This guide provides details of your membership of the Royal Historical Society, and the range of benefits to which you have access. The majority of these benefits apply to all categories of Royal Historical Society membership. Where opportunities vary (for example, in relation to fellows) these are stated.
If you are new to the Society, we hope you find this a useful introduction to making the most of your association.
For existing members, the following pages offer a reminder of what’s available to you, and highlight some recent additions to your membership of the Society.
News and information
As a member of the Royal Historical Society you will receive regular updates about the work of the Society, including a twice-yearly letter from the Society’s President.
In addition, a weekly news circular* sent by email to all members provides details of the latest activities and initiatives from the Society — many of which are covered further in this guide.
The Society’s weekly circular is also a listing of history-related events taking place across the UK and beyond.
Each week, we provide details of 15 to 20 public activities submitted to our news service. These include externally-organised history lectures, seminars, conferences and other events; calls for papers; book launches; offers of research funding; and selected employment opportunities.
The weekly news circular is available only to members of the Society and is compiled and vetted by RHS Office staff.
*Links to an archived circular from October 2025
Research funding and research support
Each year the Society awards c.£150,000 in grants to support historical research and communication. Nearly all of the Society’s 12+ regular funding programmes are reserved for applications from current members.
Royal Historical Society funding is available to members at all career stages and provides for a wide range of activities.
Twice a year, we offer calls for general (or ‘open’) research funding for historians at all career stages. Open grants provide sums of up to £1000 for individuals to undertake defined research projects such as visiting an archive or engaging in field work.
Early-career historians may also apply for schemes such as our Fellowship Grants, offering £2000 each to complete a defined academic task, and the Martin Lynn Scholarship to support the study of African history.
Another named award, the David Berry Fellowship in Scottish History, which is open to all regardless of career stage, provides funds to research the history of Scotland and the Scottish people.
These member-only awards are in addition to the Society’s annual programme of Masters Scholarships, to support study by historians from groups underrepresented in higher education, and its long-running PhD Fellowships scheme which provides funding to complete research and writing of a history doctorate.
In recent years, the Society has extended its range of project-focused funding. In designing these new schemes, the Society seeks to provide small grants to its members who are in greatest need — to pursue activities for which other funding streams are now limited.
The Society’s annual Workshop Grants provide funding for groups of historians to work collaboratively on a shared activity — be this a research project, writing a grant bid, or building an academic network.
Innovations in history pedagogy are supported by the Society’s annual Jinty Nelson Teaching Fellowships which encourage innovative practice in the classroom, or studies of teaching in higher education. Holders work with the Society over the term of their award and produce teaching resources from which others may benefit.
Public and community history is supported, from 2025, with the creation of Public History Grants, generously funded by the Scouloudi Foundation.
This programme brings together historians in higher education with those working in archives, museums and galleries or in public history to develop common projects of public interest and benefit.
As institutions’ budgets for travel and conference attendance are cut, the Society has also introduced from 2025 — and again with support from the Scouloudi Foundation — a programme of Panel Grants. These enable groups of historians, otherwise unable to do so, to present new research at a conference or equivalent academic event.
Finally, mid-career RHS members are invited to apply each year for our Funded Book Workshops, which make possible a day-long meeting of an author and six specialist readers to discuss a book manuscript in detail before submission to a publisher. Mindful of the limited opportunities available to mid-career historians, this scheme is for those currently writing a second or third monograph.
Events
Each year the Society hosts a series of lectures, workshops, seminars and other events to promote new research and historical practice.
Our lecture programme is open to all, and offers the chance to hear leading historians present their work at events in February, May, July, September and November of each year. This includes the Society’s Prothero Lecture (July) which is a high point of the Society’s year and is followed by our annual summer gathering — an excellent opportunity to meet fellow historians and members of the Society, as well as RHS Councillors.
In addition, our annual partnership lectures with the German Historical Institute, London, and Gresham College showcase new work in global and public history. All lectures are available to attend remotely on the day, and to watch again — along with many other events — via our events archive.
Each year the Society visits history departments at UK universities and, again, concludes these events with guest lectures, followed by a reception. Recent RHS Visits include to Aberdeen, Canterbury, Edge Hill, Ipswich, Northampton, Penryn and York. Visits are an opportunity for RHS members to meet with others in their region — as is the Society’s annual day event, ‘History and Archives in Practice’, which in 2026 takes place in Sheffield.
In addition to lectures, the Society hosts a wide range of events dedicated to its members and their needs. These include programmes on professional development and training, in areas such as publishing or working with the media, as well as briefings on policy developments of relevance to professional historians. In addition, the Society hosts a regular ‘Conversation’ series. These are opportunities for RHS members to meet together to discuss topics of shared interest. From 2025, members may also attend the Society’s new ‘Writing Well’ series — online meetings to discuss good historical writing.
Publications are an important means for the Royal Historical Society to communicate new historical research. We currently have four titles for the benefit of RHS members and the wider historian community:
• Our journal, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society.
•The Camden Series of scholarly editions of primary sources.
•‘New Historical Perspectives’, our book series for early-career historians.
• Our new series, ‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’, which launches in 2026.
Publication in each of these titles is open to all historians. We warmly encourage RHS members to consider publishing their work with the Society, and editors for each of these series welcome your submissions.
As a member of the Society you will receive a copy of Transactions (online or print*) which is published each November. Members also receive free online access to the full archive of Transactions (1872-2025) and of the Camden Series (1838-2025). The Society publishes two or three Camden volumes each year. Members may purchase print copies of these volumes at significantly reduced rates.
Our two other series — ’New Historical Perspectives’ and ‘Elements in History and Contemporary Society’ — are published Open Access as well as in print. Members wishing to purchase hard copies of individual volumes may do so again with significant reductions.
In addition to our own publications, RHS membership offers you the following benefits:
• 30% off all titles published by Cambridge University Press.
• 30% off all History titles published by Oxford University Press.
• 30% off all titles published by University of London Press.
• Annual online access to the Bibliography of British and Irish History from £25.
• 20% off subscriptions to History Today (print and online).
To find out how to access each of these discounts on Society publications or discounts from selected publishers, please see this page on the RHS website.
*Postgraduate membership is limited to online access only of Transactions.
Membership and networking
As a member of the Royal Historical Society, you are part of an international community of more than 6,500 historians in over 70 countries. The Society appreciates the importance of membership and the opportunities this brings to make contact with those working in similar research areas, regions, sectors outside higher education, or career stages. We hope you will be able to join fellow members of the Society, either in person or online, at one or more of our regular events described earlier in this guide.
In addition, as an RHS member you have access to our online Directory which lists the interests and activities of historians who belong to the Society. As an RHS member, you may choose to appear in the Directory which currently provides details of c.3,500 historians who belong to the Society. The Directory enables members to identify others with shared interests (for example, by research topic or region) and to make contact.
Following a survey in 2025, the Society is also exploring new ways for members to meet, share experience and work together. These include development of regional groups and opportunities for RHS members to demonstrate their work, and its value, to wider audiences.
These proposals will form part of the Society’s new Strategy 2026-2028. Our strategy was published in November 2025 and follows a series of focus group meetings with members to identify priorities for the years ahead.
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
If you are an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society, you will receive additional benefits as part of your association with the Society. These are further to those listed above.
If you are a fellow of the Society you are also welcome to:
• Use the letters FRHistS after your name
• Participate in the Society’s Annual General Meeting
• Vote in the Society’s annual elections for new members (trustees) of its governing Council
• Stand for election to the Society’s Council
• Access the Society’s Archive and Library collections, and RHS Library rooms, at University College London (UCL)
• Join UCL Libraries as a library member: this includes access to the libraries at University College London, and some borrowing rights, and access to online resources within UCL premises
• Use of the Society’s Council Chamber at University College London for small group meetings relating to history (on application to the RHS Office and subject to availability).
Other areas of our work
In addition to the membership activities outlined above, the Royal Historical Society serves the wider historian community. Your membership helps the Society perform both the work already described and the following activities:
Advocacy and campaigning The Society supports historians whose work is threatened by cuts and closures. We work closely with those whose careers are at risk and we invite historians (be they RHS members or not) to contact us if they have concerns. The Society also advocates publicly for the Value of History as a degree choice and civic good, and promotes the skills and expertise that historians bring to understanding the world.
In these areas, we work closely with partner organisations in the UK (including the Historical Association, Institute of Historical Research and History UK) and with fellow national historical associations worldwide. This is to ensure that our shared advocacy work is co-ordinated and as effective as possible.
Policy and research
Many RHS members are academic historians working in higher education in the UK and overseas. The Society’s policy programme aims to keep members informed about key developments in areas such as the Research Excellence Framework; to canvass opinion about proposed policy change; and to speak against changes we consider detrimental to the interests of historians.
In addition, the Society provides a ‘ Toolkit ’ of internal and external resources to support historians. It also serves as a repository of data relating to the historical discipline and profession, including race and equalities. These records are publicly available, regularly updated, and form the basis for research and briefings on trends in the historical profession.
Prizes
The Society’s prizes recognise and celebrate excellent research and publishing by earlycareer historians.
The Early Career Article Prize and First Book Prize are held annually, with eligible applicants invited to self-nominate their publications for consideration. Four winners are announced each year at the Society’s Prothero Lecture (July).
Royal Historical Society Keeping in touch
As a member of the Royal Historical Society you are welcome to contact us if you have questions or points you wish to bring to our attention. The Society is governed by its Council (all of whom are volunteers) and supported by a small professional Office based at University College London, UK.
The following are people from whom you may hear as a fellow and member of the Society, and who you may wish to contact should you have points to raise:
Lucy Noakes, President of the Royal Historical Society (Council): president@royalhistsoc.org
Philip Carter, Director (Office): director@royalhistsoc.org
Lisa Linossi, Membership and Programmes Manager (Office): membership@royalhistsoc.org
Further information about the RHS Council and Office, its current fellows and grant recipients, and how the Society is run is available here. As the Royal Historical Society is a charity,
your annual subscription is vital for our work to provide member benefits, and to support the wider historian community. The annual renewals round for subscriptions takes place each July and full details of this will be sent to you in advance. We are very grateful to all our members for their subscription and the many ways you assist with our activities.
If you are willing, please do recommend joining the Society to colleagues: we offer membership opportunities for historians of all kinds and career stages.
We also welcome additional charitable donations to continue and develop our work and all such giving is greatly appreciated. If you wish to discuss funding or supporting the Society’s work in other ways, please contact the President: president@royalhistsoc.org.
