UNIVERSITY OF YORK
DEPARTMENT
OF HISTORY
Institute of Railway Studies
& Transport History and the National Railway
Museum
AHRC
Postdoctoral Research Associate
REF: R08276
The
Commercial Cultures
of Britain’s
Railways 1872-1977
Applications
are invited for a post-doctoral research associateship to work with
Professor
Colin Divall on a project examining British railways’ commercial
cultures in
relation to passenger travel, ca 1872-1977. The post is available from
October
2008 and is funded through the AHRC’s Museums, Archives and Libraries
Scheme.
The project is managed jointly by the University of York
and the National Railway Museum (NRM). The associate will be based in
the
Institute of Railway Studies & Transport History, a joint
initiative of the
Department of History and the NRM. You
will be employed by the University and your normal place of work will
be the National
Railway Museum. You
must hold, or expect to hold by the start
of the project, a doctorate in Railway Studies, Modern History or a
closely
related field. Experience of working in
a museum environment and/or with a range of visual as well as textual
historical sources will be an advantage. Full training in handling such
material will be provided as appropriate by the NRM.
The railway companies are
central to modern notions of
commercial culture. In Britain
they invented, or made great strides in developing, many facets of the
large
corporation familiar today – branding, aspirational marketing,
corporate
image-building and industrial design were all familiar aspects of the
railway
from the 1870s. This project aims to understand how over roughly a
century Britain’s
railways developed such symbolic practices with the intention of
encouraging
travel by train. It will result in an exhibition inviting visitors to
reflect
on the sustainability of these historical developments in a world of
increasing
environmental and capacity constraints. The Associate will be expected
to play
an active role in the research community of the IRS&TH as well as
more
widely in the University and the NRM, including the dissemination of
research
findings in both scholarly and publicly accessible forms.
Informal inquiries may be made to Prof.
Colin Divall, University
of York: [log in to unmask];
+44 (0) 1904 686229 or 432990.
Salary will be £28,152
per annum. This post is available from 1
October 2008
for a period of three years.
Closing
date: 12 noon, Monday 18 August 2008. Interviews will be on Friday 29
August
2008.
For further particulars and details of how
to apply,
please see our website at: http://www.york.ac.uk/jobs/
or write to HR Services, University
of
York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD,
quoting reference number R08276.
The
University
of York is
committed to diversity and has
policies and developmental programmes in place to promote equality of
opportunity. It particularly welcomes
applications from ethnic minority candidates.
