FELLOWS’ NEWS
Research led by Professor Burchell on the UK labour market, the happiness and wellbeing of workers and the benefits of part-time work has featured heavily in the press throughout lockdown with features this year in The Guardian, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Mail, The Economist and elsewhere. His team tracked the wellbeing and working hours of 5,000 people over the past 10 years, discovering that those whose hours of work were reduced during the pandemic or had been furloughed maintained the same levels of wellbeing at the employees who continued to work the same hours as before, but those who lost their jobs completely were the most likely to experience symptoms of anxiety or depression. The press emphasised how the Chancellor, the Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, drew on the research when revising the furlough scheme, allowing employees to work part-time and still be supported with government funding.
The third prize, awarded by the Institute of Historical Research in London, was the international Sir Julian Corbett Prize in Modern Naval History. She received it for her article on the service of foreign quarterdeck officers in the Royal Navy of the American and French Wars (1775– 1815). This piece is due to appear in Historical Research, the Institute’s flagship journal. Lastly, Dr Caputo won this year’s Earl of Rosebery Prize, awarded by the Scottish History Society for the best transcription with scholarly apparatus of manuscript sources in Scottish history. Her entry, entitled Scottish Young Gentlemen in the Royal Navy, 1791–1818, formed the core of another book proposal, which is now under consideration with the SHS. This would be a scholarly edition of previously unknown manuscript sources, speaking to the histories of late childhood, British integration, Scottish identity, and Scottish crossborder and imperial networks of patronage in relation to naval service. On all her success Dr Caputo commented: “It feels strange and sobering to have so much to celebrate in times like these. Any one of these prizes would make someone’s year, and I can’t help but think that I have been hogging more than my fair share of joy. However, the genuine happiness of family, friends, and mentors upon hearing the repeated good news is what will leave the most lasting impression on me, once the dust is settled. I am determined to treat these recognitions as reminders to think of others even when the world tries to make it all about me, and to be immensely grateful for all the help, support, and caring by which I am constantly surrounded.”
Dr Cecilia Brassett (2009) Congratulations to Dr Brassett, Fellow and Director of Studies in Medical Sciences, who was awarded the Symington Memorial Prize in January 2021. The Prize is awarded biennially by the Academic Council of Queen’s University on the recommendation of the Council of Anatomical Society for contributions to the advancement of anatomy. © ESU
4 Magdalene Matters
Professor Brendan Burchell (1990)
Dr Sara Caputo (2019) Dr Sara Caputo, Lumley Research Fellow in History, won four academic prizes during Lent Term 2021. First, she was awarded the Prince Consort and Thirlwall Prize and Seeley Medal for a historical doctoral dissertation completed at Cambridge in 2019–20. Her dissertation also won the British Commission for Maritime History’s Boydell & Brewer Prize for the best PhD dissertation in maritime history completed in the UK in the academic year 2019–20. This work, now in book manuscript form, is under review with an academic press and was featured in the last edition of Magdalene Matters.
Professor James Raven FBA (1990) Professor Raven, Senior Research Fellow in History, has won an award from the Research Council of Norway for The Invention of the Lottery Fantasy: A Transmedial History of European Lotteries. This, with his fellow collaborators, will fund five workshops (two at Magdalene) and a three-year PhD grant, a three-year postdoctoral grant, funding for extensive archival work and research visits. Professor Raven has also been elected as President of the Bibliographical Society, the oldest bibliographical society in the world. Professor Raven is the fourth historian elected as President since 1892.
