Applications are invited for a Creative Practice PhD (via MPhil) studentship at the UCLAN Research Centre in Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX) in the School of Humanities, Language and Global Studies in collaboration with the Lancaster Maritime Museum. The studentship is tenable for up to 3 years full time [subject to satisfactory progress]. There will be a full fees and maintenance grant paid at UKRI rates - £4,600 pa fees & £16,062 pa maintenance grant. Both Home/EU and international Applicants may apply but international applicants will be required to pay the difference between home and international fees.
It is expected the successful applicant will commence 12 September 2022.
Project Description:
As the American literary critic and historian, Henry Louis Gates said, “The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.”
This project will enable crucial research on hitherto hidden histories in the Lancaster area to inform two in-person exhibitions and/or digital interpretations curated through the Lancaster Maritime Museum. Mentored by the museum the student will research curatorial interventions on two differing, but at times associated, areas of black history, relating them in Lancaster to the slave trade and industries based on slave-produced goods 1680-1865 and in Morecambe around black entertainers and their contribution to the seaside holiday 1850-1950.
The student will work with museums such as the International Slavery Museum, as well as professional bodies like the Museums Association, to research and analyse curatorial interventions regionally, nationally and internationally to determine best practice engagement in this developing field. The project will be a combination of archival work into black history and creative work to develop the optimum curatorial intervention. The written section will analyse self-reflexively the historical and contemporary difficulties of designing an exhibition on black history and the techniques used to overcome this in the curatorial intervention itself. Of particular interest will be developing an understanding of how to engage those who are hesitant or reluctant to discover more about this subject, encouraging them to learn and reflect in order to form their own opinions.
The exhibitions will utilise this work to promote best practice engagement, reflecting the need to tell these stories in new ways that reflect developing postcolonial ideas in the wake of the Black Lives Matter Movement. The grassroots Lancaster & Preston Black History Groups will be a resource the student can access to ensure that the exhibition reflects community concerns. Their written piece will reflect on the multiple influences of museums and community groups and how they shape the final exhibition.
Further information
Informal project related enquiries about the post can be made to Professor Alan Rice, [Email Address Removed]
For full details go to:
https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/studentships
Please apply using the following link, quoting the studentship reference number DTC015:
https://my.uclan.ac.uk/BANP/bwskalog.P_DispLoginNon
For any other queries, please email [Email Address Removed].
Closing Date: 24th June 2022
Proposed Interview Date: TBC
CURRENT UCLAN RESEARCH STUDENTS WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE TO APPLY FOR THIS RESEARCH STUDENTSHIP
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