WRoCAH AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award - (In)Justice in the Archives: Reinterpreting the Policing Collections at Ripon Museums Trust

Session 2025 - Closing Date 12 noon (UK time) 5^th March 2025

Before applying, please visit the WRoCAH website for full project details and application information.

Award provides fees and maintenance at UKRI Rates (£20,780 in Session 2025/26) plus £600 enhancement per annum.

This is an AHRC WRoCAH funded Collaborative Doctoral Award between the School of English, University of Leeds and Ripon Museums Trust.

The project examines the history of Ripon's Prison & Police Museum and challenges popular narratives of police (in)justice, offering the opportunity to reinterpret the collections in ways that speak to contemporary concerns and encourage visitors to seek a fairer society. By exploring the evolution of Ripon Liberty Prison (est. 1816) to police station (1877-1958), then museum (1982), alongside the lives of people connected with the site and public representations of policing, the project seeks to reframe historical and modern policing through a critical, democratised lens.

The project's research questions explore the connections between historical and contemporary policing. How did Ripon Liberty Prison become Ripon Police Station, which in turn became the Prison & Police Museum, and how might the history of the building play a part in encouraging reflection on the collection, the history of the local area, and the police? How has the history of the collection itself, begun in the 1980s, shaped the narrative about the police and their history, and what role does that narrative play today? What are the overlooked stories of the people associated with those different lifetimes as gaol, police station, and museum – especially the working class, 'everyday' stories?

You will shape your own project using a collection of mugshots, notebooks, and record books from the 19th/20th centuries, alongside possibly the most complete run of the sensationalist periodical the Illustrated Police News in the UK, to bring together individual stories and popular representations of policing. The project offers the opportunity to integrate analysis of the literature and journalism of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as consider the contemporary relevance of the policing museum in the modern world.

About Ripon Museums Trust

RMT is a unique trio of three museums: the Workhouse, Prison & Police, and Courthouse Museums. Using their collections and stories, these museums aim to help people explore issues such as fairness, equality, justice and welfare. This is achieved through excellent engagement, programming and outreach. RMT aims to encourage people to be 'more knowledgeable, creative, compassionate, motivated and confident in their ability to make a difference', and 'to inspire people to seek a fairer society'.

Engagement, outreach, dissemination and impact initiatives

The Workhouse Museum is about to begin a major project, 'Inspiration for a Fairer Future', funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. As part of this studentship, you will learn crucial collections management and public engagement skills to inform the project and your work, and will play a key role in bridging the Workhouse redevelopment and future Prison & Police Museum redevelopment. The studentship offers a unique opportunity to integrate research, outreach and curatorial work. You will use your research to connect historical narratives to contemporary issues through audience engagement activities, reinterpretation of displays, and cataloguing.

For further project information contact Dr Emily Bell

Application information contact Postgraduate Admissions team

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