Apologies for resending these details -- the deadline for applications has
been extended to 18 June.
Details reposted below
All the best
David
--------------------------------------------------
David Gilbert
Professor of Urban and Historical Geography
Director: Social and Cultural Geography at Royal Holloway
Department of Geography
Royal Holloway,
University of London,
Surrey TW20 0EX.
Tel (01784) 443653
Fax (01784) 472836
[log in to unmask]
www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/gilbert/index.html
--------------------------------------------------
AHRC Collaborative PhD Studentship at Royal Holloway and the Museum of
London
Curating the Global City
Application Procedure
Applications are invited from suitably qualified and/or experienced
candidates. A minimum of a 2.i degree at undergraduate level is normally
required in an appropriate subject area, plus a recognised postgraduate
programme of research training or its equivalent in a relevant specialist
area (e.g. museum studies, urban studies, cultural geography, modern
history, cultural studies etc). While an ideal candidate will combine
training and/or experience in both urban research and museum work, the
supervisory team have developed different training and supervision
strategies for candidates with a specialism in one of these areas. An
ability to work both independently and as part of a team will be important
to the success of the project.
Interested candidates are strongly recommended to contact Professor Gilbert
before making an application: [log in to unmask]
All candidates must make a formal application for a PhD place at Royal
Holloway before Wednesday 18 June 2008. Applications can be made at:
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/Studying/Admissions/pgapplication.html.
Candidates should indicate clearly that they are applying for the AHRC
Collaborative PhD Studentship with the Museum of London, and should attach a
full CV and short statement (max 1000 words) indicating their suitability
for the project.
Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed at the Museum of London on 2nd
July 2008.
The studentship commences on 22 September 2008.
Details:
This proposed PhD addresses the relationship between major world cities and
their display in museums of city or urban history. Recent years have seen
remarkable growth in what has been described as the museums of cities
movementı with important initiatives taking place cities as diverse as
Beijing, Boston and Sao Paulo (Vinson and MacDonald 2006). The exhibition of
the city is being reshaped both local circumstances and resources, but also
by changing ideas about the nature of the urban and its public display and
interpretation. At the Museum of London, the largest urban history museum in
the world, the £20.5m Capital City Projectı supported by the Heritage
Lottery Fund is allowing the Museum to reinterpret the making of one of the
worldıs great urban centres. At the heart of this project will be new
galleries covering the period between 1666 and the present day. The PhD
will provide a critical evaluation of this project and its public reception,
interpreting it in the context of wider developments in urban theory and
curatorial approaches to the display of cities and city life.
Aims and Objectives
This PhD project will provide a critical interpretation of the ways that
Londonıs history as a global city is represented and narrated in the new
Modern London Galleries scheduled to open in the autumn of 2009. It will
achieve this by addressing four subsidiary aims:
First, it will place the current developments in the context of the
history of curatorial responses to Londonıs history at the MoL, and at its
predecessor institutions, concentrating particularly ways that Londonıs
global position and status has been displayed and interpreted.
Second, it will place the project in an international comparative
perspective, examining both alternative models for the curation of the
history of major international cities in individual museums, and the growing
networks for the exchange of ideas, particularly in the International
Committee for Collections and Activities of Museums of Cities. (CAMOC)
Third, it will provide a detailed reading of the curatorial strategy,
design, interpretative strategy and key messages of the new Modern London
Galleries and related interactive and outreach initiatives, again
concentrating particularly on ways that Londonıs global position and status
has been displayed and interpreted.
Finally, the PhD will assess the critical and public response to the
Modern London Galleries, assessing particularly the communication of ideas
about Londonıs global position and status.
Intellectual issues and contexts
This PhD project works in the fertile ground between contemporary urban
theory and curatorial practice. Recent work in urban theory has significant
consequences for ways in which city histories might be conceived and
displayed for the public. We can identify three relevant strands in recent
writings on the nature of the city.
