Grants and Awards
Over the years, our grants and awards have supported researchers working on a wide variety of subjects, reflecting the richness of the history that inspired Dorothy Dunnett’s writing. On this page you can discover more about previous grant holders, their projects and the research made possible through the Society’s support.
The Dorothy Dunnett Society welcomes applications for grants which further our charitable aims. We give small grants each year, subject to available funds, for a wide variety of projects. We are willing to cover costs such as accommodation, travel costs and illustrations for publications.
Please contact us here in the first instance for more information.
We also sponsor research grants in partnership with the University of the Highlands and Islands. These Centenary Awards were started in 2023, during the 100th year since Dorothy Dunnett’s birth and are open to current research students. Here you can find details of how to apply.
Dorothy Dunnett Society Grant Recipients from 2020 onwards
| Year | Name | Funding Purpose | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Sarah-Jane Gibbon | Identifying the medieval landscape of Deerness, Orkney. (WG156 “Place-names in Sandwick, Deerness, Orkney”) | University of the Highlands & Islands |
| 2021 | Jill Harrison | The Trinity Project 1.Illustrations and maps for the book 2. Contributions towards necessary travel expenses 3.Initial exploration of creating a Trinity App/Trinity Trail. | Open University |
| 2022 | Bess Rhodes | Reconsidering the Battle of Pinkie: Aerial photography, illustrations’ permissions and travel expenses. | University of St Andrews |
| 2022 | Bryony Coombs | Image rights & photography for Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance: Scotland, France and National Identity c.1420-1550. Edinburgh University Press | Teaching Fellow, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh |
| 2023 | Jenn Scott | Image rights for Men of Warre, Helion | Historian & writer; Trustee, Scottish Battlefields Trust |
| 2024 | Lesley Mckay | DDS Centenary Award. A novel set in 16th-century Shetland | University of the Highlands & Islands |
| 2024 | Shanna Bryman | DDS Centenary Award. Women’s roles in power and leadership in Viking society. | University of the Highlands & Islands |
| 2024 | Michael Olajuru | Image rights for Who is John Blanke: Artists and Historians Reimagine the Black Tudor Trumpeter Canbury Press | Senior Fellow, Institute of Commonwealth Studies |
| 2025 | Tobias Capwell | Illustrations for Armour of the English Knight: An Armourers’ Album Olympia Auctions | Formerly Curator of Arms and Armour, Wallace Collection, London |
| 2025 | Matthew Farren | DDS Centenary Award:The body as a victim in Viking culture | University of the Highlands & Islands |
| 2025 | Siobhan Beatson | DDS Centenary Award: Social and economic strategies of sea loch communities in 16th & 17th- century Scotland | University of the Highlands & Islands |
| 2025 | Munire Zeyneb Maksudoglu | Safe-conduct letter as the emblem of global order and sovereignty in the Islamicate world | University of Sussex |
| 2026 | Harley Botham | DDS Centenary Award: diplomatic and intercultural contact between the Norse world and al-Andalus, the Balearic Islands and North Africa from the eighth to the twelfth centuries. | University of the Highlands & Islands |
| 2026 | Sophie Durbin | DDS Centenary Award: Burial archaeology of medieval Scotland | University of the Highlands & Islands |
| 2026 | Jelena Bakic | Voices from the Margin. Italian Renaissance Paratexts and Women’s Knowledge Production | Visiting scholar: KU Leuven University, Visiting professor: University of Bologna |