RHS Elections 2025: Insights into the Society’s Council and the role of Councillors
Each year the Royal Historical Society holds elections to appoint three current Fellows as new members to its Council. The Council is the Society’s governing body, with responsibility for the objectives and work of the RHS. The election round for 2025 is now open, with an invitation to all RHS Fellows to submit nominations to stand in this year’s ballot. All Councillors are Fellows of the Society, and those seeking election must also be current Fellows. If you’re a Fellow, and interested in standing for election, this brief commentary offers an insight into the Council, and the activities and experiences of five current Councillors. We hope this answers the questions you might have before submitting your nomination before the closing date of Friday 11 August.
Piloting responsible and effective use of generative AI in undergraduate History Teaching
How do UK history undergraduates routinely use generative AI in the classroom? In this post David Clayton, Henrice Altink and Esther Wright (University of York) review the findings of their recent research project: ‘Piloting the responsible and effective use of generative AI in undergraduate History Teaching’. This project asked students to answer a seminar question and to generate ideas for an undergraduate dissertation using Gen AI. The study succeeded in making students aware of the shortcomings of using certain forms of generative AI in the teaching of history as a substitute for acquiring and applying specialist historical knowledge. It recommends that these activities are integrated into teaching practice and that teachers of history experiment with other forms of generative AI to support deeper student learning.
History, Policy and the Cannabis Conundrum
Historian Virginia Berridge has recently completed her term as a deputy chair of the London Drugs Commission, which published its report, ‘The Cannabis Conundrum’, in May of this year. Established by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, the commission investigated the implications of the non-medical use of cannabis in the capital and the impact of the current laws which govern it. Virginia brought a historian’s perspective to an investigation otherwise dominated by legal specialists. To be a historian in this environment was rewarding, challenging and revealing. In this post, Virginia explains how her expertise in histories of public health policy helped shape the enquiry, and how – and in what ways – others engage with history when it comes to present-day policy formation. As Virginia shows, understanding how academic history is regarded by non-specialists is key to ensuring the centrality and informed use of our discipline in the policy sphere.
Studying History and Politics at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus: a student perspective
In May 2025, members of the Royal Historical Society’s Council visited the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus, Penryn, as part of the Society’s annual programme of visits to departments across the UK. Visits are a chance to meet not just with historians working across the university, and with university managers, but also with undergraduate and postgraduate students to learn more about their experience of study. In this post we hear from Charlotte Arthurs, a final year History and Politics student on her three years studying at the Cornwall Campus. Central to Charlotte’s hugely positive experience has been attention placed at Penryn on interdisciplinary teaching. The Society’s next two visits are to the historians and history students at the universities of Aberdeen and Suffolk, with further visits planned later in 2025 and 2026.
The Papers of Admiral George Grey – new Camden Series volume published
In this post Michael Taylor introduces his new volume in the Royal Historical Society’s Camden Series, ‘The Papers of Admiral George Grey’, published in June 2025. The volume presents the memoir, journal, and correspondence of George Grey (1809-1891), son of the Whig prime minister Earl Grey. It documents the Grey family’s experience of the Whig ministry of 1830–1834, and George Grey’s own naval career which took him from the Battle of Navarino during the Greek War of Independence, to a decisive survey of the Falkland Islands, and then to the capital cities of South America during their pivotal early decades of independence. In doing so, Michael’s volume sheds new light on the political, diplomatic, naval, and imperial histories of the early and mid-nineteenth century. The full text of ‘The Papers of Admiral George Grey’, is now available open access via Cambridge University Press, following a subvention by the Royal Historical Society.
Royal Historical Society First Book Prize, 2025 – Shortlisted Titles
The Royal Historical Society’s First Book Prize 2025 recognises the scholarly contribution and quality of history monographs published in 2024. This year’s shortlist of eight titles is now available and follows an open call for early career historians to submit a first sole-authored monograph, published last year, for consideration. Two final winners of the 2025 prize will be chosen, with the announcement to take place in July. Also now available: the shortlist of the Society’s Early Career Article Prize, 2025, for an article written by an early career historian within three years of completion of a PhD.