First, work has interpreted the urban as constituted through flows (of
people, ideas, material objects, money) and interconnections with other
places. This reconception of the nature of the city has its clearest
expression in Amin and Thriftıs Cities: Reimagining the Urban (2002), and
builds upon the theorisations of space and place developed in Doreen
Masseyıs work (see in this context particularly her recent book on London,
World City 2007.) Such work provides for a public history that emphasises
connections and the constitution of major cities through interactions with
distant places. It destabilises common expectations that the city museum is
a site for a kind of metropolitan local history.
Second, an important strand of work on cities emphasises their position in
hierarchies of power and influence. Following from the work of Friedmann
and Sassen, on world city hierarchies and global cities respectively, a
range of historical and contemporary work has attempted to understand the
complex characteristics of the top tier of world cities. Such
world-centrality has clearly been the central theme in Londonıs history over
the past three centuries, and the public display of its history needs to
give precedence to its role as mercantile, imperial and financial capital.
Recent work has also extended the idea of the world city away from a focus
on economics and political power to think about other constructions of world
centrality, notably for fashion and consumption, and the intersections
between world cities and international flows of migrants.
Thirdly, there has been a turn towards interpretation of the city in terms
of sensory experience, emotion, and forms of memory. The psychogeographical
movement, for which the London experience and cityscape has been a key
motivating force, is one important expression of these developments. This
raises questions and challenges for museums seeking to represent the
textures and experience of the great metropolis. As Côté, Dubé, Edwards and
Bourbeau (2006) suggest one response is through innovations in interactive
and digital displays, but the city museum also has the potential to draw
upon urban territory outside the walls of the museum as an integral part of
display. Beyond the traditional concerns with museum outreach work, the
city museum has the potential to expand beyond the conventional limits of
display to become a museum of about urban presenceı as well as place.
Such issues have fed into discussions about the nature of the city museum.
As Jack Lohman, Director of the MoL suggested recently, the ways that city
museums tackle histories such as those of mass migration and diversity are
vital challenges for our times. There is, however, remarkable diversity in
the strategies that city museums have used to represent and interpret the
urban. Some such as Urbis in Manchester concentrate on the experience of
urban life and culture; for others, particularly in Southern European
cities, there is a strong tradition that places the history architecture and
archaeology at the heart of the mission of the city museum. In other
museums, the city museum is seen as a particular kind of social history
collection, often with an emphasis on the peoplingı of the city through
migration, and its consequent diversity. For the MoL, all of these elements
are present to some degree, but the Museum also has to work within its space
constraints, through its existing, extensive collection of material
artefacts, and within broad parameters set by the its own curatorial
traditions and the expectations of the public. The thesis will focus on the
ways that the new galleries reshape the interpretation of London.
Approach, methods and timetable
The PhD project has been carefully designed around the projected opening of
the new galleries, scheduled for autumn 2009. The work has been divided
into four phases, that correspond with the detailed research aims set out
above. After an initial induction period, the thesis concentrates in its
first year on the historical and comparative context. Drawing upon the
archival resources of the MoL, and through interviews with past and present
curatorial staff, the project will identify the key representational
strategies of previous major displays of Londonıs history. One particular
case study, and a focus for comparison will be the World City Galleryı
which was the MoLıs approach to the history of the city between 1789 and
1914. The gallery was open from 2001 to 2007. It focused on Londonıs
Victorian pre-eminence and internal governance, and made extensive use of
material artefacts and textual commentary. One important methodological
strand in the thesis will be the comparison of the use of specific artefacts
in the new galleries, with their use in previous displays.
The first year will also be used to conduct a broad survey of alternative
curatorial strategies for city museums. It is anticipated that the student
will both examine the published and unpublished work of CAMOC and previous
networks of city museums, such the International Association of City
Museums, and will undertake tightly focused case studies of one or two key
city museums. It is also expected that the student will attend and
contribute to a CAMOC meeting during the three years of the project.
