James Kay Memorial Prize in History and Visuality - background

Following a tragic accident on the River Arno in Florence, James Kaye passed away on 18 February 2011. James had a longstanding affiliation with the EUI. He studied for his PhD studies here, defending his thesis in 2003, and worked as a researcher on diverse research projects with Professor Bo Stråth, who also acted as his supervisor. Thanks to the efforts of family and friends, a fund has been created, enabling the Institute to set up a prize in memory of James—of his work, and from his own perspective at least as important, his dreams and passions.

As Bo Stråth wrote in his ‘In Memoriam’ for James, crucial to his academic aims and artistic ambitions were four lines of research:

• First, it was his dream and ideal to combine the study of history and art. As Bo put it, James ‘wanted to illustrate and illuminate his view on history from the perspective of art’.
• Second, James was deeply inspired by the work of the German historian Reinhart Koselleck, whom he met several times at the EUI. Like Koselleck James regarded the understanding of art as a key to the study of history and both had strong interests in the visual representations of the past, especially in monuments that, in referring to the past, sought to offer a reminder, indeed a message for the future. As Bo writes in his obituary ‘Koselleck’s view on history focused on the imaginations of the future in the past. Koselleck’s interest in vergangene Zukünfte, past futures, fascinated James and made deep impression on his historical thinking’.
• Third, whilst firmly grounded in historical study, James was keen to look across the (institutional) borders of the disciplines that make up the humanities. His love was for scholarship, in the best of its critical and humanist sense.
• Fourth, this meant that for James the humanities --and history in particular-- should be engaged with the problems of society, indeed it was the task of scholarship to act, wherever possible, as a critical guide in our efforts to make the world a better place.

One way of putting these four lines together in memory of James was to set up a prize for the best thesis at the crossroads of ‘History and Visuality’. All PhD projects at the EUI, from all departments, that seek to combine the study of historical and visual sources and that do so in a distinctly critical way, be it in scholarly, cultural and/or political terms, are eligible for the prize. This is a growing, but still relatively small interdisciplinary area of studies, as James only knew too well.

The prize will be awarded every two years, on the occasion of the EUI Graduation Ceremony, starting with the ceremony of June 2012.

Conditions for the prize

Photos by James Kaye