Lynne Grundy Memorial Trust
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Friends of the Lynne Grundy Memorial Trust Newsletters 2005

Dear Friend,


In order to make up for sending last year's newsletter so early, I'm writing this one a year late.  2005 was a very exciting year for the Trust, with an unprecendented number of applications for awards, an excitingly improved level of publicity and some splendid donations.

We made seven major awards, all to applicants exactly suited to the Trust's aims and to Lynne's special concerns:

Adrian Papahagi, a final year PhD student from the Sorbonne, was awarded funds to enable him to visit London to study Boethian manuscripts in the British Library;

Andrew Wareham of King's College London was awarded his costs in reproducing maps and family trees to illustrate his forthcoming book on AngloSaxon society;

Agnes Kiricsi from Budapest University, a final year PhD student and the only teacher of Old English in her university (with 100 students per year) was awarded funds to enable her to travel to Leeds to give a paper at the International Medieval Congress, and to buy books for her department.  We were also delighted to be able to give her a copy of the Thesaurus of Old English (donated by a trustee) for her department's use;

Juliet Hewish, a third year PhD student from Dublin was awarded her costs in travelling to Munich to attend the 2005 International Society of AngloSaxonists, and to study the St Martin manuscripts housed in Munich libraries;

Kiriaki Giaxoglou, a third year PhD student from King's College London in Humanities Computing, was awarded funds to help her set up a digitised marking-up scheme for encoding narrative structure in languages other than English, specifically for her project in Greek language laments, but with wide applications for the analysis and conservation of verbal art texts in other scripts such as AngloSaxon;

Francis Leneghan, a final year PhD scholar in Dublin, was awarded funds towards his significant research in Beowulf studies;

and Rosie Williams, a first year PhD student from Glasgow was awarded funds to enable her to travel to the Leeds IMC and give her paper on cognition and writing in AngloSaxon England.

Each of these award winners was also presented with the volumes of Lynne's Books and Grace and the Memorial Volume donated by KCLMS.  All of them showed a profound commitment to their subject and a truly inspiring determination to pursue their studies often in the face of great difficulties; each was supported by exemplary references.

We trustees are indebted to the academics who support applicants with such insightful and helpful references; they make it possible for us to understand the importance of the applicant's work and to give appropriate funding.  We are astonished every year by the sheer quality of the work, and the commitment of the scholars who apply; and then we are each year moved by the response of the award winners, how much they can achieve with the relatively small awards we are able to give, how deserving they are of support, and how much it means to them to have their work recognised in this way.  It is true to say that the awards are now regarded as a real achievement on a CV, and this is primarily due to the calibre of our award winners and the fact that they always acknowledge the Trust's help in publications, presentations and within the academic community.

But none of this can be done without money.  Our initial fund is holding out pretty well, but making awards on this scale inevitably erodes it significantly.  We have been magnificently assisted this year by another major donation from the Board of ISAS; their contribution is enabling us to make one extra award each year.  And the Teachers of Old English in Britain and Ireland (TOEBI) this year doubled their award of last year, making a really significant contribution.  But equally importantly for the future of the Trust, our regular donors and covenantors have supported the work of the Trust in an invaluable way.  We do thank you all.

Further excitements this year include the Trust's website, now in full working order, which you can visit at  www.lynnegrundytrust.org.uk and a lot more publicity for the Trust in the form of regular awards announcements in the Old English Newsletter, and a very effective blanket leafletting at the Leeds IMC and all the main international conferences.  Our special thanks to the academics who support the Trust in this important way.

We trustees feel that the help that we're able to give, with your support, to these students and scholars is a real investment in the future, and we wholeheartedly agree with one of this year's referees that 'the money could not be better spent'. 

Thank you so much.
With all good wishes,

Liz Mathews trustee, for the Trust