AHRC PhD studentship: University of York (History dept.)/Science Museum
APPLICATIONS INVITED
"Instruments and their makers:
A study of experiment, collaboration and identity in seventeenth-century
London"
An AHRC-funded PhD Studentship at
the University of York (History dept.) in collaboration with the Science Museum
**********
In collaboration with the Science
Museum, London, the University of York announces a fully-funded 3-year PhD
studentship on the topic of ‘Instruments and their makers: A study of
experiment, collaboration and identity in seventeenth-century London’. Funded by
the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), this PhD project offers an
excellent opportunity for the successful candidate to pursue doctoral research
in history while gaining first-hand experience of work within a museum setting,
and to contribute to bringing the two sectors into fruitful interaction.
The PhD will be jointly supervised
by Dr Sophie Weeks (Department of History, University of York) and Jane
Desborough (Science Museum).
The project will explore the
multifaceted interactions of techniques, skills, knowledge and resources
leading to the realization of seventeenth-century mathematical, optical and
natural philosophical instruments. Grounded in the collections of the Science
Museum, the project focuses on instruments made by Robert Hooke's London
network of collaborators. Through integrating instrument history with history
of science, the research seeks to shed new light on both the nature of
collaborative experimenting, and the changing identities of seventeenth-century
instrument makers. An exciting feature of this project is that it seeks to
identify a novel methodology to bridge the divide between instrument history
and history of science.
The studentship will comprise a
fee-waiver at the Home/EU rate, and a stipend at the RCUK rate (£14,296 for
2016/17). The successful candidate will also get access to the training and
research support opportunities offered by the White Rose College of Arts and
Humanities. They will receive support from the Science Museum of up to £1000 a
year for approved travel and expenses, as well as a staff pass, workspace, and
library access in the Museum’s new Dana Research Centre and Library. Standard
AHRC eligibility criteria apply to this studentship.
A full project description is
available at: http://www.york.ac.uk/media/history/documents/York%20and%20Science%20Museum%20studentship%202016.pdf
Potential applicants requiring
further information are encouraged to contact Sophie Weeks at sophie.weeks@york.ac.uk
For further information about the
Department of History at the University of York, please see http://www.york.ac.uk/history/
The application deadline is Friday
15th April 2016.