The David Nicholls Awards

 David Nicholls Memorial Trust Awards:

The David Nicholls Memorial Trust (DNMT) has established several awards in memory of David Nicholls. In conjunction with Warwick University there is the Warwick-David Nicholls Scholarship for Postgraduate Study. This scholarship is to enable a chosen student to study for the degree of PhD at the University of Warwick: for further details please see the Warwick website. The DNMT also supports Research bursaries and Travel Grants, for details see below. All these awards have been made possible by a generous donation to the DNMT from Aileen Sleigh.

Research Bursaries and Travel Grants
Applications for the Research Bursaries and Travel Grants are currently invited for the closing date of 31st. March 2011.

Two types of Research Bursary are available:
One Research Bursary up to £1500 is open to post-graduate students, in the UK or overseas, preparing a project, dissertation or thesis on the Caribbean and who can benefit from:

• access to David’s former library, now housed in the David Nicholls Room at Regent’s Park College in Oxford. This contains material on Haiti, Trinidad and modern politics in the Caribbean as well as interface of politics and theology.
• access to material housed in other libraries in Oxford. Of particular note are the archives of the Baptist Missionary Society (including material from Haiti, Trinidad and Jamaica) in Regent’s Park College and books on the modern Caribbean in the library at Rhodes House. Oxford University library catalogue can be viewed via OLIS on http://library.ox.ac.uk

This Bursary is intended for expenses such as travelling, accommodation in Oxford, library fees or photocopying material in the David Nicholls Collection. Applications are particularly welcome from students in the Caribbean.

The second Research Bursary, also up to £1500, is open to applicants from UK institutions to pursue field work in the Caribbean, spending at least two weeks abroad.

Postgraduate students applying for either Research Bursary must provide:

• a short statement (500 words) of their current research and describe how they can benefit from a short period of study in Oxford or the Caribbean as appropriate
• a brief biographical statement (or short CV)
• a brief statement from a referee who is familiar with your work

It is a condition of either Research Bursary that in any subsequent publication, drawing directly on work supported by the DNMT, the bursary is acknowledged.

Travel Grants

Travel Grants up to the value of £300 are open normally to second and final year undergraduate or to postgraduate students registered with a UK higher educational institution and working on a Caribbean topic. Up to three will be awarded each year.

Students applying for the Travel Grant must provide:

• a short statement of proposed research
• a brief biographical statement (or short CV)
• a list of likely expenses
• a supporting statement from a supervisor or referee   

Successful applicants will receive two-thirds of the grant in advance of the project and one third on completion. The award must be claimed within six months and the project completed within one year. A statement of actual expenses must accompany completion.

Applications to be sent in writing to: Dr Gillian Nicholls, 1 Walton Crescent, Oxford OX1 2JG, United Kingdom.

Further information may be obtained by e-mailing P.K.Sutton@hull.ac.uk

Previous Research Bursary holders, year awarded and research topic:

• Audra Diptee, 2000, Slave children in Jamaica (1775-1838).  The following reference includes work carried out in Oxford as a result of the bursary: Audra A. Diptee African children in the British Slave Trade during the late Eighteenth Century Slavery and Abolition. Vol. 27, No.2, August 2006, pp.183-196
• Gelian Matthews, 2001, the study proposed to locate the history of the British West Indian slave resistance within the broader context of the British anti-slavery movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Proposed title of PhD thesis: Slave revolts in the discourse of British anti-slavery.
• Ruth Minott Egglestone, 2001, Development of the National Pantomime tradition in Jamaica.
• 2002, no suitable applicants.
• Tara Inniss, 2003, Child Health in 19th. century Barbados: The health and welfare of children in a colonial society.
• Denise Challenger, 2004, Freedom, Race and sexuality: The control of the female body and sexuality in 19th. century Barbados.
• Dwight Mckenzie, 2005, an in depth analysis of the Public Sector Reform and Modernisation Programme in Jamaica.
• Christina Violeta Jones, 2006, Revolution and Reaction: Santo Domingo during the Haitian revolution and beyond1791-1844.
• Alejandro E Gomez, 2006, The Affective and Ideological impact of the Haitian Revolution beyond the temporary limits of the Haitian Independence in 1804 and from an Atlantic perspective.
• Nadine Hunt, 2007, The Caribbean Trade of Jamaica: the Consolidation of Atlantic Networks 1756-1807