Submissions Open for 2027 Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize
We are very pleased to announce that submissions are now open for the 2027 Leigh Douglas Memorial Prize.
This prize was established jointly in 1986 by the Leigh Douglas Memorial Fund and BRISMES in memory of Dr Leigh Douglas who was killed in Beirut in 1986. The prize is awarded annually to the writer of the best PhD dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic in the Social Sciences or Humanities awarded by a British university in the previous year. The current value of the prize is £600 for the winner and £250 for the runner up.
Eligibility
Any student who has submitted their PhD dissertation on a Middle Eastern topic in the Social Sciences or Humanities to a British University between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026 is eligible to apply. If you are submitting your thesis after the deadline in 2026, you will be eligible for the following year’s prize.
We recommend that submissions for this prize are made after completion of your viva in order to benefit from feedback from the viva panel, but applicants can make a submission before the viva if they wish. Please note that you can only submit your PhD dissertation once for this prize.
How to Apply
To enter, please send an electronic copy of your thesis and a letter of nomination from your supervisor to office@brismes.org.
The deadline for submissions is 23:59 GMT on Monday, 23 November 2026.
Entering your thesis for this award does not preclude entering it for other awards.