Prince Consort & Thirlwall Prize and Seeley Medal
The Prince Consort & Thirlwall Prize and Seeley Medal is a prize awarded annually by the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge for the doctoral dissertation submitted in the previous academic year which is deemed by the Faculty's judging panel to be the best. As of May 2025, the prize is valued at £1,500 and is drawn from the Prince Consort and Thirlwall Prize Fund, which also offers studentships and grants to PhD students, and hardship funding for fourth-year PhD students.[1]
History
The prize is the result of a merger between the Prince Consort Prize, the Thirwall Prize, and the Seeley Medal. From 1904, the Prince Consort Prize and Thirlwall Prize were awarded in alternate years for the best doctoral dissertation.
The Seeley Medal emerged from an attempt, in 1896, to create a Memorial Fund in memory of John Robert Seeley, a former Regius Professor of History at the Faculty, who had died the previous year. The organisers were unsuccessful in raising their target of £3,000 to offer a postgraduate scholarship "to encourage the study of English and foreign archives bearing upon modern international history"; only £635 was raised, which was eventually designated for the Seeley Medal to reward exceptional historical scholarship. Prior to its merger with the Prince Consort and Thirlwall Prizes, the Seeley Medal was only awarded sporadically.[2]
List of past winners
The following is an incomplete list of past winners. The year given is the year in which the prize was awarded; the dissertations to which they refer were submitted in the previous years.
| Year | Names of recipients | Title of doctoral dissertation |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Elena Zheng[3] | The Politics of Belief in Hume and Enlightenment Scepticism |
| 2023 | Charlotte Johann[4] | Friedrich Carl von Savigny and Politics of Legal Pluralism in Germany, ca. 1810–1847 |
| Tamara Fernando | Of Molluscs and Men: Pearling Labour and Environments in the Northern Indian Ocean 1880–1925 | |
| 2022 | Daniel Allemann[5] | Slavery and Empire in Iberian Scholastic Thought, c.1539-1682 |
| Samuel Sokolsky-Tifft[6] | The Problem of Guilt: Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Fanon, and Glissant | |
| 2021 | Sara Caputo[7] | Foreign Seamen and the British Navy, 1793–1815 |
| Jake Subryan Richards | Liberated Africans and Law in the South Atlantic, c.1839–1871 | |
| 2020 | Freddy Foks[8] | Social Anthropology and British Society: c.1920–1975 |
| Chika Tonooka | Japanese 'Civilisation' and Ideas of Progress in Britain, c.1880–1945 | |
| 2012 | Emile Chabal | Republicanism, Liberalism, and the Search for the Political Consensus in France, c.1980–c.2010 |
| 2001 | Emma Griffin | Popular Sports and Celebrations in England, 1660–1840 |
| 2000 | David Stone | The Management of Resources on the Demesne Farm of Wisbech Barton 1314–1430 |
| 1999 | Jonathan Walker | Honour and the Culture of Male Venetian Nobles, c. 1500–1650 |
| 1961 | David Loades |
References
- ^ "Faculty of History Trust Funds | Faculty of History University of Cambridge". www.hist.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "John Robert Seeley; Mary Agnes Seeley – Mill Road Cemetery". millroadcemetery.org.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Elena Zeng wins Cambridge University's Prince Consort & Thirlwall Prize and Seeley Medal | University Center for Human Values". uchv.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Faculty Trust Fund Prizes | Faculty of History University of Cambridge". www.hist.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Student Prizes 2021-22 | Faculty of History University of Cambridge". www.hist.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Samuel Sokolsky-Tifft, Ph.D." Institute for Social Concerns. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Prince Consort and Thirlwall Prize winners 2020 | Faculty of History University of Cambridge". www.hist.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-14.
- ^ "Drs Chika Tonooka and Freddie Foks win Prince Consort Prize | Faculty of History University of Cambridge". www.hist.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-05-14.