The Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust was set up to recognise the legacy of Ladislav Holy and promote anthropological research conducted by staff and students in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews.

Ladislav Holy was invited from the Queen’s University in Belfast to establish the discipline of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews in 1979, when he was appointed Reader in Social Anthropology. That same year he was joined on the staff by lecturer David Riches (also from Queen’s University). Dr Holy was later elevated to a Professorship in 1987. In 1992, Social Anthropology was incorporated as a full academic department within the then new School of Philosophical and Anthropological Studies.

The Ladislav Holy Memorial Trust, which was set up in 1997 after Prof Holy’s death, has the aim of promoting by means of small grants aspects of anthropological research pursued within the Department. A conference fund
exists to support occasional workshops and colloquia aimed at examining issues of anthropological theory and method, and a travel fund offers support to students conducting research projects. The Trust also administers the David Riches Medal for the best piece of postgraduate writing in Social Anthropology in any one year, and it sponsors the Ladislav Holy Memorial Lecture held in St Andrews.

The University Library’s Special Collections unit houses the Ladislav Holy Archive, which contains his fieldnotes, ethnographic material, a photographic collection, and correspondence. The University Museum holds his collection of ethnographic objects mainly from Africa.

The Trust administers a fund established in 1997 with donations from alumni and Ladislav’s widow, Kate Holy, and it makes annual and other occasional grants derived from capital income. See separate headings on the home page for details of the Trust’s numerous activities.