WSG Bursary Applications now open for 2025-26

WSG is offering a bursary of £750 to an early career researcher*, independent scholar or PhD student who is a member of the WSG. The bursary is intended to support research in any aspect of women’s studies in the period 1558-1837 for new or continuing interdisciplinary or single-discipline projects.

The deadline for bursary applications is 15 December 2025, and the successful applicant will be announced in January 2026. For further information, and to apply, please download the  application form.

Applications are considered by the WSG committee. The money will normally be paid on presentation of receipts. The successful applicant will be expected to give a paper at a future WSG meeting in person or via Zoom in the 2026-2027 seminar season. The contribution of the WSG bursary should be acknowledged in any resulting publications.

*Early career researcher is ‘an individual who is within eight years of the award of their PhD or within 6 years of their first academic appointment’ (AHRC).

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Recent Bursary Winners (for a full list of winners, visit our bursary page)

  • 2025: Valentina Aparicio, researching Maria Graham’s correspondence for her forthcoming monograph, Challenging Friendships: Scottish Women Travellers in Latin America, 1820–60 (Main Award); and Charlotte Vallis, ‘French diplomatic archives relating to Russian Empresses Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II’ (Travel Award), Patricia Ahern, ‘Enlightenment memories of Mary Queen of Scots’ (Travel Award), and Rachel Bynoth, ‘Anxiety in family letters’ (Travel Award).
  • 2024: Amy Solomons, ‘Eighteenth-century female reading experiences in historic house spaces’.
  • 2023: Eleanor Bird, ‘Margaret Davy, sister-in-law of Humphrey Davy and collector of his works’ (Main Award); and Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, ‘Examining three Georgian opera singers: Elizabeth Billington, Anna Selina Storace and Gertrude Mara’ (Travel Award).

WSG Bursary Awards 2025

We are delighted to announce that we have awarded the 2025 bursary of £750 to Dr Valentina Aparicio, ECR, Queen Mary University of London. Valentina is currently researching a monograph project, Challenging Friendships: Scottish Women Travellers in Latin America, 1820–60. She will use the award to visit Special Collections at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, to study the personal papers of Maria Graham, Lady Callcott, including her correspondence with the Brazilian Empress, Maria Leopoldina.

All the applications we received were of a high standard this year. In recognition of this, we decided to award an additional three travel bursaries of £250 each to the runners-up:

  • Patricia Ahern, PhD, University of Delaware, ‘Enlightenment memories of Mary Queen of Scots’.
  • Rachel Bynoth, ECR, Bath Spa University, ‘Anxiety in family letters’.
  • Charlotte Vallis, PhD, University of York, ‘French diplomatic archives relating to Russian Empresses Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II’.

Congratulations to all four. We look forward to hearing further news of their projects.

Note: The WSG bursary opens for applications from PhD students, ECRs, and independent scholars in the autumn, with a deadline of November/December.

WSG Bursary Applications now open for 2024-2025

WSG is offering a bursary of £750 to an early career researcher*, independent scholar or PhD student who is a member of the WSG. The bursary is intended to support research in any aspect of women’s studies in the period 1558-1837 for new or continuing interdisciplinary or single-discipline projects.

The deadline for bursary applications is 15 December 2024, and the successful applicant will be announced in January 2025. For further information, and to apply, please download the PDF application form here.

You can also download a Word application form.

Applications are considered by the WSG committee. The money will normally be paid on presentation of receipts. The successful applicant will be expected to give a paper at a future WSG meeting in person or via Zoom in the 2025-2026 seminar season. The contribution of the WSG bursary should be acknowledged in any resulting publications.

*Early career researcher is ‘an individual who is within eight years of the award of their PhD or within 6 years of their first academic appointment’ (AHRC).

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Previous Bursary Winners

  • 2024: Amy Solomons, ‘Eighteenth-century female reading experiences in historic house spaces’
  • 2023: Eleanor Bird, ‘Margaret Davy, sister-in-law of Humphrey Davy and collector of his works’ (Main Award); and Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, ‘Examining three Georgian opera singers: Elizabeth Billington, Anna Selina Storace and Gertrude Mara’ (Travel Award)
  • 2020: Anna Jamieson, ‘Spending and Shopping: Women’s Experience in the Eighteenth-Century Madhouse’ and Alexis Wolf, ‘Women Nurses and Inspectors of the Foundling Hospital, 1750-1830’ (Joint award with Foundling Museum)

WSG Bursary 2024 

We are delighted to announce that the 2024 WSG Bursary has been awarded to Amy Solomons. Amy is a trained archivist and librarian and  is currently a PhD researcher at the University of Liverpool and the National Trust. Her research focusses on eighteenth-century female reading experiences in historic house spaces. She will use the bursary to fund two research trips: to Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, and Sandon Hall, Staffordshire, each of which contains bibliographic and archival sources documenting Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, her daughter, Lady Mary Countess of Bute, and her granddaughter Lady Louisa Stuart.

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Previous Bursary Winners

  • 2023: Eleanor Bird, ‘Margaret Davy, sister-in-law of Humphrey Davy and collector of his works’ (Main Award); & Brianna Robertson-Kirkland , ‘Examining three Georgian opera singers: Elizabeth Billington, Anna Selina Storace and Gertrude Mara’ (Travel Award)
  • 2020: Anna Jamieson, ‘Spending and Shopping: Women’s Experience in the Eighteenth-Century Madhouse’ and Alexis Wolf, ‘Women Nurses and Inspectors of the Foundling Hospital, 1750-1830’ (Joint award with Foundling Museum)
  • 2019: Charlotte Young, ‘Women’s involvement in Canterbury sequestrations, 1643-50’; Hannah Jeans, ‘Women’s Reading Habits and Gendered Genres, c.1600-1700’
  • 2018: Madeleine Pelling, ‘The friendship of Horace Walpole and Mary Hamilton’; Rebecca Simpson, ‘Narratives of pregnancy’
  • 2017: Charmian Mansell, ‘A new history of female service in early modern England, 1550-1650

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WSG Bursary 2019-2020 Award Winners

Happy New Year to all our readers. We are pleased to be able to announce the winners of our two bursaries.

Anna Jamieson, Birkbeck was awarded the £750 prize to continue researching in the Fellowes archives in the Norfolk and Huntingdonshire Record Offices as part of her project ‘Spending and Shopping: Women’s Experience in the Eighteenth-Century Madhouse’.  Congratulations Anna!

The joint award with the Foundling Museum of £500 went to Alexis Wolf, Birkbeck.  Alexis will use the award to fund research in the Foundling archives as part of her project ‘Women Nurses and Inspectors of the Foundling Hospital, 1750-1830’. Congratulations Alexis!

Details of our 2020-2021 award scheme will be announced later in the year.