AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award

• Eligibility criteria
• How to apply
• Deadline for application

‘Seeing the sacred in the museum: exploring the significance of religious and secular subjectivities for visitor engagment with religious objects’

Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society, Birkbeck College, University of London, in collaboration with the British Museum

The aim of this doctoral project will be to explore the ways in which visitors engage with religious objects at the British Museum, focusing particularly on whether it is possible to identify ways of seeing or engaging with objects that relate more generally to religious and secular subjectivities. Drawing together current research in material religion and museum visitor research, the award-holder will engage in original empirical work that will both add to our understanding of the performance of religious and secular subjectivities in public cultural spaces as well how museum evaluation work might engage in new ways with religious dimensions of visitor experience.

The award-holder will be supervised by an inter-disciplinary team, including Professor Gordon Lynch and Dr Fiona Candlin at Birkbeck and Dr Xerxes Mazda at the British Museum. The award-holder will be actively involved with the Evaluation Team at the British Museum, and in addition to producing a doctoral level thesis, will gain valuable experience of working in a world-leading museum.

The project will involve both an initial literature review in the fields of material religion, material and visual culture, and museum studies, and a substantial phase of empirical work including the use of video, other observational methods and interviews. Appropriate supervisory and training support will be provided through the project.

The studentship will be available from 1 October 2010 on a full-time (3-year) or part-time (5-year) basis. The studentship covers the full cost of fees and a maintenance allowance at standard AHRC rates. The British Museum will also make an annual contribution of one thousand pounds to the maintenance allowance. Eligibility for the studentship is restricted to EU nationals and/or according to specific residency criteria, and potential applicants are recommended to check their eligibility for the award before applying.

Eligibility criteria

The project represents an exciting and unusual opportunity for the award-holder to extend their knowledge of material religion and the significance of religion within the contemporary museum. We expect the successful award-holder to meet the following criteria:

Essential criteria

• undergraduate degree in a relevant humanities or social science subject (e.g. religious studies, anthropology, sociology, visual/material culture), either with first class honours or a high 2:1
• Master's-level qualification in a relevant subject area (e.g. those listed above, as well as museum studies, arts management), preferably at distinction level
• established knowledge of at least one of the following: a) the study of material and visual culture, b) the study of material religion/religion and culture, or c) museum studies (particularly visitor research).
• ability to produce work to a high standard to set deadlines
• ability to work effectively in a team, and to build appropriate working relations with colleagues and research participants
• previous experience of, or demonstrable interest in, undertaking qualitative research
• willingness to live within commuting distance of central London
• willingness to participate in other relevant activities (e.g. CRCS doctoral seminars, British Museum training events)

Desirable criteria

• experience of working in a museum context and/or an understanding of the social and policy contexts of contemporary museum practice
• training in social research methods
• previous use of video-recording methods and/or use of video-editing software

How to apply

To apply for the studentship, applicants should complete a postgraduate application form , following these instructions:.

1. All sections of the form should be completed apart from section 6, the supporting statement.
2. Applicants should attach academic transcripts to their application, but do not need to include academic references, as we will only contact the referees of short-listed applicants.
3. In addition to the standard application form, applicants should also attach a short covering letter or personal statement (no more than 1000 words) explaining their motivation and suitability for this particular project.
4. Applicants should then send four hard copies of their completed application to:
5. Professor Gordon Lynch
   AHRC CDA studentship
   Department of Psychosocial Studies
   Birkbeck, University of London
   Malet Street
   London, WC1E 7HX

Deadline for application

The deadline for applications is 1st June 2010. Interviews will be held around the end of June. Because of the anticipated volume of applications, if you have not been contacted with an invitation to attend an interview by the end of June, we regret that your application has not been successful.