Sloane Herbarium in the Natural History Museum, London

AHRC LAHP Collaborative Doctoral Award: ‘Decolonising the Sloane Herbarium’

Decolonising the Sloane Herbarium

Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and the Natural History Museum (NHM) are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded doctoral grant from October 2021.

This studentship is funded for 3.5 years full time (or part-time equivalent). The project will investigate provenance information for the botanical specimens in the Sloane Herbarium, a foundation collection of NHM, to re-imagine our understanding of its global and imperial dimensions.

The successful candidate will combine archival research and special collections handling with digital methods for structuring humanities data in order to surface hidden histories within the Sloane Herbarium, not least by building a resource that supports future generations of scholars.

A full description of the project objectives and application process is available in the Further Particulars.

This studentship is funded through the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDA) scheme via the London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP) of which QMUL is a member. The studentship includes a stipend at the Research Council UK Home / EU rate (£17,609 per annum in 2021/22) plus fees for 3.5 years. The awarded candidate will also be entitled to a £550 per annum stipend top-up. Studentships can be either full or part-time. As a LAHP student, the successful candidate will have full access to the LAHP Doctoral Training Partnership development activities and networking opportunities, joining a cohort of about 90 students per year.

CDA grants provide funding for doctoral students to work on a project in collaboration with an organisation outside higher education. They are intended to encourage and develop collaboration and partnerships and to provide opportunities for doctoral students to gain first-hand experience of work outside the university environment. They enhance the employment-related skills and training available to the research student during the course of the award. Collaborative Doctoral Awards are not only a route into academia but also provide hands-on work experience in the cultural sector and transferrable skills.

This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Richard Coulton (QMUL) and Dr Mark Carine (NHM), with further supervisory input from Professor Markman Ellis (QMUL) and Miranda Lowe (NHM). The student will be expected to spend time at both QMUL and NHM, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of LAHP funded students across the capital.

We want to encourage the widest range of potential students to study for this Collaborative Doctoral Award and are committed to welcoming applicants from different backgrounds. Candidates may come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds (e.g. archaeology, anthropology, literary or cultural studies, history, heritage studies, natural history, history and philosophy of science, museum studies, archive and information studies). Some experience of historical collections handling and/or digital humanities will be of benefit.

Potential candidates are welcome to contact Dr Richard Coulton (r.x.coulton@qmul.ac.uk) and Dr Mark Carine (m.carine@nhm.ac.uk) before preparing an application.

The successful candidate will commence their PhD in October 2021. They will hold their doctoral training grant in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen Mary University of London, and will work in partnership with the Natural History Museum.

Applications must be made in two phases:
Firstly to QMUL by 5pm on Friday 29 January 2021
Secondly to LAHP by 5pm on Friday 5 February 2021

You must complete the QMUL process first in order to include your QMUL application ID reference number on the LAHP CDA application form.

Interview date: TBC (late March / early April)

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