At the Society’s AGM on Tuesday May 21st, we were delighted to be able to announce the following recipients of our Research Grants for 2024. We wish them all happy and successful outcomes and look forward to hearing all about them in due course.

The Anthony Denning Award was given to
Jim Taylor, Independent Scholar based in France
Shakespeare, Touring, and British Cultural Diplomacy in sub-Saharan Africa (1960-1966): travel to consult archives

The Kathleen Barker Award was given to
Olivia Kershaw Researcher (consultancy, arts and cultural sector)
The Preservation and Digitisation of Summerseat Players’ Archive: A Local Amateur Theatre History: to sort and digitise the material

The Stephen Joseph Award was given to
Sarah Goldingay, Kara Reilly, and Jon Primrose
lecturers and technical manager at Exeter University
Told by the Tech: capturing backstage stories before they vanish; pilot for larger project: costs for interviews

and a grant from the Craig Fund was given to
Grit Eckert Scenic Artist, Teacher, Researcher
Rediscovering Traditional Distemper Painting: A Historical Exploration of British Glazing Techniques in the Nineteenth-Century Scene Painting Practice: travel, accommodation, photography in Newcastle

Other grants were allocated as follows:

Anouska Lester Independent Researcher
Staging Marlowe: A Database of Performance History from the 1580s to the Present Day: travel and accommodation London, Canterbury

Stephan Isaacs full time student
“Welcome to the family”: An archival and autoethnographic case study of The Avrom Greenbaum Players: travel, transcriptions, digital images

Helice Koffler Postgraduate researcher, archivist and librarian
(Un)Limited Mobilities: Actresses Who Made the Crossing, 1880-1930: travel to Amherst College and Rochester NY to consult archives (based in USA)

Michael Chengyao Ye PhD student Bristol
Staging Real-Life Nazi Perpetrators: Dramaturgy and the Ethics of Holocaust Theatre: travel to London archives

Maggie Gray and Caoimhe Mader McGuinness Senior Lecturer in Drama/Senior Lecturer in Critical and Historical Studies, Kingston
Exploring Cartoon Style Alternative Theatre, 1965-1992 – attempting proletarian public spheres across the long crisis: travel and accommodation Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge, Glasgow archive research

Alissa Mello Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Drama, University of Exeter
The Judy Project is the first trans-historical examination of women practitioners, and the (re)presentation(s) of gender and identity in Punch and Judy: travel and accommodation for interviews and archive access Loughborough and Bridgenorth

Emma de Beus PhD candidate Queens Belfast
Shakespeare and Light: A New, Interdisciplinary Paradigm for Reading Adaptations through Physics: travel and accommodation to consult archives in Gladstone’s Library

Rachel White Teaching Fellow in Shakespeare and Early Modern English Literature at Durham University, and Tom Harrison Independent Scholar
Investigation of the hall of Trinity College, Cambridge, as an early modern performance venue: travel and accommodation for Cambridge trip.

The next round of Research Grants will open at the beginning of 2025.
Click here to read more about the programme.