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Building upon our recent success in the national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), the School of Humanities and Heritage and the School of Design at the University of Lincoln are offering three fully-funded Graduate Teaching Fellow positions to research museum history and museum studies (comprising a PhD fee waiver, plus the equivalent of a UKRI stipend, for four years full-time). We invite talented individuals to submit applications for these fellowships, which combine PhD study with limited teaching duties at the University of Lincoln. Our overarching theme is ‘Museum Audiences: Past, Present and Future’ and we are interested in doctoral projects that link to this theme, based on the three areas described below, which align with our areas of expertise.
Museum studies, museum audience experiences, and the history of museums are areas of research excellence in the University with scholars across the university contributing to the latest research in the field. Successful applicants will be supervised in undertaking their doctoral research, and will simultaneously be provided with a bespoke, graduated introduction to teaching, involving mentorship, training, and support for attaining HEA Associate Fellow status. Teaching contact hours will build gradually up to a maximum of no more than 8 hours per week during term time over the course of the Graduate Teaching Fellowship.
Aims
The School of Humanities and Heritage and the School of Design at the University of Lincoln are seeking to recruit to three Graduate Teaching Fellowship places in the Museum Audiences: Past, Present and Future cluster, aimed at investigating how museums have engaged and are engaging with their audiences and the evolving expectations regarding their collections, practices, displays, digital provision and historical perspectives. Users of museums have recently come to the fore as researchers seek to understand their crucial role in co-producing the museum, to decolonise and ensure relevance, and decentre the curator as sole authority. There is, however, a huge amount which is still unknown about the diverse audiences and users of museums and their collections, and this cluster aims to fill some of these gaps, in ways which prioritise interdisciplinarity, impactful and useable research, and methodological innovation.
Applications should be made for the following doctoral projects:
- Inclusive exhibitions: Accessibility and co-creation. This studentship will prototype and test a range of new ways of accessing museum collections collaborating with disabled and non-disabled visitors, staff, and sector organisations. The action-based research will draw on live projects in Design and Conservation (including Lincoln Conservation). For this vacancy we are seeking a graduate in Design or cognate programmes, with demonstrable interest in social design, accessibility and heritage, and exhibition design.
- Collections databases: Useability and users. This studentship will evaluate existing museum collection databases to consider how far they reflect and enable the interests of different groups of users from researchers to ‘the public’, considering issues such as decolonising practice and the legacy of historical methods of documentation in museums. For this vacancy we are seeking someone with qualifications and/or professional/voluntary experience in museums/museum studies, digital humanities or a related humanities subject.
- Museums, young people and education: A historical study. This studentship will focus on school children and teachers as a key and understudied museum audience component, looking at some part of the period 1870-2000, in order to understand how and why the experiences of this group have developed. For this vacancy we are seeking candidates with backgrounds in history, museum studies or education, and demonstrable experience in archival and/or oral history research.
Research Environment
Both Schools sit within the College of Arts which has a vibrant and rapidly growing community of PhD students, as well as cross-disciplinary training, events and support such as the Critical Heritage Research Group. You will join a community of researchers working on museum history, heritage and design. We are engaged with the local museum community, including the Collection Museum and the Usher Gallery, to support our teaching and research. Our research interests span the local to the global. Our supervisory team are currently recipients of major grants including an £1 million AHRC grant: ‘The Sensational Museum’, an AHRC network grant ‘Making Museum Professionals 1850 – present’ and an AHRC CDP studentship ‘Women collectors of South Asia, c. 1800 – 2000’. The successful applicants will join this growing team of researchers focused on museums, objects and collecting, while also benefiting from Lincoln Conservation, our own in-house conservation consultancy. The Graduate Teaching Fellowships reflect our expertise in museum design and tangibility, museum history, and critical examination of museums in the present.
Funding
The Graduate Teaching Fellow position is a four-year full-time role which combines PhD study with teaching duties. Applicants with relevant personal circumstances may be enrolled for six years on a part-time basis, but only where this is justified. All Graduate Teaching Fellows will have their PhD fees waived, whether they incur home or international fees. They will also receive the equivalent of the standard UKRI stipend (£17,668 p.a. in 2022-2023), partly as salary and partly as a stipend. Graduate Teaching Fellows will be provided with appropriate training and support to undertake their teaching role. It is envisaged that their teaching duties, including associated administrative support and training, will not exceed 468 hours (0.3 FTE) per year, and in no case will exceed 20 hours of duties per week.
Requirements/Eligibility
All candidates must have a first or upper second class bachelors degree in a relevant subject (see description above), and be able to demonstrate experience in research design and management, for example through an excellent masters level dissertation, and evidence of interest in both museums and the heritage sector, and HE or equivalent level teaching, for example through involvement in peer mentoring, seminar leading, or other. Evidence of the ability to engage in postgraduate research and to work collaboratively as part of a teaching team, including excellent communication skills in both written and spoken English, are required.
How to Apply
To apply for this studentship, please send the following documents to collegofartsPGR@lincoln.ac.uk with the subject heading ‘Museum Audiences Graduate Teaching Fellow Application’. Please include:
1) CV (maximum 2 sides A4)
2) Covering letter indicating which studentship you wish to apply for, and describing your reasons for wishing to undertake this project, how your prior experience prepares you for this studentship (both research and teaching) how you would refine the project based on your interests and experience, and a proposed research plan (maximum 3 sides of A4).
3) Contact details of two referees
4) EDI questionnaire (see attachment on the website)
Deadline: 17 April 2023 (midnight)
