PhD Studentship - WRoCAH AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award - Everyday Crime, Policing, and (In)Justice: Reinterpreting Historical Narratives at Ripon Prison & Police Museum

Session 2025 - Closing Date 12 noon (UK time) 28^th May 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.

Ripon Museums Trust (RMT) is one of few independent museums holding significant policing collections. This positionality offers a rare opportunity to gain critical distance regarding historical and present (in)justice in the policing system.

This project explores how historical narratives are constructed and how museums can actively represent them. Centred on Ripon's Prison & Police Museum, it interrogates dominant perceptions of policing and (in)justice, offering fresh ways to engage with the museum’s collections that encourage visitors to seek a fairer society. By uncovering stories embedded in the building, the lives of those once connected to it, and archival holdings -including issues of the Illustrated Police News - the project aims to reinterpret the past and bring to light overlooked or marginalised narratives. Drawing on interdisciplinary methodologies the research promotes a critical museological approach. It not only reinterprets the past but also interrogates the cultural and institutional frameworks through which the past is curated, remembered, and made meaningful to the present.

The project's research questions facilitate and sharpen connections between historical and contemporary policing. There are three intertwined strands: 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 shaped the narrative about the police and their history, and what role does that narrative play today? What are the overlooked stories - especially the working class, 'everyday' stories?

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 Middleton

Application information contact Postgraduate Admissions team

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