The United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada announced the names of the three recipients of a 2016 Loyalist Scholarship, and it is interesting to note that their research focuses on Loyalists outside Canada. (Not that that’s a bad thing, I guess.)
The Loyalist Scholarship is available to Masters and PhD students whose research furthers the understanding of the United Empire Loyalists and “our appreciation of their, or their immediate descendants’, influence on Canada.”
Here are this year’s scholarship recipients.
Sophie H. Jones, PhD candidate, University of Liverpool, England.
Ms. Jones is investigating the development of cultural identity in Colonial America and American Loyalism during the American Revolution. Her research considers the cultural origins of Loyalism in New York as a consequence of 1690s Anglicisation policies and the later Consumer Revolution, before analysing the activities of Loyalists during the American Revolution and assessing their responses to its aftermath. Building upon undergraduate and postgraduate research, her project contributes to an emerging school of thought which highlights the strength of British cultural identity and Loyalist support within New York, which lasted until – and often beyond – the moment of (American) independence.
Stephanie Seal Walters, PhD candidate at George Mason University, Virginia.
Ms. Walters’ dissertation examines the forgotten Loyalist populations in Virginia during the American Revolution and seeks to have them recognized as a part of Virginia’s Revolutionary narrative. Her work will argue that Loyalism was far more common in the Old Dominion than either scholars of the American Revolution or contemporaries have
acknowledged. By adding accounts of loyalism in the state, much can be learned about Virginia’s revolutionary struggle and how it ultimately affects the narrative of the American Revolution.
Alexandra S. Garrett, PhD candidate, University of Virginia, Virginia.
Ms. Garrett is the first recipient of the $5,000 Harvard-UELAC Loyalist Studies Scholarship. Her research considers the connections among gender, political affiliation,
wealth distribution, and entrepreneurship of Loyalists’ progeny in the early Republican United States. With the UELAC grant, Alexi will connect her biographical study of slavery and gendered enterprising in Virginia to the study of loyalism by extending the temporal frame to the next generation of loyalists. She will examine how loyalists’ progeny — especially feme sole daughters — fared in the bourgeoning American republic.
Read more about the Loyalist Scholarship and those who have received it here.
