BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for the Best PhD Student Conference Paper

In 2025, BAVS launched a second prize named after the Professor/Reverend Rosemary Mitchell (1967-2001), who was a brilliant scholar and served on the board of BAVS. The BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for the Best PhD Student Conference Paper honours her generosity as an inspiring supporter of younger scholars. Funded by the legacy donated by Rosemary Mitchell, the prize awards £210 to the winner (£10 to cover a year’s subscription to BAVS).

Please note PhD students need to be members of BAVS at the time of the conference to be eligible for the prize.

BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for the Best PhD Student Conference Paper 2025

The BAVS Executive Committee piloted the BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for the Best PhD Student Conference Paper at BAVS 2025 when 39 PhD students took part. To ensure consistency in observing PhD students’ conference papers, the panel focuses on 3 areas: Argument, Scholarship, Knowledge and Understanding; Communication, Clarity and Presentation; and Engagement with the audience, peers and questions. The panel members are current or past members of the BAVS Executive Committee.

The first winner of the BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for Best PhD Student Conference Paper in 2025 was Chandrica Barua (University of Michigan). Her conference paper was entitled, ‘Plantation Commercials: Advertising tea, empire, and racialized labour’.

The Runner-Up was Claudia Sterbini (University of Edinburgh). The title of her conference paper was ‘Nonsexuality and “The Real Demi-Vierge”: George Moore’s ‘John Norton’ (1895) as a Sexological Case Study’.

BAVS-Rosemary Mitchell Prize for the Best PhD Student Conference Paper 2026

At Liverpool John Moores University, the BAVS Executive Committee was able to run this prize for the second time with great success thanks to the help of the Conference Organising Team, panel chairs and volunteering committee members. 46 postgraduate delegates took part, and the 2026 winner was announced as Kirara Akashi (University of Roehampton), whose conference paper was entitled, ‘Into Edward Gorey’s archives: Dark humour in neo-Victorian picturebooks, puppet entertainments, and printed ephemera’.
The Runner-Up was Henriette Marsden (University of Cambridge). The title of her conference paper was ‘Wielding Needles as Swords: Lady Mary Hamlyn Williams, the Rebecca Riots, and the Politics of Collaborative Embroidery in Wales, 1830-1850’.