In autumn 2022 the Society launched its Workshop Grants programme to enable historians, in the UK and internationally, to come together to discuss and develop historical projects of shared interest.
Workshop Grants, of £1,000 each, enable historians to create and host in-person day-events to consider topics at a level of detail seldom possible at a seminar or conference, or online. Grants may be spent as the organisers require, including venue hire, speakers’ expenses and bursaries for attendees if events are open.
One set of (Transactions) Workshops lead to publication of articles in the Society’s journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.
A second set of Workshop Grants support projects with a wider range of potential outcomes: for example, beginning and testing a research idea; pilot work; writing of grant applications; networking, or publishing and communication in other formats.
For both strands, we welcome applications not only for new research projects but also disciplinary reviews, studies of historical methods, developments in teaching practice and courses, cross-sector working, or creation of public history projects, among others.
Transactions Workshops, 2023
Workshop Grants leading to publication in Transactions are selected in conjunction with the journal’s co-editors, Harshan Kumarasingham and Kate Smith. Successful applicants work with the co-editors to develop the outcomes of their Workshops for publication: as articles, roundtables, collections of short essays or short special issues.
Published content furthers the aims of Transactions‘ co-editors and editorial boards to provide journal content that is topical, geographically and chronologically wide-ranging, and the work of historians at all career stages.
Calls for the 2023 TRHS Workshop Grants are now open. Applications are invited before the closing date of 5 May 2023.
In 2022, the following four projects will were awarded Transactions Workshops:
- ’80 Years of the Bengal Famine (1943): Decolonial Dialogues from the Global South’ — lead organisers: Priyanka Basu and Ananya Jahanara Kabir (King’s College London)
- ‘Transnational Activism in a Divided World: the Regional within the Global’ — lead organisers: Daniel Laqua (Northumbria) and Thomas Davies (City, University of London)
- ‘The Future of Our Past: Where is Environmental History Heading?’ — lead organiser: Alexander Hibberts (Durham)
- ‘Parliamentary Culture in Colonial Contexts, c.1500–c.1700’ — lead organisers: Paul Seaward (History of Parliament Trust), Pauline Kewes (Oxford) and Jim Van der Meulen (Ghent)
RHS Workshops, 2022-23
A second set of Workshops supports projects with a wide range of possible outcomes. RHS Workshops may support groups of historians who are meeting for the first time to consider an idea or seek to develop an established project.
In the academic year 2022-23, the following four projects will run RHS Workshops:
- ‘Early Modern Error’ — lead organiser: Alice Leonard (Coventry)
- ‘Women and Plantations: New Directions in Tudor and Stuart Colonial History’ — lead organiser: Lauren Working (York)
- ‘Beyond the ‘Good’ / ’Bad’ Migrant Dichotomy: ways forward for early modern and contemporary history’ — lead organiser: Kathleen Commons (Sheffield)
- ‘Unboxing the Family Archive: New Approaches to Intergenerational Collections’ — lead organiser: Imogen Peck (Birmingham)
The next call for RHS Workshops, to take place in the academic year 2023-24, will launch in Summer 2023.
Each of the Workshops will be supported by the Royal Historical Society, with updates on outcomes reported via the RHS blog and social media. Future applicants are also welcome to consider hosting Workshops at the Society’s offices at University College London, if desirable.