Job: AHRC-funded PhD Studentship "Instruments and their makers: A study of experiment, collaboration and identity in seventeenth-century London" (University of York / Science Museum; Deadline 15 April 2016)

17 maart 2016

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.

Dr Chris Renwick Senior Lecturer in Modern History Department of History University of York Heslington York E-mail: Chris.Renwick@York.ac.uk