PhD studentship: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Award – The Hidden Gender of Collections: Women and the Curation of Scientific Heritage

AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Award – The Hidden Gender of Collections: Women and the Curation of Scientific Heritage

Session 2025/26 - Closing Date 17:00 (UK time) 30 April 2025

Award provides full fees and maintenance at standard UKRI rates (£20,780 in Session 2025/26) plus £600 enhancement per annum, a Research Training Support Grant plus other allowances (pro rata for part-time study).

The School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science at the University of Leeds and Cambridge University Library are pleased to announce a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship, from October 2025.

Are you interested in how women practiced science before higher education and scientific careers were available to them?  This question has often been answered by reference to a handful of exceptionally prominent women. However, women’s historical scientific contributions have been far more extensive than these narratives of pioneering women seem to imply, and much of their labour and expertise remains unnoticed or disregarded.  This project tackles that issue head-on, demonstrating in the process that taking women’s hidden work seriously corrects and deepens our understanding of the history of science more generally.

Working with Cambridge University Library and other partner institutions, you will investigate women’s involvement in the creation and management of some of the most important scientific collections, and their curation of often-crucial scientific heritage, between the mid nineteenth and the mid twentieth centuries. You will investigate the considerable skill and expertise that such work required and will also explore the significant consequences that it had for the sciences and their public reputation.  You will be working with collections such as the Darwin Archive at Cambridge University Library, where several of Charles Darwin’s granddaughters were involved in shaping the heritage and reputation of the family and its work. In addition, you will be engaged with heritage organizations and their public engagement projects that seek to reinterpret such collections to re-expose the importance of women’s neglected scientific roles.

This project will be jointly supervised by

• Professor Jonathan Topham (Leeds)
• Dr Edwin Rose (Leeds)
• Elizabeth Smith (Cambridge)
• Dr Katrina Dean (Cambridge)

The student will undertake research at both Cambridge University Library and the University of Leeds, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP-funded students across the UK.

Funding for the studentship will be for up to four years’ duration (or up to six years and eight months part-time) with the expectation that this will include development activities, as applicable to meet the student’s needs, and that the thesis will be submitted within the funding period.

The studentship is open to both Home and International applicants.

We encourage the widest range of potential students to study for this CDP studentship and are committed to welcoming students from different backgrounds to apply. We particularly welcome applications from UK Black, Asian, Ethnically Diverse backgrounds as they are currently underrepresented at this level in this area. All scholarships will be awarded on the basis of merit.

Informal enquiries about the project should be directed to the lead supervisor, Jon Topham (j.r.topham@leeds.ac.uk).

If you would like to arrange an in-person visit prior to applying, contact Elizabeth Smith (els47@cam.ac.uk).

If you have any questions about this vacancy or application process, contact the Admissions team (ahcpgradmissions@leeds.ac.uk)

For further details about the CDP scheme, contact cc-ee@fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk.

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