Royal Historical Society Early Career Article Prize, 2025 – Shortlisted Titles
The Royal Historical Society’s Early Career Article Prize 2025 recognises the scholarly contribution and quality of journal articles published in 2024. This year’s shortlist of eight articles is now available and follows an open call for early career historians to submit a article or book chapter, published last year, for consideration. Two final winners of the 2025 prize will be chosen, with the announcement to take place in July. Also now available: the shortlist of the Society’s First Book Prize, 2025, for a first scholarly monograph written by an early career historian and published in 2024.
Making the Case for History: A View from the Royal Historical Society
In April 2025, the Society’s President Lucy Noakes published the following article in History Workshop. The article is part of an occasional HW series exploring the scale, form and implications of cuts to history departments and courses in UK higher education. In her contribution, Lucy provided a perspective from the Royal Historical Society, drawing on recent surveys of RHS members on the impact of cuts for staff and students, and the wider community. We are very grateful to History Workshop for the opportunity to reproduce Lucy’s article in full on the RHS site
Reading, Gender and Identity in Seventeenth-Century England
In this post Hannah Jeans introduces her new book—’Reading, Gender and Identity in Seventeenth-Century England’—which is published in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series with University of London Press. Hannah’s book explores traditional views of reading in the seventeenth century and challenges the enduring binaries of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ literature or ‘active’ and ‘passive’ reading. In their place, Hannah views the activity from the multiple perspectives of seventeenth-century women readers. Through an investigation of women readers’ personal engagement with literature, the book extends our understanding of women’s reading habits and the place of reading in the development of self-identities. ‘Reading, Gender and Identity in Seventeenth-Century England’ is the 22nd title in the Society’s New Historical Perspectives series and, like other NHP titles is published free, Open Access, and in paperback print.
Finding Women’s History in Schools – challenges for the curriculum review
Women’s and gender history are well-established and vibrant fields of research. In schools, by contrast, the presence of women is far more limited, especially for those teaching and studying the pre-modern period. In this post, Natasha Hodgson considers the scale of this deficit and some of the barriers preventing the take up of new work in schools history. As a co-founder of the Teaching Medieval Women group, Natasha considers the negative implications of school curricula that fail to pay sufficient attention to the place of women as subjects of historical study. In the midst of the government’s curriculum and assessment review, Natasha’s post also provides examples of Teaching Medieval Women’s engagement with schools to enhance students’ understanding of women’s place and prominence in pre-modern societies, and the value of this work.
Voice, Silence and Gender in South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Struggle: The Shadow of a Young Woman
In this post, Rachel E. Johnson introduces her new book — ‘Voice, Silence and Gender in South Africa’s Anti-Apartheid Struggle. The Shadow of a Young Woman’ — which is published in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series with University of London Press. Central to the monograph is the figure of Mary Masabata Loate. Between 1976 and 1986, Masabata Loate appears in court records and newspaper articles as a school student activist, a beauty queen, a terrorism suspect, a political prisoner and finally a murder victim. While lacking lacked the materials to write a conventional life, Rachel has created what she terms ‘a shadow biography’ of this young woman. Rachel’s monograph is the 21st title in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series for early career historians.
Becoming a Member of the History Subject Panel for REF2029. An Introduction and Guide
The work of disciplinary sub-panels (including that for History) is fundamental to the Research Excellence Framework. Subject panels form the heart of REF, responsible for assessing and grading scholarly outputs, impact and research cultures across the UK HE sector. The steering group of REF2029 currently invites applications to join the sub-panels that will set the criteria and then assess submissions for the next research exercise. On 7 March, the Royal Historical Society held an information event to consider the role and workload of the REF2029 History sub-panel, and how historians interested in submitting for the our disciplinary sub-panel should proceed with an application. This post summarises a discussion between former History sub-panel members and prospective panellists, setting out both the rewards of panel membership and extent and burden of the work.
