PHD AT THE STATIONERS' COMPANY - APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN!
6 JANUARY 2022
We're excited to announce that the Stationers' Company Archive is partnering with the Universities of Durham and Newcastle to offer a fully funded research opportunity into early modern apprentices in the print trades. Our project, The Importance of Youth in the Early Modern Economy: Apprentices and their peer-networks, 1605-1800, has been approved for Collaborative Doctoral Award funding by the AHRC’s Northern Bridge Consortium.
The Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme was developed to provide students with the chance to combine a traditional PhD with work experience in a non-university environment. The funding is awarded to the host higher education institution and the PhD researcher receives a stipend for the duration of the PhD.
Our project examines apprenticeship, the key way in which youth of the ‘middling’ and ‘lower’ sort made their way into employment. The PhD student will investigate the supportive peer-networks that exist around apprentices in the print, engraving and book-binding trades in early modern London and Newcastle upon Tyne.
Men working at a printing press- Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Apprenticeships have traditionally been a cornerstone of the Stationers' Company, so this project is a natural fit for our Archive, which holds an unbroken run of apprenticeship records for the period in question. Better still, as the Company is also a key stakeholder in modern apprenticeships, we're ideally placed to offer the successful candidate the chance to put their research to practical use. Alongside an Archive placement, where they'll receive training in archival skills, the student will be invited to participate in our Education Committee, evaluate the Stationers’ modern apprenticeship scheme and help develop policy around the support of today’s apprentices.
Working with the Northern Bridge Consortium is a fantastic opportunity for the Stationers' Company to explore the extent of the Company's historical influence outside London, to connect with new research communities - and hopefully to encourage a new generation of apprentices and future Stationers.
For further details or for informal enquiries, please contact Barbara Crosbie (barbara.crosbie@durham.ac.uk) or Ruth Connolly (ruth.connolly@ncl.ac.uk).
Key deadlines: An expression of interest in this project submitted no later than February 4th 2022. The process of recruitment will be completed before Monday 14 March 2022 and the offer of a fully-funded studentship ratified by mid-April 2022.