Congratulations to graduate student Petros Spanou (Balliol 2017, DPhil History) on being awarded a 2021 Royal Historical Society/Institute of Historical Research Centenary Fellowship for doctoral research.
Petros was awarded the Fellowship for his doctoral research on ‘The Crimean moment and crucible: just war, principles of peace and debates in Victorian wartime thought and culture, 1854−1856’. His research examines the complex ways in which the idea of just war and the principles of the British peace movement framed important, yet hitherto overlooked, religious, intellectual, political and cultural debates during the Crimean War. Where earlier historians have studied the war intensively as an episode in diplomatic and military history, Petros’s research seeks to advance fresh perspectives on the war’s cultural impact and place in Victorian consciousness.
The Fellowship is one of a number of Royal Historical Society awards that recognise and celebrate some of the excellent work in research, publishing and teaching undertaken by historians in 2020–2021. Petros was one of four recipients of 2021 RHS/IHR Fellowships.
Petros was a Junior Teaching Fellow at the Ashmolean Museum from January to June 2021. He is a Graduate Outreach Tutor at the Faculty of History, and he contributed one of the videos in the Springboard project, a collaborative initiative by Balliol, Hertford and Wadham Colleges to support sixth-form students during the pandemic. He is also Junior Dean at Balliol for the coming academic year.