Shortlist for the Thirsk-Feinstein PhD Dissertation Prize

The Economic History Society has introduced an annual prize of £1,000 for the best doctoral dissertation in Economic and/or Social History.

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One of the lovely things that the Society does is to celebrate the best research that is carried out in the field. This post is dedicated to one of two prizes that mean a great deal to everyone; and both are fiercely competitive.

The  Society is delighted to announce the shortlists for the First Monograph Prize, for books published in 2024/25, and for the Thirsk-Feinstein PhD Dissertation Prize.

I am grateful to the judges for the enormous amount of hard work that is involved in the judging process. The PhD Dissertation Prize is judged by Judy Stephenson, Eric Melander, Auke Rijpma and Anna Spadavecchia.

Patrick Wallis (President)

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The Economic History Society is delighted to announce the shortlist for the annual Thirsk-Feinstein Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in Economic and/or Social History.

The winner will be announced at the Society’s Centennial Conference in April 2026 at the London School of Economics.

The shortlist is:

Fernanda Conforto de Oliveira currently of the University of Lausanne for ‘Opening the Black Box of Financial Negotiations: the IMF, Argentina, and Brazil in the Post-war Era, 1945–64’ (Graduate Institute Geneva PhD) which examines the first adjustment programmes of the International Monetary Fund in Argentina and Brazil in the post-war era.

Christoph Hess currently of the University of Cambridge for ‘Inheritance, Family Structure, and Economic Development in the Lower Yangzi Region, c.1650–1950’ (University of Cambridge PhD) which explores the institutional framework of inheritance in pre-industrial China.

Bas Spliet currently of Utrecht University for ‘The Consumer Revolution and Social Inequality in the Pre-Modern Metropolis’ (University of Antwerp PhD) which analyses consumer developments in the most important commercial metropoles of the early modern era: Amsterdam, Antwerp and London.