Since 2009 the Department of History at the University of Bristol has published the best of the annual dissertations produced by our final-year undergraduates. We do so in recognition of the excellent research undertaken by our students, which is a cornerstone of our degree programme. As a department, we are committed to the advancement of historical knowledge and to research of the highest order. Our undergraduates are part of that endeavour.

Listed below are the the best of this year’s undergraduate history dissertations, with links to the dissertations themselves where these are available. Please note that these dissertations are published in the state they were submitted for examination. Thus the authors have not been able to correct errors and/or departures from departmental guidelines for the presentation of dissertations (e.g. in the formatting of footnotes and bibliographies). In each case, copyright resides with the author and all rights are reserved.

Student	Title	'Best dissertation' prize
Henry C Thorpe	Rethinking Reform: James Greenwood and the Lambeth Workhouse in the 1860s Winner of the 'Best History dissertation of 2014' prize
Trudy Dargeviciute	The Role of Warders in the Madras Lunacy Asylum in British India c. 1870-1890 2014dargeviciute (PDF, 331kB)
Benjamin J Eagle	'Man is But a Worm': History, Ecology and Invertebrate Agency: A study of the environmental impact of the earthworm in natural and human history 1881-1992 2014eagle (PDF, 952kB)
Orla Gill	A Collaborative Affair: Teacher Discussion of High-School Extra-Curricular Activities in the School Review (1920-29) 2014gill (PDF, 2,604kB)
Kathrin A Hiepko	In Pursuit of the 'Socialist Personality': The Closed Juvenile Correctional Facility at Torgau, the German Democratic Republic  2014hiepko (PDF, 2,642kB)
James S Jessop	'Operation Urgent Fury': Reassessing the British Government's Understanding of and Reaction to the 1983 US Invasion of Grenada 2014jessop (PDF, 695kB) An essay based on this dissertation was 'highly commended' in the international Undergraduate Awards, 2014.
Jakob A Lundwall	Circumventing Silence: The ‘Tripod of Personal Shoah Memory’ (Commemoration, Remembrance and Recounting) of Holocaust Survivors in Israel between 1951 and 1961 2014lundwall (PDF, 503kB)
Hugo Mathers	Allies at War: The Struggle for Power at the BBC French Service, 1940-1944
Rosamund S Meredith	Claiming 'prise wynes during Whitsonweek': A Methodological Investigation into Bristol's 1572 Crown Commission  2014meredith (PDF, 6,554kB)
Leanna Parker	The Trade in Illicit Books: A Study of English Mercantile Influence in the 1520s 2014parker (PDF, 478kB)
Caitlin L Stein	Imperial Hierarchy versus Biological Reality: The Southern Rhodesian Influenza Epidemic, 1918-19
Rhiannon A Teather	'The Palme of Christian Fortitude': Japan's Kirishitan martyrs in seventeenth century records 2014teather (PDF, 2,356kB)
Flora E Wilson	The Development of the Hop Trade and its Impact on the Alehouse Economy of Seventeenth Century Bristol  2014wilson (PDF, 608kB)