We are delighted to announce the results of our 2026 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 one Runner Up prize.
The winner this year was Rebecca Williamson (University of Glasgow) for her paper: ‘Wilfully, Wickedly, Feloniously’: Scots Law and Abortion, 1858′.
On receiving this prize, Rebecca expressed that:
It was a genuine honour to be awarded the Postgraduate Paper Prize at this year’s Social History Society Conference. This prize plays an important role in encouraging the warm, welcoming, and academically nourishing space that the society fosters for PGRs. The breadth and quality of work presented by PGRs, academics, and independent scholars at the conference this year was astounding and truly galvanising in these times of precarity and instability. I would wholeheartedly encourage PGRs to submit their papers for the 2027 iteration of the prize; it’s a fantastic opportunity to have your work read more widely and you might just end up winning!
The runner up was Dylan Neill Andres (University of Bristol) for his paper ‘The Outlaw Hero? Violence and Legitimacy in the Case of Henry Avery, c. 1695-1720’. On receiving this accolade, Dylan said that:
This was my first (hopefully of many!) Social History Society conference, and I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. It was a real pleasure to share my research with so many engaged and supportive historians, and a privilege to have my paper recognised among such excellent work. At a time when the humanities are under considerable pressure, the conference was also an encouraging reminder of the strength of our discipline, and I feel fortunate to have been part of it.
Looking over the prize as a whole, the judges said:
Both of this year’s postgraduate paper prize winners demonstrated the power of focused microhistory and concrete storytelling to intervene in wider debates. Neill Andres’s paper demonstrated how ‘outlaw legitimacy’ could be found through the right (and selective) use of violence in his study of the mutineer Henry Avery. Our winner Rebecca Williamson produced a study of abortion in 19th century Scotland and its “compelling legal complications”. The paper took in the case of Mary Bulloch, a young woman in 1858 whose unfortunate circumstances pulled in many community members around her and led to a lengthy legal case. The overall quality of papers submitted was very high, and everyone who participated should be proud of their work.