The second year will be shaped around the opening of the new galleries, and
will have two main aims: First, the thesis will produce a detailed
museological reading of the new displays. This will involve a number of
strategies, including analysis of design and pathways, and extensive
qualitative interviews with curators, designers, advisers and public
stakeholders in the scheme. The analysis will attempt to identify key
organisational and interpretative strategies for the galleries, and will
also focus on strategies to take the history of London out into its
cityscape. Throughout there will be an explicit focus on the representation
of Londonıs global position. Second, following the opening of the
exhibition, the student will work with the Museumıs evaluation team on the
public response to new galleries. The project will supplement the standard
evaluation through the use of focus groups, observation of gallery use, and
detailed interviews about particular aspects of the displays.
The final year will see the completion of this evaluation and associated
reports, and the writing of the final thesis.
Distinctive Intellectual Contribution
This will be the first detailed study of the museological issues posed by
the modern city museum. The collaborative arrangement means that the
researcher will have unparalleled access to the MoL during a process of
major transformation, when the broad issue of curating the global cityı
will be of key importance. Such access would be very difficult without the
collaborative framework, which means that the researcher will be actively
involved in the transformation process. The research also takes place at a
time and in a context where new ideas about the curation of urban history
are being actively explored at the MoL, and will provide a vital evaluation
of these initiatives. Lohmanıs comments about urban history and citizenship
indicate one aspect of this the vision of the urban history museum
currently being discussed at the MoL sees part of its role as a cultural
mediator particularly in public debate about planning and urban futures.
The redevelopment of the Modern Galleries of the MoL also takes place in the
context of new opportunities for interactivity through technology that can
attempt to take the Museum beyond its walls. The redevelopment project is
also addressing specific issues associated with the use of film and oral
evidence in public exhibitions. The research will also take place at a time
of renewed international debate about the role and content of the urban
museum. Hence, while it is envisaged that the thesis will have some of the
form of recent museological studies, such as Wilk and Humphreyıs 2004 study
of the New British Galleries at the V&A that combined comment on
historiographical principles with detailed analysis of design, content,
interpretative and educational strategies, and evaluation, it will also need
to tackle highly distinctive issues in a context of significant museological
innovation.
Dissemination
In addition to the PhD thesis, the students will be expected to contribute
to the Museumıs formal self-evaluation report, and will produce a separate
report of broader findings for the Museumıs use. The work will also be
disseminated through CAMOC, and specialist museum publications such as
Museum Practice. It is a normal expectation for PhD students in the
Department of Geography that elements of research are submitted to key
academic journals during the studentship. Indicative publications are The
Journal of Historical Geography, Cultural Geographies and Journal of Urban
History.
Studentship Details
The PhD student will be an enrolled student in the Geography Department at
Royal Holloway, University of London, and will also have staff status at the
Museum of London. All fees are paid by the AHRC, with a tax-free
maintenance grant (currently £13,600 + £2000 London weighting for 2007/8
students who meet AHRC eligibility criteria). The studentship will be
supervised by Professor David Gilbert at Royal Holloway, and by Dr Cathy
Ross, Head of the Later Department at the Museum of London. The studentship
is for three years.
AHRC eligibility criteria may be found at:
http://www.ahrb.ac.uk/apply/postgrad/postgrad_details_d/eligibility.asp.
The student will join a strong community of doctoral research students at
the Geography Department at Royal Holloway (top-ranked in the last RAE, with
particular recognition for its work in cultural geography.) the student
will join Landscape Surgeryı, a group of approximately 35 PhD students
working in historical and cultural geography that meets fortnightly at the
collegeıs central London base in Bedford Square. Office support and desk
space for the project will be provided at Royal Holloway. In addition, the
student will undertake the induction programme at the Museum of London. S/he
will have a base in the Later Department and will be provided with a hot
deskı work space and an internal e-mail account. They will be treated as a
member of staff and have the opportunity to attend all departmental meetings
and events. They will also attend Capital City project team meetings as
appropriate. The student will be able to attend continuing professional
development training at the Museum.
|
