Funding

BSHP Fellowships

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.

BSHP Postgraduate Fellowship

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.

  • 2022 Fellows: Lea Cantor (Oxford) and Wouter A. Cohen (Cambridge)
  • 2021 Fellows: Lauren Slater (Birkbeck) and Thomas S. Fawcett (Sheffield)

BSHP Postdoctoral Fellowship

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.

  • 2022 Fellows: Hannah Laurens (St Andrews) and Richard Elliott (Birkbeck)
  • 2021 Fellows: Mike Coxhead (KCL) and Lucy Sheaf (KCL)

Testimonies

"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