AHRC PhD studentship: A Paper World 1830-1914 (Royal Holloway/Kew Gardens)
A Paper World: The Collection & Investigation of Plant Materials for Paper Making, c.1830-1914
AHRC PhD Studentship
Applications
are invited for a fully-funded PhD studentship on the history of
collections of plant materials for paper making at Royal Holloway,
University of London, in partnership
with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This award, tenable for three
years and covering both fees and an enhanced maintenance grant, is made
by the TECHNE AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership under the National
Productivity Investment Fund Partnership Award scheme.
The project, due to begin in September 2017 or as soon as possible
thereafter, will be supervised by Professor Felix Driver (at Royal
Holloway) and Dr Mark Nesbitt (RBG Kew).
The Project
Innovations
in the technology of print and the vast expansion of publishing during
the nineteenth century stimulated the global search for new sources of
paper. A wide variety of natural
sources for paper-making were experimented with prior to the
large-scale mechanisation of papermaking using wood pulp from the 1880s.
While the economics of papermaking attracted the attention of
industrialists and botanists, there was also a longstanding
ethnographic interest in techniques of indigenous papermaking,
stimulated by the accounts of overseas travellers and explorers. This
combination of economic and ethnographic interest inspired the
assembling of collections of different types of paper, analogous
to collections of indigenous textiles in the period. Focussing on the
unrivalled collection of plant materials and manufactured papers from
many parts of the world held in the Economic Botany Collection at Kew,
the studentship provides an opportunity to explore
the economic, cultural and technical significance of the search for
alternative sources of material for paper making during the Victorian
era. The PhD thesis is likely to take the form of a series of
well-chosen case studies, raising wider questions concerning
the formation of knowledge about raw materials, technologies and
commodities. In addition to work with the Economic Botany Collection at
Kew, the project will involve archival research in official, business
and private papers at Kew and elsewhere in the UK.
There will also be opportunities within the public programmes of RBG
Kew to present this research to wider audiences. The project forms part
of an ongoing research collaboration between Royal Holloway and Kew
Gardens, including a large AHRC project led by
the co-supervisors ('The Mobile Museum: Economic Botany in
Circulation').
The Studentship
The
studentship includes a stipend of £16,553 (plus fees at home/EU rates)
for three years. There is an additional NPIF £550 per year to facilitate
engagement with the Partner, and
students can apply for an additional six months stipend to engage in
extended development activities such as work placements. As a TECHNE
student, the successful candidate will have full access to the TECHNE
Doctoral Training Partnership development activities
and networking opportunities, joining a cohort of about 50 students per
year from across seven universities in London and the south-east.
TECHNE students can apply for additional funding to support individual
or group training and development activities.
Applicants
should have a good undergraduate degree in history, geography,
anthropology or other relevant discipline. Preference may be given to
candidates with prior experience in
working with material culture, museum and/or archival collections,
though others are encouraged to apply. Applicants must meet the UK/EU
residency requirements as described in paragraphs 43-46 of the
'Conditions of Research Council Training Grants' and comply
with conditions set out in the AHRC Training Grant Funding Guide.
How to Apply
Applicants
should submit (1) a two-page curriculum vitae, including contact
details of one academic referee, and (2) a 1-2 page letter outlining
your qualification for the studentship
to: Professor Felix Driver, Dept of Geography, Royal Holloway,
University of London, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX (f.driver@rhul.ac.uk)
no later than 4 August 2017.
Interviews are scheduled to be held at Kew on
16 August 2017.
Further Information
Full project details