"Industrial Workers as Readers: Libraries, Reading Rooms and the Industrial Workplace in the Long Nineteenth Century"

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD to research the libraries, reading rooms and broader reading practices of industrial workers in Scotland and the North of England from c.1840-1918. This studentship forms part of a wider AHRC-funded project investigating how miners, railway workers and textile factory workers in Scotland and the North engaged with literary cultures, in partnership with the University of Manchester, the National Railway Museum, and a number of other industrial heritage museums, libraries, and creative partners. The student will be a full member of the project team and his/her findings will be incorporated in project outcomes: as a condition of the funding supplied, s/he will be expected to contribute up to six hours per week assistance with the project. Additional training and skills development will be supplied through a built-in internship at the Working-Class Movement Library in Manchester, where the student will have the opportunity to design and curate a small exhibition based on project findings.

The lead supervisor for this PhD will be Professor Kirstie Blair (Strathclyde), with additional supervisory input from the project co-investigators, Dr Mike Sanders (Manchester) and Dr Oliver Betts (National Railway Museum). The student will be based in the School of Humanities at the University of Strathclyde, as part of a strong cohort of students working in nineteenth/early twentieth-century studies, Scottish studies, and popular or working-class literature and history.