The David Reeder Prize in Urban History is awarded annually to the student who, in the opinion of the Board of Examiners, has completed the best MA dissertation on any aspect of urban history in the University of Leicester. The prize has been funded by the friends and colleagues of David Reeder (a former colleague at the Centre for Urban History) in recognition of his lifelong commitment to teaching and research in urban history, and his unfailing encouragement to younger scholars.

2009

Winner: Tom Hulme

The winner of the 2009 David Reeder Prize for the best Dissertation in Urban History at the Centre for Urban History is Tom Hulme for his Dissertation entitled 'Safe for Democracy: Civic Festivals and the Production of the Citizen in 1920s Chicago and Manchester'. Following the award, Tom commented:
"‘I feel honoured to have won the David Reeder Prize. David was a respected, well-liked and very influential historian. I have found his research on Leicester in the twentieth century especially useful and interesting. I hope to utilise his important studies in the field of urban education for my ongoing PhD. My research concerns issues of citizenship and civic culture in the interwar period in Manchester and Chicago and education is a very important facet of this. Winning this prize has further spurred my desire to research in urban history and to try to work in the same vein as historians such as David".

Tom was awarded an ESRC 1+3 studentship in 2008 and is now studying for a PhD at the Centre for Urban History on civic culture in interwar Manchester and Chicago. As part of an exchange between Leicester and the Montreal History Group he has been invited to give papers based on his research at Montreal and Toronto in February 2010.

2008

Winner: Matt Neale

In 2008 the prize was awarded to Matt Neale for his dissertation, 'Crime in the household: Domestic servants in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey'. During the eighteenth century there was great concern about the criminality of servants, and they were often depicted as being petty pilferers who were in danger of descending into a more serious life of crime. These notions form the point of departure for a study of London's printed trial reports.

Crucially, while servants tended to be accused of non-violent offences, the Proceedings of the Old Bailey show that it is only with care that we can label these crimes as 'petty'. Before making such an assertion, it is necessary to consider the context of a crime: within the 'bigger picture' presented by the Proceedings, and within the urban environment. Domestic servants also appeared frequently at the Old Bailey as witnesses and prosecutors, and as victims. These other appearances provide evidence which refines our understanding of the servant's place within the eighteenth-century household.

Matt is currently studying for his PhD at the Centre for Urban History, developing his interest in the connections between domestic service and criminality in a comparative study of eighteenth-century Bath and Bristol.

2007

Winner: Bruno Bonomo

The prize was awarded for the first time in 2007 to Bruno Bonomo for his dissertation entitled 'Home and social identities: Middle-class Rome, c.1945-73'. The dissertation examines the distinctive character of the middle class home in Rome, during the post-war era. Rome has traditionally been known as a 'citta borghese', and during this period the middle classes assumed even greater dominance within the city and enjoyed a greatly improved standard of living, yet their homes and their lifestyle have attracted surprisingly little scholarly attention.

Taking as its focus a series of middle class residential areas - Parioli, EUR and Casalpalocco - the dissertation uses the archives of real estate agencies and building companies along with articles and advertisements from newspapers and magazines to analyse the evolving character of the middle class home and to establish how a middle class social identity was expressed through the design of housing, interior furnishings and choice of domestic appliances.