The Society wishes to recognise and celebrate the outstanding work in architectural history being carried out by students on taught Masters-level courses in UK universities (including final-year students on Scottish MA (Hons) degrees). With this aim in mind, the Dissertation Prize is framed to encourage innovative and critical thinking in and around the subject, either by the pursuit of new kinds and categories of knowledge or else by reassessing and rewriting topics that are already an accepted part of the field. Submissions for this prize can thus take the form of original primary research, critical revision, historiographical reflection, epistemological questioning, etc.
The Society’s definition of architectural history is consciously diverse and inclusive, and covers the histories of building design, construction, practice, urban planning, landscape design, inhabitation, culture and society in all countries/regions and across all periods. We are especially open to intersectional approaches that bring together approaches or themes which seek to expand our understanding of architectural history, and which might well include some of these new and evolving research agendas (as well as others):
minority discourses
post-colonial perspectives
de-colonisation of the teaching curriculum
gender relations
LGBQT+ relations
race and space
disability and neurodiversity
political critique
spatial violence and resistance
environmental and ecological issues
problematic aspects of built heritage
These sorts of agendas are among those at the heart of the Society’s aim to help create ‘a bigger discipline’ for architectural history, not least through the workings of its Equality, Diversity & Inclusivity networks. We therefore see the Dissertation Prize as furthering this ambition by encouraging Masters-level students in UK universities to join in the challenge of expanding the subject.
See website for award criteria and application instructions.
