The Serle Award
The Australian Historical Association (AHA) has constituted the Serle Award as a biennial prize to commemorate the contribution to Australian History of Geoffrey Serle (1922–1998). The Award has been established through the generosity of Mrs Jessie Serle. It takes the form of a $2,500 publishing subsidy for the best postgraduate thesis in Australian History completed and examined during the previous two year period. The first award was conferred at the AHA conference in Brisbane in July 2002.
Geoffrey Serle was Lecturer in History at the University of Melbourne (1951–60), Senior Lecturer and Reader in History at Monash University (1961-63), and General Editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (1975–88).
The Serle Award is intended to assist early career researchers to publish recently completed theses. Applications must contain a statement from the author on the provenance of the manuscript, the nature of its contribution to the knowledge and understanding of Australian history, and copies of examiners reports must be included.
The Serle Award can be used to assist in the transformation of the thesis into a book. It could be used as a publishing subsidy or to subsidise other costs associated with publication, such as the cost of carrying out extra research, funding permissions, copyright fees or illustrations: these examples are not exhaustive.
The Serle Award will be administered by a panel appointed by the Australian Historical Association. The decision of the panel will be final.
The award money is to be spent within twelve months following acceptance of the award and a report must be submitted to the President. The final publication must make appropriate acknowledgement of the Australian Historical Association and the Serle Award.
Award: $2500. The award will be presented at the 2012 AHA Biennial Conference, Adelaide.
Eligibility: The Award is presented biennially for postgraduate theses completed and examined in 2010 and 2011.