Development of Attrition, 1870-1850

2006
James E. Shaw, The Justice of Venice. Authorities and Liberties in the Urban Economy, 1550- 1700

2007
Yasmin Khan, The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan
Filippo De Vivo, Information and Communication in Venice (RUNNER UP)

2008
Caroline Dodds-Pennock, Bonds of Blood: Gender, Lifecycle and Sacrifice in Aztec Culture (Palgrave MacMillan: 2008)

2009
Alice Rio, Legal Practice and the Written Word in the Early Middle Ages. Frankish Formulae, c.500-1000 (Cambridge University Press: 2009)

2010
Natalie A. Zacek, Settler Society in the English Leeward Islands, c. 1670-1776 (Cambridge University Press: 2010)

2011
Wendy Ugolini, Experiencing War as the ‘Enemy Other’: Italian Scottish Experience in World War II, (Manchester University Press: 2011)

2012
Joel Isaac, Working Knowledge: Making the Human Sciences from Parsons to Kuhn, (Harvard University Press: 2012)

2013
Sean A Eddie, Freedom’s Price: Serfdom, Subjection, & Reform in Prussia, 1648-1848 (Oxford University Press: 2013)

From this point the prize is awarded for and presented in the year following publication.

2015
Andrew Arsan, Interlopers of Empire: The Lebanese Diaspora in Colonial French West Africa (Hurst, 2014)
JOINTLY WITH
Lucie Ryzova, The Age of the Efendiyya: Passages to Modernity in National-Colonial Egypt (Oxford University Press, 2014).

2016
Emma Hunter, Political Thought and the Public Sphere in Tanzania (Cambridge University Press, 2015)

2017
Claire Eldridge, From Empire to Exile: History and Memory within the pied-noir and harki communities, 1962-2012 (Manchester University Press, 2016)

2018
Matthew S Champion, The Fullness of Time. Temporalities of the Fifteenth-Century Low Countries (University of Chicago Press, 2017).

2019
Duncan Hardy, Associative Political Culture in the Holy Roman Empire: Upper Germany, 1346-1521 (Oxford University Press: 2018).

2020
Caillan Davenport for A History of the Roman Equestrian Order  (Cambridge University Press: 2019).

2021
Tom Stammers for The Purchase of the Past: Collecting Culture in Post-Revolutionary Paris, c.1790-1890 (Cambridge University Press: 2020).

2022
Emily Bridger for Young Women Against Apartheid. Gender, Youth and South Africa’s Liberation Struggle (Boydell & Brewer, 2021)

2023
Jennifer Keating for On Arid Ground: Political Ecologies of Empire in Russian Central Asia (Oxford University Press, 2022)

 

ECH – Publishing a Book (I)

 

Book publishing remains fairly traditional, not as affected by the digital revolution as journal publishing. As with journals, however, there are a range of book publishers that you can probably array in a quality sequence depending on your own experience of your own field. Generally, though, they break down into three types: i) university presses; ii) big commercial presses; iii) boutique commercial presses.

The university presses tend to carry the most prestige – because they do the most thorough peer-review, and thus the most thorough quality control. Their mission is to publish academic books (and so are not under such pressure to rack up big sales or require ‘crossover’ appeal). The big commercial presses need higher sales; they’ll only be interested in an academic book if it can be dressed up with ‘crossover’ appeal, either stylistically or substantively (sex, violence, war, or some other kind of rich human interest).

Boutique commercial presses have burgeoned in recent years, as more academics want to publish more books than the university presses can accommodate. They rely on the fact that they can make a small profit with modern technology by selling only 150-350 copies of an academic monograph at a high price to a small number of libraries. All of these presses still have editors who go around universities and conferences prospecting for authors. You can often meet them at book displays at conferences.

Mostly, however, you will have to approach an editor yourself. The best way to do this is to ask a senior colleague or a mentor for an introduction, or at least for permission to use their name when you email an editor with a query. As with journals, the best way to choose a press is to identify which press publishes books in your field that you admire and wish to emulate.

Publishers differ in their practices, but many presses will accept an initial submission in the form of a proposal. This could be a 5-20 page summary of the work, which tells the editor what the book is about, why it is new and special, what kind of research it’s based on, and something about the structure of the book (a chapter outline with abstracts of each chapter). It’s better to accompany the proposal with a sample chapter, which you’re already pretty happy with.

The university presses will almost certainly require you to go through peer review on the basis of a complete manuscript. They may issue you a contract but it will include a clause reserving the right to accept or reject the final manuscript on the basis of peer review.

 

 

History at Oxford Brookes University – a statement from the Royal Historical Society

 

We are, sadly, all too familiar with news of cuts within UK History departments. The Royal Historical Society meets regularly with historians facing course closures and redundancies. The Society also speaks out for individual departments and the sector as a whole.

What we learned last week from Oxford Brookes University goes far beyond the cases previously encountered. In terms of extent, rapidity and impact, the cuts and job losses proposed at Oxford Brookes are remarkably severe. History is not alone. Recent coverage has highlighted the university’s plan to close its Music programme—a decision which also affects cultural historians in that department. Cuts are similarly proposed for English, Film, Anthropology and Architecture.

For History the proposal is shocking. All six of the department’s professors are at risk of redundancy. Four will be required to leave either ‘voluntarily’ in January or through compulsory redundancy by Spring 2024. If carried through, this would reduce the number of front-line teaching staff to as low as eight FTE. This is a long way from the mid 2010s when Brookes History was a significant force of c. 30 historians with an average annual intake of more than 100 undergraduates across single and joint honours degrees.

The impact of these cuts will be considerable. First and foremost are those whose positions are now at risk. But the effects go much further. Redundancies, mid-way through the year, will severely deplete the department’s teaching capacity; they will damage students’ learning experience—most notably for those in their final year preparing dissertations; and will mean much heavier teaching loads for colleagues who remain.

Furthermore, cuts of this focus and severity look set to end a culture of historical research that’s previously thrived at Oxford Brookes. This is a research group widely admired and respected across the profession, and one that has performed well in recent research assessments. What, we have to ask, has happened to the QR funding earned by Brookes historians if it has not gone to support these historians? How does the university intend to use this funding in future if the department is reduced to a much lower level of staffing?

It is especially alarming that erosion of research culture appears to be the university’s intention. What makes the Oxford Brookes proposal so concerning is not the common pretence that all will be well despite fewer resources; rather that the purpose of Brookes History and humanities is changing fundamentally to the detriment of research. To jettison a respected research culture will, we fear, damage the wider university through loss of reputation, research income and academic partnerships.

Why is this happening? Colleagues highlight recent fluctuations in student numbers in History. As the Society reported in June 2023, lifting the cap on student numbers in 2015 has created an environment of feast and famine, in which departments are either overwhelmed by or deprived of students. Neither outcome can support long-term planning or the highest-quality teaching and research. Even so, the situation at Brookes has recently stabilised with admissions for History on the rise.

The extent and rapidity of cuts at Oxford Brookes clearly go far beyond individual departments. They speak to wider difficulties faced by the university. What is unacceptable is those now paying the price are skilled, successful historians and their students—alongside those in other humanities departments facing cuts or closure.

The Society is communicating these concerns to the Vice Chancellor and Governors of Oxford Brookes in the strongest terms. The Society’s experience is that departments of fewer than 10 FTE struggle and seldom prove viable. This cannot be allowed to happen at Oxford Brookes either by design or neglect. We urge the university to pause its current proposals and timetable to allow for a more considered review of History’s future at Brookes—for the benefits of students, all staff, and the discipline.

The President, Officers and Councillors of the Royal Historical Society