The BSHP offers one postgraduate and one postdoctoral fellowship annually. Applications are welcome from those studying or researching any area of history of philosophy. The deadline for applying to both schemes is 23:59 (GMT) on 31 January each year. For successful applicants, the fellowship will run for one year starting in September of the year they apply.
A bursary of £4000 is available to postgraduate students of any nationality currently studying at a UK higher education institution, or having accepted an offer to start studies at a UK higher education institution in the year of the fellowship. The bursary is offered for a single academic year. Applications are especially encouraged from PG students from underrepresented groups, including students with disabilities, students from BAME backgrounds, first generation university students, and women. For further information and to apply, see here.
A bursary of £6000 is available to an early career researcher of any nationality currently resident in the UK. The bursary is offered for a single academic year. Applications are especially encouraged from ECRs from underrepresented groups, including candidates with disabilities, candidates from BAME backgrounds, first generation university students, and women. For further information and to apply, see here.
"The fellowship I received through the BSHP has been an immense help toward finishing my doctoral studies. The funding allowed me to reduce the amount of teaching I had planned on doing, such that I was able to focus more on completing my thesis, which I'll now be able to submit in the next couple of months. This also provided me time to work on several papers and to develop a research proposal for postdoctoral positions, allowing me to submit five articles for consideration in various journals over the past year — one of which has been published, several of which are now being reworked in light of positive comments, and others of which remain under review. Lastly, the funding enabled me to present work at multiple venues that I would have otherwise been unable to access, including two international conferences and two seminar series. I am extremely grateful to the BSHP for awarding me the fellowship and for enabling me to take a more focused approach to my research." David Harmon, 2023 Postgraduate Fellowship
"I gratefully received the BSHP Postdoctoral Fellowship at a critical time in my academic career - having just finished my PhD and entered the academic job market. The Fellowship provided a vital bedrock to my research for two reasons: First, financially, it allowed me to embrace an academic summer (following a short-term teaching job) which allowed me to dedicate vital time to research which later resulted in my first publication in the BJHP in September 2024 ('Mary Midgley's Meta-Ethics and Neo-Aristotelian Naturalism' 2024). Secondly (and just as importantly!) throughout the academic year, the Fellowship provided me with a title - 'BSHP Postdoctoral Fellow' - which was amazing for job applications and gave me some real institutional consistency during that unstable time. I am so grateful to the BSHP for this grant, and their ongoing commitment to work on women in the history of philosophy." Eleanor Robson, 2023 Postdoctoral Fellowship
"The postgraduate fellowship from the BSHP first and foremost allowed me to finish my PhD thesis without having to worry about my financial situation. It goes without saying that this has had great positive impact on both my work and my mental state in the final year of my PhD. Being awarded the fellowship has also significantly boosted my academic confidence. I am enormously grateful for the support I have received from the BSHP." Wouter Cohen, 2022 Postgraduate Fellowship
"I’m incredibly grateful to the BSHP for offering me a Postdoctoral Fellowship, which provided me with generous research funding at a critical stage of my career. It allowed me to prepare three papers for submission to top-ranking journals in the history of philosophy, all of which are currently being resubmitted after having received positive feedback from reviewers. Additionally, I was able to develop in detail a major research proposal, which was successfully piloted during a research visit at the University of Notre Dame in the US. Together with my part-time teaching position at Pembroke College, Oxford, the funding from the BSHP provided a crucial stepping stone towards my next, longer-term position as Departmental Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford. I cannot thank the BSHP enough for its support. It is an institution upon which much of the flourishing of the history of philosophy in the UK depends and, though I am determined, it won’t be easy to repay all it has done for me!" Hannah Laurens, 2022 Postdoctoral Fellowship
"I am sincerely thankful for the Postdoctoral Fellowship that the British Society for the History of Philosophy has awarded me for the past year, 2022 – 3. The funding attached to it has allowed me to develop my primary research at this crucial, early stage of my academic career. The Fellowship has led to the development and refinement of three academic papers, each now in various stages of peer-review. As well as the remunerative aspect of the Fellowship, the BSHP’s recognition of my wider project has contributed to the sense of validation, that this project is a worthwhile one. I am very grateful." Richard Elliott, 2022 Postdoctoral Fellowship
"The fellowship I received from the BSHP has been extraordinarily beneficial. Principally, the funding allowed me to really focus on my research last year. Prior to receiving the funding, I was financially supporting myself by teaching A-Level Philosophy students at several secondary schools in London and undergraduate students at Birkbeck College. The funding from the BSHP came at a crucial point and allowed me to take some time away from my teaching commitments to focus solely on writing up my thesis. I am due to submit my thesis within the next few months, and this would not have been possible without the generous funding I received from the BSHP. Thank you!" Lauren Slater, 2021 Postgraduate Fellow
"I am very grateful for the BSHP postdoctoral fellowship, for various reasons. The increased financial security it has provided has given me peace of mind, and has allowed me to focus more fully on the project than I would otherwise have been able to. Richly rewarding though the project is, it also presents significant challenges. Knowing that the BSHP sees the project as valuable has increased my own confidence in its worth, which in turn helps me to persevere through these various challenges. Finally, simply being brought into the fold of the BSHP has been an honour, and a pleasure." Lucy Sheaf, 2021 Postdoctoral Fellow
"I am immensely grateful for the funding I received via the BSHP postgraduate fellowship. It enabled me to support myself through the final year of my PhD and focus completely on my research. The fellowship gave me the time to successfully pursue publication in a top journal and to submit the strongest possible version of my doctoral thesis, which passed without corrections. I was very proud to be counted a postgraduate fellow of the BSHP and the confidence this gave me has been enormously beneficial to all aspects of my work." Tom Fawcett, 2021 Postgraduate Fellow
