2021 Jeremiah Dalziel PhD Prize winners announced

The Prize

Three graduate students have been named as joint winners of the 2021 Jeremiah Dalziel PhD Prize. It is awarded annually to the most meritorious student(s) registered at the University as a candidate for a postgraduate degree in the field of British History. Submissions are judged on the basis of the submitted work and the student’s supervisor’s supporting statement, and the £7,000 prize will be divided between the winners.

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This year’s winners

Commendations are from the judging panel, which consisted of Drs Adam Budd, Sarah Goldsmith and Benjamin Weinstein.

Jessica Campbell (supervised by Dr Gayle Davis) – ‘Theatre, Performance and the [19^th century] Asylum Stage’

This chapter “digs deeper into the largely unwritten history of theatrical performances in psychiatric contexts,” to advance an outstandingly engaging, sophisticated and lucid argument and innovative analysis. Campbell successfully complicates scholarly accounts that emphasize the disciplinary function of theatrical performance within the asylum – noting the participation of inmates as well as staff - to emphasize the surprising popularity of minstrelsy and comedic forms of dramatic performance. This candidate supports their claims and analysis with evidence drawn from an impressive range of archival and published sources, much of it the result of painstaking research in long-neglected collections. The work is polished, thoughtful and clearly the produce of a talented historian.   

Alison Clark (supervised by Professor Diana Paton) – ‘Expanding the Boundaries of Empire, 1790-1815: Scottish Traders in the South Caribbean’

In recent decades historians have focussed on the political upheavals among colonial regimes in the Caribbean during the Napoleonic wars. But few have considered the intercolonial economic activities that enabled imperial trading firms to expand and even to thrive through this period. Clark’s lively archival study and critical analysis of the Sandbach Tinné Company provides fascinating insights into the ways in which this agile family business navigated these upheavals by engaging in illicit inter-colonial slave trading and cotton trading that evaded imperial authorities. Not only does Clark’s analysis make a fresh contribution to our understanding of transatlantic business during this turbulent period, but it also illuminates the consequences for economic and social lives in the metropole, beyond the Glasgow and Liverpool ports and factories. This is thoughtful, articulate, and incisive work.      

Harry Lewis (supervised by Dr Alastair Raffe) – ‘The Jacobite Diaspora, Stuart Court, and the Greater Caribbean, 1688-c.1750’ 

This chapter offers an exciting and thoroughly evidenced re-evaluation of the politics of Jacobitism in the English Caribbean. While acknowledging that the Williamite Caribbean did not see widespread Jacobite uprisings, the author nonetheless provides much evidence of Jacobite plotting and intrigue, and does an excellent job of situating this plotting against the backdrop of international developments and in a trans-Atlantic frame. The chapter’s claims are expressed with admirable clarity and are supported by very detailed evidence drawn from an impressive range of archival materials. 

The School sends warmest congratulations to all three worthy winners.