New doctoral training in collections-based research

Monday, 21 October 2013

Collier Building Brick and Artwork

This October welcomes the first cohort of a unique doctoral skills training programme to the University.

This new programme draws on the extensive research potential of the University's outstanding and internationally recognised museums and collections.

It aims to develop skills in interdisciplinary approaches to objects and archives so that research students are properly equipped to explore the visual, historical, cultural and material aspects of their research collections.

The inspiration behind this new venture has come from collaboration between Alison Donnell, Professor of Modern Literatures in English and Head of School of Literature and Languages, and Kate Arnold-Forster, Head of University Museums and Special Collections Services and Director of Museum of English Rural Life, who are now directing the Programme.

The first cohort of students will embark on research projects across Archaeology, English, Italian, History, Film and Theatre, Typography and Classics - working on collections as diverse as evacuee diaries, Greek vases and Mills and Boon editorial papers. Learning these skills will enable them to enrich their awareness of what they do when they research an archive or a collection and also challenge them to encounter and explore approaches that they might consider beyond their conventional disciplinary boundaries.

The University's outstanding museums and collections are regarded as significant and unique both nationally and internationally. The programme will make use of the three nationally-designated collections of the Museum of English Rural Life, the Beckett Archive and the Archive of British Publishing and Printing. In addition, the programme will engage the University's other museums, the Cole Museum of Zoology and the Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology, departmental research and teaching collections (such as those of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, and the Herbarium), as well as smaller teaching sets such as a fine representative collection of sixteenth to twentieth century drawings by European artists in the Department of Art.

The programme will also take advantage of the exceptional range of scholarly and practice-based opportunities provided by a combination of the University's world class researchers, facilities, and the strong professional and external links we have.

In addition to traditional study, students will have opportunities for placements and public engagement work, which will enhance their employability by exposing them to experiences that may support future careers within and beyond academia.

This year students will have the chance to join training workshops with the National Archives and British Museum, and students from these institutions will be joining us.

For more information please see the Collections Research website