PhD Studentship: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP): Lithographs of the First World War: Printmaking, Propaganda and Mobilisation

Imperial War Museums (IWM), and the University of Warwick are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2025 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP)scheme.

This CDP PhD project will offer the opportunity to scrutinise a form of visual propaganda that is relatively under-researched: artistic lithographic print production, both commissioned and independently instigated, during the FirstWorld War.

This project will be jointly supervised at IWM by Claire Brenard and Dr Bryn Hammond, and the University of Warwick by Dr Pierre Purseigle and Dr Kamila Kociałkowska. The student will be expected to spend time at both the University of Warwick and IWM, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK.

Project Overview

IWM holds a fascinating but under-researched collection of European fine and popular prints gathered by John Crichton-Stewart, the 4th Marquess of Bute. It contains around 3,600 predominantly French prints, representing all aspects of French patriotic print production of the period, most of them lithographs, as well as relief and intaglio prints, and some drawings. It is envisaged that the PhD project will focus on this collection, as well as the museum’s collection of British lithographs of the period, mainly instigated by the government’s War Propaganda Bureau / Department of Information. These include the 1917 series Britain’s Efforts and Ideals by various artists and the work of soldier-artist Gerald Spencer Pryse.

The proposed investigation of these collections will fill in a curiously outstanding gap in the field. Both scholars of France and art historians have paid relatively little attention to lithography. Moreover, in both Britain and France, the cultural history of the conflict has often underplayed the specificities of artistic production in wartime.

The CDP represents a genuine opportunity to make a significant contribution to the field by scrutinising the lithographs of the First World War in their own terms and helping to contextualise the Bute collection within the wider art collection at IWM. It would position the prints in their context of production (commission, design, printmaking) and explore their dissemination and  reception at all relevant levels (domestic, local, national, transnational)

Details of Award

• Full-time studentship for 48 months (4 years) or part-time equivalent up to a maximum of 8 years.
• Annual stipend at UKRI rate (plus London weighting of £1000/year)
• Additional CDP maintenance payment (£600/year)
• AHRC Research training grant (£750/year)
• IWM supplementary grant (up to £4,000)

Application

• Open to home and international students
• We encourage applications from a diverse range of backgrounds and careerstages
• Applicants should hold a master’s degree in a relevant subject or be able to demonstrate relevant equivalent experience 

For full details about the project and the application process, please contact:

• For informal enquiries about the project, lead co-supervisor Dr Pierre Purseigle
• University of Warwick application process: PGHistoryOffice@warwick.ac.uk
• Interview process: Dr Maria Castrillo
• The University of Warwick and IWM will jointly assess the applications and hold interviews in order to reach a decision

Application Deadline: 3 June 2025 at 17:00 (BST)

Interviews: 30 June 2025 (online)

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