Support the Faculty
How can I contribute?
If you would like to support our work in the Cambridge History Faculty, there are a number of ways of doing so. All of them would make a real difference.
If you'd like to make a one off or regular gift to any of our campaigns, you can do so following the links below, which take you to our gifting page. If you would like to know more about any of the options, please drop our development coordinator Prof Gary Gerstle a line on development@hist.cam.ac.uk
If you are interested in leaving a legacy to the Faculty in your will, for any of the campaigns below, or for the general support of our work, the University can help you to phrase the terms to suit your wishes. Please contact development@hist.cam.ac.uk in the first instance.
If you are a US taxpayer, you may prefer to donate via Cambridge in America, which is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organisation (recognised by the US Internal Revenue Service) that funds grants to benefit the University of Cambridge and its member Colleges and Departments. Gifts to Cambridge in America qualify for an income tax deduction to the limits allowed by law. You can give online or by post within the US using the Cambridge in America gift form. Please state that you would like your donation to support the Faculty of History when making your gift.
Our fundraising campaigns
The main way in which the Faculty tries to support undergraduates financially is by helping them with the costs and challenges of research for their coursework. Over half of our students do a dissertation in the third year, and this is usually a tremendous learning experience. It nearly always involves research in the summer break and then focused supervised work in the Michaelmas Term. The range of the Historical Tripos is enormous and we encourage them to undertake their research projects across this full range. This can often mean travelling long distances to archives and libraries – or to interview key individuals. Travel and accommodation within Britain are expensive enough, but many need to go to other parts of the world. Some Colleges are well-endowed and are able to give students generous travel grants. Others are not. Some students come from backgrounds which make them unable to afford important research tools.
As a Faculty, we are committed to making sure that all our students are supported to do the research they need. We have set up a Faculty Student Research Fund to make up shortfalls in funding for those whose Colleges cannot help. Our grants are typically in the £300-£500 range and depend on the support of the supervisor. If you wish to support one or more students, please donate via our gifting page.
The History Faculty is the largest history graduate school in the country and one of the largest in the world. We have a Graduate Support Fund for donations to help our graduates. This is designed to find the money for three objectives. First, to support our students as they present their work often in early draft and for the first time, in a peer to peer setting, in our graduate-led seminars (which we call workshops). These have no dedicated funding. Secondly, we want to support students who have specific training needs such as language immersion courses, computer programming training or internships at museums and archives. If we raise enough money to fund both these objectives, the surplus will go to help PhD students in their fourth year of research, when most of them have to write up without any means of support. The Faculty has a limited scheme, through its Prince Consort Fund, to assist some of those most in need, but we would like to increase the sums we can offer. If you want to help the Graduate Support Fund, please donate at our gifting page.
If you want to explore giving some targeted support to graduate research in History, please let us know. For example, you might want to fund a particular area of research, and to discuss this with an individual member of the Faculty. You can email us on development@hist.cam.ac.uk
The History Faculty is also part of the University's wider Student Support Initiative, an ambitious effort to ensure that all students with the potential to excel have a chance to study at Cambridge and its Colleges, not just some. That means removing barriers that stand in the way. It means reaching, supporting and funding the students with the greatest potential we can find, from all parts of the UK and the world.
One major aim of the Student Support Initiative is to increase the number of postgraduates taking up a place at Cambridge, and create a more diverse cohort of the most talented students. We want to offer more studentships to our PhD and MPhil students. If you are interested in finding out more about funding studentships in Cambridge, you can do so here.
History Faculty staff sustain an exciting and global range of interests. We do however have some fields where we would very much like to make appointments, in order to sustain innovation and embrace critical approaches to historical questions. We are currently actively campaigning in fields that include
- a lectureship in the history of sexualities in any period
- an endowed chair in the history of political thought
- a lectureship in modern German history
The Faculty is also interested in hearing from individuals, charities and corporations which may want to fund a specific research or teaching opportunity. This could be a stand-alone Faculty post, or it could be a joint arrangement with a College. If you would like to discuss any particular idea that you may have, please get in touch with our development coordinator, Prof Gary Gerstle on development@hist.cam.ac.uk
As many alumni will remember, the Stirling Building is iconic and unique. It is also expensive to maintain, and in need of major refurbishment. The University has supported the idea of an ambitious redesign, but this will be expensive. Our strategic plan for refurbishment includes new glazing options that will deliver a visually stunning and environmentally sustainable building, and the refitting of the interior to allow for greater opportunities for the development of the graduate and postdoctoral research community. We’d be delighted to hear from any alumni who would like to get involved in this project.
Click here to find out more about the building - its architectural significance, and why it is so central to our work as a world-leading history Faculty.