PhD historian receives awards at home and away

The impact of the historical research by a St Catharine’s postgraduate student continues to be recognised with awards from institutions in Cambridge and beyond. Malik Al Nasir, a History PhD candidate, collected an honorary degree from Liverpool Hope University yesterday after receiving an award from the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research (CSAR) only a few weeks earlier.

Malik said, “Receiving such recognition in the space of two months from two universities who have supported my research is remarkable. Having grown up in care, I didn’t get a conventional education and, as such, didn’t have the standard entry requirements to attend university. However, the tutors at Liverpool Hope gave me an opportunity and that was the beginning of an academic journey that saw me graduate from all three of Liverpool’s university’s and opened a pathway to my current PhD study at Catz. It is a huge honour to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Liverpool Hope as my alma mater and also to be singled out by the Cambridge Society for the Application of Research from all the PhD students in Cambridge.”

Honorary Degree from Liverpool Hope University 

Malik was conferred a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), a higher doctorate, at a graduation ceremony held at Liverpool Cathedral on 23 July for his literary and academic work, including his contribution to the study of Liverpool’s links with slavery and his profound coming of age memoir, Letters to Gil (2021, William Collins), which charts the traumatising experiences in care that left him homeless until he discovered his sense of self-worth, thanks to the patronage of artist, poet and civil rights activist Gil Scott-Heron.

Professor Claire Ozanne, Liverpool Hope University Vice-Chancellor, said:

“We are immensely proud to award Malik this honorary degree. His extraordinary journey from a child left traumatised and failed by the care system to a celebrated author and academic is truly inspirational. Malik’s remarkable story reflects the transformative power of education and the resilience, courage and perseverance he has demonstrated throughout his life is an example to us all.”

CSAR Award

Malik also recently received the CSAR PhD Student Award for Applied Research, which recognises outstanding research with real world application and is intended to assist students to pursue their research or careers. His award was officially presented, along with the sum of £1,200 to support him in the final stages of submitting his PhD, at an event on 19 June celebrating the 60th anniversary of the foundation of CSAR.

The award is open to students in any discipline at the University of Cambridge, currently studying for their PhD at the deadline for application. The 2024 cohort of winners received prizes for research topics ranging from living with volcanic risk in Chile, to the role of immune system cells in inflammatory arthritis, to microfluidic engineering to accelerating drug development. Malik was selected for a prize in recognition of the important projects arising from his historical research into the Sandbach, Tinne & Co. dynasty and the African people enslaved by them. 

Previous awards

• Malik was previously awarded the 2022 Sydney Smith Memorial Prize by St Catharine’s in recognition of his outstanding achievement and contribution to the artistic and literary life of the College.
• He was consultant for ‘Mark Walters: In The Footsteps of Andrew Watson’ (broadcast by the BBC in 2021 and 2022), which won Best History Programme in the Documentary and Specialist Factual Categories at the 2022 Royal Television Society Scotland Awards.
• He was presented with the Global Impact award at the University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Awards in 2023.
• He also won the 2023 Cambridge Student Award with Rhiannon Llystyn Jones from St John’s College for their contributions to access and widening participation. 

Spotlight on Malik’s research

Malik recently co-curated a two-day conference with the University of Bristol at the M-Shed and Bristol Digital Futures Institute, exploring the legacy, history and archives of Sandbach, Tinne & Co., a slave trading conglomerate that had far-reaching influence across the British Empire, the subject of Malik's own research. The Sandbach Tinne conference brought together researchers from the UK and the US to explore the impact of this seminal research and connections to Bristol. Malik was co-executive producer of a new film about the Sandbach Tinne Project which he is developing with museums, libraries, and universities in association with Cambridge ThinkLab, which facilitated a day of workshops for senior executives and leaders from participating universities. The documentary includes comments from BAFTA-winning TV historian Professor David Olusoga OBE.

Find out more about studying History at St Catharine's.