The Social History Society awards two prizes to postgraduates each year for their contribution to our annual conference.

This year the £200 prize for best paper was won by Sophie Greenway, a PhD student at the Centre for the History of Medicine at the University of Warwick, for her paper Producer or consumer? The house, the garden and the sourcing of vegetables in Britain, 1930-1970.

The judges on the panel were impressed by how Sophie used contemporary magazines to analyse a range of issues about vegetable growing, dirt, gardens and women as consumers. They were especially impressed by how well this came together when the paper was delivered. You can download a copy of the winning paper by clicking here.

Back in 2015, we added to our long-running ‘best paper’ prize with a new prize for the best research poster by a postgraduate. The posters are put on display throughout the conference, with attendees having the chance to vote for their favourite. The standard was high, as noted by one voter who wrote “they’re all excellent” at the bottom of the ballot paper. But there can be only one winner, and another voter who wrote “excellent” next to the name of the eventual winner was clearly in sync with the popular view.

The £100 postgraduate poster prize was won by Justine Cousin, a PhD candidate at Paris Sorbonne University. Her winning poster presented her research on Colonial seafarers on steamships: a transnational social life (1860-1960) and can be viewed in full by clicking here.

Professor Pam Cox, Chair of the Social History Society, said: “Many congratulations to our winners. SHS has a long tradition of supporting talented postgraduates and I’m sure Sophie and Justine will go on to great things.”

Congratulations to them both!