UKRI Open Access Policy for the Arts and Humanities: FAQs
In August 2021 UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) announced its future policy regarding Open Access publishing. April 2022 sees the first key date when new UKRI rules come into effect: relating to the accessibility of journal articles based on research funded by AHRC grants, excluding PhD funding. This post provides a Q&A principally for historians to explain the changes which take effect from 1 April 2022, and those concerning monographs which come into effect for titles published from January 2024.
Sir Tony Wrigley (1931-2022), Remembered by Simon Szreter
In this post, Professor Simon Szreter (University of Cambridge) considers the career and work of the historian Sir Tony Wrigley FBA who sadly died in February 2022. One of Britain’s most important and influential social and economic historians, Tony Wrigley was – alongside many other professional accolades – a long-standing Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
History for Ukraine: 48+ historians, 24 hours
‘History for Ukraine’ takes place on Saturday and Sunday 26th and 27th March. Over 24 hours – starting at 12 noon on Saturday 26th – 48 historians and genealogists from the UK, Europe, Australasia and North America will each speak for minutes about their research and love of history, and take questions. History for Ukraine will fundraise for the DEC Ukraine appeal to help support the 10 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion of their country. In this post you can read more about the event, and who’s taking part.
Justifying the arts in early modern Britain
What value did people place on the arts in post-Reformation Britain? And what was the role of the clergy in sponsoring musical performance in particular? In this post, recent RHS grant recipient Dr Hannah Yip explores the justification and championing of early modern artistic endeavour.
Objects of Sovereignty: Thinking through Restitution
There are currently many thousands of artefacts held in UK museums and other public collections. ‘Devolving Restitution’ is a series of workshops to study the histories of African artefacts in museums and heritage institutions. In this post Stanley Jachike Onyemechalu and Sarah Scheyerle explore the presentation and value of Objects of Sovereignty at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge.
Brothels, bowling and bad behaviour: life on the fringes of late medieval London
To coincide with the release of her new book ‘The Margins of Late Medieval London’, Dr Charlotte Berry takes a look at life on the fringes of the city through the story of one small community. Charlotte’s book, published on 15 February, is the latest title in the Society’s ‘New Historical Perspectives’ series for early career historians, and available free Open Access.
Charting Time and Visualising Race in Europe’s Enlightenment
In this, the first in a new series of posts in the ‘Writing Race’ series, Professor Bruce Buchan considers the prominence of race in Enlightenment thought, and the legacies of eighteenth-century moral philosophy for modern racism: questions considered here with reference to the teaching of Adam Ferguson (1723-1816) and the ‘Historical Chart’, attributed to Ferguson on its publication in 1780.
Introducing ‘Writing Race’, Series Two
In this post Dr Diya Gupta, commissioning editor for ‘Writing Race’, introduces the start of a new series of posts and reflects on Series One which ran on the RHS blog, ‘Historical Transactions’, in 2021. Here Diya reflects on Series One, looks ahead to forthcoming posts – starting in early February – and invites you to get involved.
Cataloguing the Papers of George W. Prothero – A Personal Reflection
In January 2022 we launched a new catalogue of the papers of George W. Prothero (1848-1922). The collection, one of the largest in the RHS Archive, charts the life of a pioneering historian and the emergence of the modern historical profession. Here Dr Eilish Gregory, who led the first phase of the project, reflects on Prothero as a scholar and champion of History.
New Catalogue for the Society’s George W. Prothero papers (1866-1922)
We’ve recently created and published a new Catalogue for the papers of George W. Prothero (1848-1922), historian, literary editor and President of the RHS between 1901 and 1905. Here we introduce the collection, the largest in the RHS archive, with highlights and images from Prothero’s correspondence and professional papers.
Marking 5 years and 50,000 downloads of ‘New Historical Perspectives’, 2016-21
In this final post of 2021 we mark 5 years since the creation of ‘New Historical Perspectives’, the Society’s Open Access book series for early career historians. Here we invite four people involved with the Series – two series editors (past and present), a publisher and an author – to comment on their experience of NHP between 2016 and 2021.
New Associate Fellowship and Postgraduate categories for RHS membership
Changes to the Society’s membership structure see the introduction of new Associate Fellowship and Postgraduate categories. From now, there will be four ways to be part of the Royal Historical Society: as a Fellow, an Associate Fellow, a Postgraduate or a Member. This post explains these changes which were announced at the Society’s AGM, held on 26 November 2021.