Funding

History UK funds and co-funds a number of events and projects each year. These are listed on our events page and reports and reflections can be found on the blog and in the steering committee minutes. In 2019 we also began offering funding for projects and events in support of history in higher education and beyond.

Guidance on applying for our funding can be downloaded here.

Two initiatives that we are supporting in 2019 relate to BME history:

Funding Scheme for Black and Minority Ethnic History (with Social History Society, Economic History Society and Society for the Study of Labour History)

In 2019 History UK, the Social History Society, the Economic History Society and the Society for the Study of Labour History launched a new funding scheme to support Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) history. The scheme has been created in recognition of the under-representation, structural inequalities and racism afflicting UK Higher Education Institutions.

The BME Events and Activities Small Grants Scheme provides grants of up to £750 to support activities and events run by BME historians or on subjects relating to BME history. It is open to applicants looking to run conferences, workshops and symposia, as well as other activities such as exhibitions, walking tours, performances of podcasts. The initial call for applications for funding closed on 1 September 2019. Further details are available here: http://socialhistory.org.uk/bme-events-and-activities/

A panel of experts, comprised of Professor Catherine Hall (University College London), Dr Meleisa Ono-George (University of Warwick) and Dr Jonathan Saha (University of Leeds), assessed all applications to the scheme.

This support is open to professional historians (working in universities or elsewhere), independent scholars, retired staff and students alike. The only stipulation is that applicants should be (or be willing to become) members of either the SHS or EHS. In the case of applicants who are permanently employed in higher education institutions, their department should also be (or willing to become) a subscribing member of History UK.

In late October 2019 the results of the inaugural round of funding was announced. This post on the SHS blog has more information, but the scheme received sixteen applications, of which the following were funded:

• ‘1919 – Black Lives in Britain’ a series of Wikipedia hackathons at the Black Cultural Archives organised by AfroCROWD UK
• ‘From Margins to Centre?’ An undergraduate conference organised by Clare Burgess and Olivia White (University of York)
• ‘Legacy Makers’ a knowledge exchange symposium organised by Lisa Robinson
• ‘Represent’ a workshop at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge organised by Danika Parikh (University of Cambridge) and Akshyeta Suryanarayan (University of Cambridge)
• ‘Sapphire @ 60: Filming Race, Gender and Sexuality in 1950s Britain’ a series of film screenings organised by Kesewa John (University of Chichester) and Karen Wilkes (Birmingham City University)

 

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Conference funding for panel on inequality, underrepresentation, and discrimination in the field of U.S. History with secondary school teachers (with BrANCH)

• Project report (November 2019)

The Association of British American Nineteenth Century Historians (BrANCH) is the leading organisation for scholars of nineteenth-century U.S. history in the UK. In recent years, the association has sought to involve itself in initiatives to address issues surrounding inequality, underrepresentation, and discrimination in the field of U.S. History and is particularly keen to encourage greater racial, gender, and socioeconomic diversity among students studying U.S. History at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

History UK is providing £500 to help strengthen BrANCH’s relationships with institutions and individuals working in secondary education. Four teachers from local secondary schools will be invited to participate in a panel on 12th October at the 2019 Annual BrANCH Conference at the University of Edinburgh.

This panel, which will consist of both secondary school and university teachers of U.S. history, has three main aims.

1. To share teaching practices, specifically regarding new digital archives and online resources that can be utilised in the classroom. Participants will focus on resources that allow access to non-traditional sources that can be used to develop new curriculum which moves beyond uncritically white- and male-centred histories of the United States.
2. To discuss issues of diversity and equality among staff and students in the field of U.S. History in the UK. Panellists will share views from their vantage points in different areas of the education system and reflect on why certain racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups are underrepresented in the field of U.S. History beyond GCSE/A-Level.
3. To explore future steps BrANCH and its individual members can take to address these issues, focussing on long-term collaborative initiatives between secondary school and higher education teachers.

The principal aim is to raise awareness regarding issues of discrimination, underrepresentation, and inequality in our field. This will further facilitate the building of networks between these teachers and BrANCH members, most of whom teach in higher education.