AHRC funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship: Science, Technology and Road Safety in the Motor Age
The Science Museum and the University of Leicester
are pleased to invite applications for a three-year plus 6 months (42
months) AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD Studentship,
starting on 1 October 2017.
The
award is made by the Science Museums and Archives Consortium, which is
part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Collaborative
Doctoral Partnership scheme. The
project
will be supervised by Professor Simon Gunn and Dr Sally Horrocks, at
Leicester, and Dr Oliver Carpenter, Curator of Infrastructure at the
Science Museum and Dr David Rooney.
The successful candidate
will undertake a project about how new scientific and technical
approaches to mass automobility and road safety (including pollution)
were created at the highpoint of Britain’s ‘motor
age’ in the 1960s. The project examines the experimentation with new
technologies through applied research carried out in government agencies
such as the Road Research Laboratory. The experiments include
developing innovations, such as the driverless car and
seat belts, as well as testing devices designed to reduce accidents,
such as anti-lock brakes and road safety furniture. There is scope for
the student to define the PhD project in alignment with their areas of
interest.
The project involves two
main collections: different types of road safety objects held by the
Science Museum and the papers of the Road Research Laboratory, Ministry
of Transport and Department of Scientific and
Industrial Research at the National Archives. Archival research will
help contextualise the Science Museum artefacts related to road safety
and provide insight into the processes of research which helped to
create a new safety culture on British roads at the
period. As well as being based in the Centre for Urban History at the
University of Leicester, the award holder will also be part of the team
at the Science Museum and contribute to the public understanding of
their collections.
Person specification
We are looking for a highly promising student who
will relish the opportunity of combining academic research with the
experience of working as part of a professional team of museum
curators. Individuals with a background in post-war British
history, history of science, technology and medicine, science and
technology studies, sociology or geography studies are encouraged to
apply. The appointee will be expected to attend relevant training
courses run for doctoral students within University of
Leicester and at the Science Museum. Applicants must have a first-class
or high upper second-class honours degree (or equivalent qualification)
and meet the University’s standard English Language entry requirements.
It is expected that applicants will have
a related Master’s degree with merit or distinction, or be able to show
evidence that they will achieve this by September 2017.
Subject to AHRC eligibility criteria, the
scholarship covers tuition fees and a grant (stipend) towards living
expenses. The national minimum doctoral stipend for 2017/18 has been set
by Research Councils UK at £14,553. In addition the
student has access to up to £1000 per annum from the Science Museum for
research-related costs, and to
Student Development Funding
(equivalent to an additional 6 months of funding per studentship) to
allow time for the student to take up further training and skills
development opportunities that are agreed
as part of their PhD programme. The student also benefits from
staff-level access to the Science Museum’s collections, expertise and
facilities, as well as from the dedicated programme of professional
development events delivered by the Science Museum
in tandem with the other museums, galleries and heritage organisations
affiliated to the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme.
How to apply
Further information about this collaborative
research project (including academic and eligibility criteria), and full
details on how to apply can be found in the further particulars, here:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/
Informal Enquiries
Informal enquiries about this collaborative project can be sent to Professor Simon Gunn:
sg201@le.ac.uk
Closing Date: Monday 10 April 2017, 1700 (London Time)
Interview Date: Thursday 4 May 2017 at the Science Museum, London
For details of the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme at the Science Museum please visit
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.