Awards & Prizes

Early Career Researcher paper prize

MBSA is pleased to offer a prize for best paper delivered by an ECR (a postgraduate student or anyone in temporary employment within 6 years of award of doctorate) at the annual MBS conference.  The winner will receive £200.

We are delighted to announce that Dr Somak Biswas is awarded the MBS2026 Best ECR paper for a paper entitled ‘AIDS and the Racialisation of Mobility: Britain, 1985-1995’. The paper explored the entangled histories of migration, border control and HIV status. The judges were especially impressed by the paper's innovative drawing together of so many distinctive historiographies to provide new insights into the workings of the modern state and racialised border controls.

The following scholars are also highly commended:

Rebecca Orr for a paper entitled ‘The Global Expansion of British Private Security Companies, c.1960-c.1980’. This fascinating paper explored the long history of security and surveilllance within the British Empire. The judges were especially pleased with its rigorous tracing the legacies of imperial violence for present day private security firms.

Naomi Samake-Bäckert for a paper entitled ‘Medical Surveillance: Counter narratives of reproductive health by Black women’s groups in 1970s/1980s Britain’. This rich and compelling paper explored the legacies of Black Women's activism for understanding racialised health disparities in the present day. The judges were especially impressed with the close attention to neglected histories of activism.