Prizes

Prizes

Richard J. Carwardine Prize

 
a painted portrait of Richard Carwardine

Named in honour of Professor Richard J. Carwardine, FBA, Rhodes Professor Emeritus of American History at Oxford, this prize is awarded annually to the M.St. student in U.S. History who is judged by the course convenors to have been the outstanding overall student of the cohort. In selecting the recipient, the convenors consider not only final marks and ranking, but also the energy, enthusiasm, and enterprise that candidates brought to their research, studies, and seminar discussions over the course of the year.

The prize has been endowed by a generous donation from the William S. Broadbent Family. Avery W. Broadbent and William S. Broadbent, Jr. both studied in Oxford at the RAI and received a M.St. in Modern History. The prize reflects Professor Carwardine’s outstanding contribution to the study of U.S. history and the Broadbent Family’s gratitude to him as a teacher and scholar. 

Past recipients:

Keely Larson and Caine Lewin-Turner (2022)

Laura de Lisle (2021)

Gwion Wyn Jones and Josh Lappen (2020)

Katherine Fapp (2019)

Noah Remnick (2018)

Sage Goodwin (2017)

Megan Armknecht (2016)

 

Barbara Savage Prize

 

Barbara Savage Profile Picture

The Barbara Savage Prize is awarded annually for the best undergraduate thesis in Black History. It was created following a town-hall meeting run by the History Faculty in 2020, in which students were asked what could be done to make the teaching of history more diverse and inclusive and to advance race equality.

The Prize is named in honour of Professor Barbara Savage, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor Savage was the Harmsworth Visiting Professor of American History, based at Queen’s College and the RAI, in 2018-19. On the creation of the Prize, she writes:

 

The new Black History Thesis Prize is a step toward making this field more visible at Oxford.  Black history offers opportunities for exciting new research across time and space.  The prize also signals that Black lives mattered in the past, too.  History always teaches us about the present.  We cannot understand the nexus between racial legacies of the past and the pressing current moment without knowing that history. 

I am excited that the prize will encourage Oxford students to explore black history with the creativity and commitment I saw during my time there as Harmsworth Professor in 2018-2019.  It honours the field in which I work and am humbled that it bears my name.

Past recipients: 

Sophie Gunning (2020)

 

Wylie Prize

 

a blue background with white RAI lettering and gold horizontal stripes

The Wylie Prize is awarded to the best undergraduate thesis on the history of the United States submitted in the Honours School of History or any of its joint schools. The winner is nominated by the FHS Board of Examiners, and the recipient receives £250.

 

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