PhD studentship at UCL/British Museum, 2015-18

'Domesticating the Sumerians in Mandate Iraq: contextualising Woolley's excavations at Ur (1922-1934)'

Applications are invited for a doctoral studentship tenable at University College London (UCL) History Department, in collaboration with the British Museum (BM). This doctoral award is funded though the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under its Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships scheme. The project will be co-supervised by Professor Eleanor Robson at UCL, and Dr Jonathan Taylor at the BM.

UCL Department / Division: History
Duration of Studentship: Three Years (to start 01 October 2015)
Stipend: £16,413 per annum (rate as at 2014/15 session)


Studentship Description
The successful candidate will explore the motivations and methods in Middle Eastern archaeology at the nexus of the infancy of modern, scientific archaeology and the birth of the modern nation state of Iraq, and the lasting impact of these excavations on public understanding of the past. The project will take as primary case study Leonard Woolley’s important archaeological expedition to the ancient city of Ur in southern Iraq (1922–34). It will benefit from the Ur of the Chaldees project, currently underway at the British Museum and Penn Museum, which is providing integrated digital access to the complete finds and records of Woolley’s excavations.

Person Specification
We are looking for a highly motivated student with a strong academic record at undergraduate and MA level who will relish the opportunity of combining academic research on this topic with involvement with a national museum. We welcome applications from students with training in the history of science, broadly construed, or the modern history of British and/or US relations with the Middle East, particularly those who have an interest in embedding the study of objects and material culture in their study of the past. The appointee will be expected to attend relevant training courses arranged by a consortium of London-based Collaborative Doctoral Partnership institutions, as well as courses run for doctoral students within UCL.

Closing date
31 March 2015

For more information, see http://ow.ly/KcOGL
--
Eleanor Robson • Graduate Tutor
Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History
History Department, University College London
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Office: +44 (0)20 7679 1337
Twitter: @Eleanor_Robson