AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Studentship opp. : Making Electronics in Interwar Britain: gendered labour in the thermionic valve industry
AHRC-funded PhD studentship
The University of Leeds
Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, in collaboration
with the Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester invites
applications for a fully-funded three-year PhD studentship (or 5 years
part-time) on electronics and gender in mid 20th-century
Britain. The project is especially suited to applicants with historical
interests in gender, science & technology, and/or business.
The studentship has been
awarded by the Science Museums & Archives Consortium under the
AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme. The project, due to
begin in October 2017, will be supervised by
Graeme Gooday and
Alison Fell at the University of Leeds, and Meg McHugh at the
Museum of Science and Industry, with Annie Jamieson at the National
Media Museum in Bradford.
This project looks at
the mostly female workforce that brought about the enormous boom in
British electronics after the First World War. This saw millions of
fragile hand-made amplifying valves become essential
components in the new technologies of radio, hearing aids, public
address systems, automatic telephone exchanges, televisions - and
Bletchley Park computers in the Second World War.
Potential research
questions include: why were women so much preponderant among the skilled
workforce for electronics? How much did this new kind of manufacturing
owe to women’s prior experiences in the textiles
industry or to factory work during the Great War? Why did the
electronics industry grow so fast and with whose innovations? How was
improved quality control for fallible valve hardware accomplished:
improved manual dexterity, innovative laboratory research
or collaboration via the British Radio Valve Manufacturers’
Association? How can all of these stories be used to inform collecting
practice and interpretation within the Science Museum Group’s large
holdings of early electronic technologies?
The Studentship
The PhD studentship will
be based at the University of Leeds Centre for the History and
Philosophy of Science and the Museum of Science and Industry in
Manchester. The Leeds HPS Centre has a very active graduate
programme, including currently around 30 research students, ten of
which are AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards holders. The wider School
of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, within which HPS is
wholly located offers a stimulating interdisciplinary
environment for postgraduate research and has strong affiliations with
the University of Leeds
Legacies of War project and the
Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies as well museums within the Yorkshire region.
The successful student
will be encouraged to spend time working on site at the museums within
the Science Museum Group, including the Museum of Science and Industry,
the National Media Museum and the Science Museum
in London. They will be expected to play an active role in the work of
the museums, and will be encouraged to participate in the museum’s
programme of events and publications.
Application details
Candidates should have, or expect to attain, a good undergraduate degree and should meet AHRC eligibility criteria:
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/
For information about
relevant Science Museum collections, and facilities for collaborative
PhD students please contact either Meg McHugh, email
Meg.McHugh@msimanchester.org.
Please send completed applications to
g.j.n.gooday@leeds.ac.uk by the
3rd April.
Interviews will be held in late April or early May 2017.