The British Library and The University of LeicesterPhD Studentship: Re-evaluating the 1980s and 1990s Through Life Histories: Politics, Privatisation and the Culture of Government Research
The British Library and the University of Leicester are pleased to invite applications for a three-year AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD Studentship, available from 1 January 2016.
Applications are invited for a doctoral studentship tenable at the University of Leicester in close collaboration with The British Library, where the student will be based. This doctoral award is funded through the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under its Collaborative Doctoral Programme.
The project will be supervised by Dr Sally Horrocks and Professor Stuart Ball, at Leicester, and Dr Rob Perks, Curator of Oral History and Director of National Life Stories at the British Library.
The successful candidate will undertake a project based on oral history fieldwork that will consider how changes in the workplace that were driven by the politics of the period were linked to more general social and cultural change during the 1980s and 1990s. The specific focus will be on the working lives and careers of government scientists, whose workplace environments were transformed by commercialisation and privatisation.This will build on the life story interviews with government scientists already collected by the Oral History of British Science (OHBS) project and the award holder will become an integral member of the OHBS team. Full training in oral history fieldwork techniques and archiving procedures will be provided, and all the interviews this project generates will be archived in the British Library as part of the OHBS collection. This will ensure that it will create a lasting contribution to the national collection of oral history material as well as generating an outstanding PhD thesis. The award holder will also be fully involved in the life of the British Library and National Life Stories, including contributing to the project website, Voices of Science ( and taking part in other forms of public engagement.
The core of this project will be the collection and analysis of 20 life story oral history interviews with government scientists. Applicants are encouraged to develop proposals with a comparative dimension that draw onother NLS collections that have captured experiences of privatisation, for example in the electricity and water supply industries.
The student will join the vibrant academic community at Leicester where there are academic staff, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduate students working on history of science and medicine, post-war British history and using oral histories in their work. The East Midlands Oral History Archive ( has close links with the School of History and provides a strong local focus for oral historians. The School of History at Leicester, ranked 6th in The Guardian league table (Jan 2015), is home to a lively postgraduate community of around 140 students, including over 90 doctoral students who are based in the Marc Fitch Historical Institute. The School runs several other current collaborative doctoral projects with organisations including the National Archives, English Heritage and Boughton House. There are a range of postgraduate seminars and events (including New History Lab and the annual postgraduate conference), and the university is home to a number of interdisciplinary research networks, including one in memory studies. The student will also be expected to present their findings in seminars and conferences beyond Leicester, and as their work progresses to publish papers in academic books and journals. They will automatically become part of the UK-wide CDP development scheme ( which will provide training in a range of skills needed for research within museums, archives, galleries and heritage organisations.
National Life Stories was established in 1987 to ‘record first-hand experiences of as wide a cross-section of present-day society as possible’ through oral history fieldwork (see It is managed by Director Dr Robert Perks and Deputy Director Mary Stewart, and supported by a distinguished trustee body chaired by Dame Jenny Abramsky. It is an independent charitable trust and limited company based within the British Library. Alongside the British Library’s oral history collections, which stretch back to the beginning of the twentieth century, NLS's recordings form a unique and invaluable record of British life from a wide variety of perspectives. Since 1987 NLS has initiated a series of innovative interviewing projects funded almost entirely from sponsorship, charitable and individual donations. The collaboration with Leicester University provides NLS with the subject expertise it needs to develop its collecting activities in the area of the history of science and technology. Training at Leicester will be complemented by training provided by the National Life Stories team which we expect to take place in earnest in the second year of the successful applicant’s programme of studies. This will include a full introduction to the concept of life story interviewing, together with training and on-going support and advice in oral history interviewing techniques which will enable the award-holder to carry out life story interviews to a professional standard in line with those achieved by existing NLS interviewers. The student will benefit from interactions with other members of the NLS team, from attendance at frequent oral history team meetings, and contact with other BL staff in other departments.
Further Information:
The AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme at the British Library’
The School of History at the University of Leicester,
National Life Stories,
Person specification
We are looking for a highly promising student with an interest in the relationship between political, social and cultural change in the recent pastwho will relish the opportunity of combining academic research with the experience of working as part a professional team of oral historians and archivists. Individuals with a background in postwar British history, business history, oral history, history of science, technology and medicine, science and technology studies, politics, sociology or organisational studies are encouraged to apply.
Entry Requirements
Applicants must have a first-class or high upper second-class honours degree (or equivalent qualification) and meet the University’s standard English Language entry requirements. It is expected that applicants will have a Master’s degree with merit or distinction in a related subject.
The studentship is available for full-time study only, and applicants must be able to commence their studies in January 2016.
Studentship information
The standard tuition fees and stipend (maintenance grant) will be paid by the AHRC to the award holder subject to the eligibility criteria outlined by them. The AHRC stipend for 2015/16 is £14057.
In addition the British Library will provide £1,000 per annum for research-related costs and staff-level access to the BL’s collections and facilities.
How to apply
To apply you need to complete the standard University of Leicester online application form here:
In place of the research proposal requested on this form, you should provide a statement of up to 1,000 words on:
- How you propose to develop the project theme
- How your education and experience to date has prepared you for this research position
Applicants should also submit:
- A 4-5,000 word sample of their written work
Closing Date: 7 December 2015
Interview Date: TBC, at The British Library