Funded PhD Studentship at UCL History and Wellcome Collection
Deadline: 31 January 2025 at 5.00 pm
We welcome applications for a funded PhD studentship on the project ‘Translating Monstrosity: Constructions of Difference in Early Modern England and France’.
Drawing on Wellcome Collection’s rich holdings and early modern objects at UCL Special Collections, the project examines how bodily, racial and sexual difference were constructed in England between 1550 and 1700 and how French texts and images were adapted and reframed for English audiences. This research will contribute to on-going work addressing problematic and discriminatory terminology in catalogue records of historic materials. The student will have opportunities to organise multidisciplinary workshops, engage in knowledge exchange with museum and library staff, and share findings with public audiences.
This project will be supervised by Dr Elaine Leong and Professor Jason Peacey at UCL History, and Dr Elma Brenner at Wellcome Collection. The student will also be supported by an advisory team which includes special collections librarians, cataloguers and public engagement specialists.
This studentship is funded by a LAHP Collaborative Doctoral Award and includes a stipend at the Research Council UK Home/EU rate (£21, 237 per annum – 2024-25 rate) plus UK tuition fees for three and a half years, and additional funding from Wellcome Collection consisting of up to £1500 research expenses per annum and funds to organise workshops or knowledge exchange events.
LAHP welcomes applications from both ‘home’ and ‘international’ (including EU) applicants. Applicants should have an undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline, and a Masters level qualification or equivalent which meets AHRC requirements for research training. Applicants with relevant work/professional experience (e.g. in libraries, archives and heritage institutions) who are considering doing a PhD are also encouraged to apply. Funding is available for full-time and part-time students. Due to the research topic, reading ability of French is desirable and willingness to gain reading proficiency of early modern French is essential. LAHP AHRC-funded students can apply to the LAHP Language Fund to support training costs.
Further information about the project and the application process can be found on this webpage. The deadline for applications is 5 pm Friday 31st January 2025. Please note that applicants also need to apply to UCL History for a PhD place. More information on applying to the UCL History MPhil/PhD programme can be found on this webpage.
For further information about the project or to request an informal conversation about the application process, please contact Elaine Leong (e.leong@ucl.ac.uk).
Image Credit: Histoires prodigieuses extraictes de plusieurs fameux auteurs, grecs & latins, sacrez & prophanes / mises en nostre langue par P. Boaistuau, sournommé Launay, natif de Bretagne. Augmentées outre les précédentes impressions de six histoires advennues de nostre temps adjoustées par F. de Belle-forest comingeois, avec les portraicts & figures. Source: Wellcome Collection.