We are delighted to announce the results of our 2025 Postgraduate Paper prize. The Postgraduate Paper Prize is awarded to the best conference papers presented at the Social History Society conference; this year, we are pleased to be able to award one overall winner and two Runner Up prizes.

We had 18 submissions this year, which were read and scored by a panel of six SHS judges. We are very grateful to Dave Hitchcock for organizing the prize, which always attracts high-quality submissions on a very wide range of topics in cultural and social history.

We are delighted to announce that the overall winner of this year’s prize is Emily Deal (University of East Anglia) for her paper: ‘Court, country and continent: Tracing the influence of environment and community in the material culture of Molly Lepell, Lady Hervey (1700-1768)’.

The judges determined that:

The piece makes excellent use of Lepell’s personal library and of the material culture extant to counteract the absence of written materials…it is neatly situated in the historiography of material culture, and placed within the existing context of heritage interpretation

Our judges contended that there was no easy way for this conference paper to be improved.

On receiving the prize, Deal expressed that:

I was absolutely delighted to receive the Postgraduate Paper Prize at this year’s conference – it was a lovely surprise and a fantastic conclusion to an inspiring event. As a first-year PhD student attending the conference for the first time, I found it incredibly motivating to engage with such a diverse and knowledgeable group of people. It was a real privilege to share my research and to give Molly Lepell the attention and platform she so richly deserves

We are also delighted to announce two Runner Up prizes.

One of our Runner Up Prizes was awarded to Jonathan Kuo (Johns Hopkins University) for his paper entitled: ‘Lessons in Care: Epistemological and Emotive Exports from a Transatlantic AIDS Tour’.

The judges determined that:

It is difficult to see how [the use of primary and secondary sources] could have been done more successfully within the constraints of a conference paper

The other Runner Up Prize was awarded to Amy Longmuir (University of Reading) for her paper: ‘The Domestic Labour Debate: Women, Work, and Socialist-feminism in Britain, c.1968-1992’.

The judges expressed that:

The methodology is one that is clearly established but is used to good effect here, examining the publications of feminist movement members

As ever, the standard this year was very high, and indicative of the brilliant work being produced by the next generation of social historians.