To encourage new and unpublished entrants to the field of architectural history, the SAHGB's (Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's) Essay Medal (popularly known as 'the Hawksmoor') is awarded annually to the author of the best essay submitted in competition. The competition is limited to PhD students and early career researchers. The competition is international in scope and there is no geographical restriction on where entrants have obtained or are studying for their PhD; but the work must be written and submitted in English.
The Medal was awarded for Dr Cowell’s essay: ‘The Height of Health: Sections, Sanatoria, and Settler Colonialism in Northern India, 1815–1842’. Combining architectural expertise with historical analysis, the essay combines architectural visual analysis with textual primary sources and examines the early colonial history of hill stations in the Himalayas. It explores how the British East India Company established military medical sanatoria - facilities that provide medical care for sick and injured military personnel - while hiding a secondary programme of white settler colonialism. The judging panel cited Dr Cowell for his ‘innovative’ and ‘impressive’ essay, which ‘intertwined geographical, medical, art and colonial settlement history’.
Awarded date
6 Dec 2024
Degree of recognition
International
Granting Organisations
Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain