The Ross Roy Prize is awarded annually to the best PhD thesis submitted on a subject relating to Scottish literature. Judged by a panel of expert scholars, the Prize commemorates the outstanding contribution to Scottish literature made by Professor G. Ross Roy of the University of South Carolina.
The 2026 Ross Roy Prize is awarded to Dr Emily Hay, for her dissertation ‘The “Quenis awne hand”: Self-presentation in the poetry and correspondence of Mary Queen of Scots, 1567-1587’.
Completed at the University of Glasgow, this close study of Mary’s ‘self-representation’ reveals a figure anticipating, shaping and leveraging her impending status as a martyred Catholic monarch. Examining Mary’s poetry, prose, correspondence, and even textiles, it presents, for the first time, a holistic study of Mary’s public self as it was formed across the tumultuous twenty-year period leading to her execution.
The judges praised the winning thesis for its tireless turn-every-page scholarship, its quality of writing, and for giving fresh and lively interest to its subject. An exhaustive range of print, manuscript and secondary sources are illuminated by this approach, in which the author demonstrates the skills of an accomplished editor, linguist, and palaeographer.
The winner of the Ross Roy Prize receives a cash prize and Dr Hay will be recognised at an appropriate Scottish Literature event in the coming year.
Warm congratulations to the winner and their supervisors, Dr Theo Van Heijnsbergen, Professor Rhona Brown, and Professor Steven Reid. Thanks also to our panel of judges.
SHORTLISTED THESES
Alexandra P. Dold (University of the Highlands and Islands), ‘Narrative Strategies in the Outlander Novels: Diana Gabaldon’s Historical Fiction as Public History’
Katherine Ferrier (University of Aberdeen), ‘An Archival Recovery and Examination of the Private Writings of Susan Ferrier (1782-1854)’
Ruth C. Salter (University of Edinburgh), ‘Gramsci, Critical Folklore Studies, and the Scottish Folk Revival’
Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman (University of Stirling), ‘Novel Reading and Self-Improvement in Scotland, c.1800–37’
