Shirin M Rai Prize for International Relations 2021/2022, Political Studies Association

The School of International Relations is delighted to note that Dr Sneha Reddy’s PhD thesis was awarded the Shirin M Rai Prize for International Relations 2021/2022 by the Political Studies Association, UK.

Dr Sneha Reddy was a PhD candidate at the School of International Relations from 2016 to 2020. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by Professor Sir Hew Strachan and was examined by Professor Eugene Rogan (Oxford) and Dr Jasmine Gani (St Andrews).

The PSA judges dissertation assessment:

This is a brilliant thesis, foregrounding the neglected experience of North African and Indian soldiers in WWI to disrupt Eurocentric historiography and IR theory. It combines real conceptual insight with an outstanding level of archival research and fieldwork, which enabled the author to illuminate the previously underexplored aspects of imperial warfighting.

The ability to move between fine-grained historical details and wider themes in IR is extremely impressive. The thesis is beautifully written and clearly expressed. From its start to its end, the thesis is a tour de force in contemporary IR theory, methodology, as well as empirical historical study. As a result, the thesis succeeds in persuading the reader that the topics on North African and Indian Soldiers in the First World War, including the specific periodization used in the thesis, is of interest to anyone working on the contemporary themes of temporality, diversity, post-colonialism, discourse, use of power, uses of history, etc. The level of conceptual insight, political analysis and empirical rigour in this thesis make it a worthy winner of the 2022 PSA Shirin M Rai Prize.

The complete PSA Academic Prize Winners 2021/2022 list.