Due to the postponement of the IMHA’s conference, where the winner of the Frank Broeze Prize is usually announced, the Executive Board has decided to announce the winner now.

Professor Frank Broeze was one of the leading maritime historians of his generation. In his honour, the International Maritime History Association has instituted the Frank Broeze Prize to be awarded to the author of a doctoral thesis which, in the opinion of the panel, makes the most outstanding contribution to the study of maritime history. The panel applied the following criteria in deciding the winner of the prize:

• Contribution to knowledge and understanding of the maritime past;
• Originality of approach, source material and/or findings;
• Depth and coherence of argument;
• Choice and application of methodology;
• Presentational and stylistic quality.

The judging panel comprised:

Malcolm Tull, Murdoch University (Chair)

Maria Fusaro, University of Exeter

Gelina Harlaftis, University of Crete

Ingo Heidbrink , Old Dominion University

Graeme Milne, University of  Liverpool.

There were eleven applicants for the Prize. The theses were a mix between ‘traditional’ and innovative/interdisciplinary approaches and the judges found all were of a high quality. This impressive research by young scholars bodes well for the future of maritime historiography.

The winner of the Frank Broeze Prize for the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Maritime History 2020 is Lisa Hellman for her thesis, ‘Navigating the Foreign Quarters. Everyday life of the Swedish East India Company employees in Canton and Macao 1730-1830’. The judges commented on the “lucid, wide-ranging and interdisciplinary analysis. Interesting structure. Impressive range of languages and historiographies seamlessly blended into a coherent and nuanced analysis”; “Intriguing analysis of cultural exchanges in treaty port life, based on an impressive multi-lingual archive base. Effectively argued and presented”.

Lisa was the first PhD student in maritime history at the Centre for Maritime Studies (CEMAS), Stockholm University. She was supervised by Professor Leos Mϋller and Professor Leif Runefelt from CEMAS. Lisa is currently a Researcher at the Graduate School of Global Intellectual History, Freie Universität Berlin/Uppsala University.

The Frank Broeze Prize carries with it a cash award of €500 and free registration at the Eighth International Congress of Maritime History in Porto, Portugal, 2021.

Due to the overall high quality of the theses submitted, the Executive Board decided to award the runners-up one year’s free membership of the IMHA.