Six awards have been made in the latest funding round for BME history projects. Administered by the Social History Society, the BME small grants scheme is a partnership between the the SHS, Society for the Study of Labour History, the Economic History Society, History UK, History of Education Society (UK), History Workshop Journal, Royal Historical Society, and Women’s History Network. It was set up in 2019 in recognition of the under-representation, structural inequalities and racism afflicting UK Higher Education Institutions.

Applications are judged by an independent panel, which this year comprised Michael Joseph (University of Cambridge), Miranda Lowe (Natural History Museum) and Jonathan Saha (University of Durham). They noted that the quality of applications was very strong and felt that ‘the fund has now established itself as place to support research into marginalised communities’.

The panel made six awards. The successful projects are:

1. Francesca Humi (Padayon) for ‘An Oral History of Filipino Migration to the UK’
2. Sue Lemos (University of Warwick, PhD Student) for ‘Pioneers of Our Own Future’: Historicising the ‘Black Lesbian and Gay Movement’ in Britain, 1960s-1990s’
3. Cherish Imunnakwe, (Liverpool Hope University, MA Student) for ‘Liverpool Goes Bananas: Elder Dempster and the imperial fruit trade, c.1880-1900’
4. Leslie James (Queen Mary, University of London) for ‘History Summer School: Building to Postgraduate Study’
5. Lily Crowther (Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum) for ‘”Built with Malice Aforethought”: Leamington Spa & the Black Atlantic’
6. Akosua Paries-Osei (Royal Holloway, University of London, PGR) ‘Puberty: The Law of Biological Difference’

We join with our partner funding organisations in wishing the successful candidates all the best for their projects.