Women’s History Scotland Leah Leneman Essay Prize 2014 – Results!

Women’s History Scotland Leah Leneman Essay Prize 2014

 

We are pleased to announce the winner and runner-up of the Leah Leneman Essay Prize for 2014. The winner is Alice Glaze, University of Guelph, with Lin Cunningham, University of Glasgow, as runner-up. The competition again saw a very strong competition and we would like to thank all the applicants for providing such a rich and interesting array for the judges to consider.

 

Alice Glaze’s essay, ‘Women and Kirk Discipline: Prosecution, Negotiation and the Limits of Control’, is an interesting, well-crafted essay. It is clearly and elegantly written and professionally presented. The research questions and historiography are handled well, and in a nuanced sophisticated way, while the author presents sufficient context and background for a non-specialist in a professional and clear manner. Exemplary cases are used to good end, to support her arguments. An extensive bibliography demonstrates the extent and depth of the author’s reading. The central argument about the ambiguous nature of the control exercised by the Reformed Kirk over women and their bodies is well worked out, making effective use of some difficult source material.

 

Lin Cunningham’s essay, ‘Independent, Skilled and Enterprising Women in Business: The Dressmakers of Nineteenth-Century Glasgow’, draws on the renewed interest in women’s work and especially the position of businesswomen. This is a wide-ranging piece that deals effectively with a complex topic. Good use is made of a case study of the five MacFarlane sisters to illustrate various issues and changes during the century are well charted. A section on ‘defining success’ is particularly thoughtful. It is a well-written engaging and well-researched essay. The use of records and research is very good and her understanding of the period, historiography and issues is also admirable.

 

We would like to congratulate both Alice and Lin for their interesting and thought-provoking work, and hope to see both of these pieces published in due course. WHS members might like to know that several previous Leah Leneman prize essays have been published in the Journal of Scottish Historical Studies. The next competition will be in 2016, with a deadline in December.

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