The Editors of British Naval History are pleased to announce the 2015 Alan Villiers Memorial Lecture Essay Competition, with the support of the Society for Nautical Research, the Naval Review, and the Britannia Naval Research Association. An additional sponsor this year is the Nautical Mind bookstore, in Toronto, Canada.
The AVML Essay Competition is designed with four goals:
1) To encourage the study of maritime and naval history at the Postgraduate level.
2) To provide an opportunity for Postgraduate students to publish a mid-length academic research paper.
3) To provide an opportunity for Postgraduate students to become known to, and involved with, several non-University naval and maritime history research associations.
4) To provide an opportunity for graduate students to communicate, and receive feedback on, the current form of their argument or analysis.
Brief:
Entries to the 2015 Alan Villiers Memorial Lecture Essay Competition are to:
1) Address an aspect of naval or maritime history, or related fields with a maritime or naval topic, of any era or geo-political location.
2) Be the result of primary source research, either archival sources or hands-on research.
3) Focus on analysis and the communication of an argument.
4) Be no longer than 5,000 words including endnotes. Captions for images (of a reasonable length) need not be included in the wordcount.
5) Comply with the British Naval History Style Guide
To Qualify:
1) Entries must be submitted by Friday, 31st of July, 2015.
2) Author must be a current Postgraduate student (MA, PhD or equivalent), or have completed their programme no earlier than January 1st 2015.
3) Entries must be submitted in a Microsoft Word format (.doc, or .docx)
4) Entries must be accompanied by a reference from the author’s academic supervisor or equivalent.
5) Entries must be submitted by email to samuel.mclean@globalmaritimehistory.com
All entries to the AVML Essay Contest will be published on British Naval History beginning in August 2015. The essays will be adjudicated by a committee composed of representatives from the sponsoring organisations. The entries will be evaluated on the research, analysis and the expression of the argument. The successful entrant will be announced in early September, 2015. The primary award is the opportunity to present the Postgraduate lecture at the 2014 Alan Villiers Memorial Lecture, Wednesday 14 October, 2015, at Pembroke College, Oxford. In addition, a bursary of £500 will be awarded to compensate against travel expenses to Oxford. The winning entry will be published in either Mariner’s Mirror, the Naval Review or BNRA Journal, in addition to British Naval History. The event also includes a buffet luncheon, and the award winner will also be invited to a ‘Trafalgar Night’ dinner that evening in Oxford. The Nautical Mind is also contributing to the award package.
We are pleased to announce that Professor Andrew Lambert, the Laughton Professor of Naval History at King’s College London, will present the keynote lecture. Further details on his lecture to follow.
It is strongly advised that entrants submit a paper related to their thesis or primary research topic. British Naval History promotes the publication and discussion of works-in-progress, and they are encouraged as entries for the essay contest. The editors especially encourage the submission of unconventional and interdisciplinary entries.
