Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

Collection of statues

Oxford's AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) began in 2016 and offers up to four fully funded doctoral studentships each year. 

The scheme, which is led by Dan Hicks (Pitt Rivers Museum), operates across the six gardens, libraries and museums: the Ashmolean Museum, Bodleian Libraries, History of Science Museum, Museum of Natural History, Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum and the Pitt Rivers.

Each CDP studentship is jointly supervised in partnership between one or more of Oxford University museums and academics from UK Higher Education Institutions (HEI).

The partner HEI administers the studentship, receiving funds from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for the student’s fees and maintenance in line with a standard AHRC award.

In addition to this full studentship award for fees and maintenance, Oxford University museums provide up to £2,000 per annum per student (pro rata) to cover the costs of travel between the HEI and Oxford, and related costs in carrying out research. Studentships can be based at any UK HEI apart from Oxford University.

The Collaborative Doctoral Partnership training grants will produce research that helps us to develop new perspectives on our collections and to share knowledge more widely and effectively with a range of audiences, while also training a new generation of scholars working between the academic and heritage sectors.

For general enquiries about Oxford University GLAM Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships please contact Dr Harriet Warburton, GLAM Research and Impact Manager, at harriet.warburton@glam.ox.ac.uk. For enquiries about specific projects please contact the project supervisors named below.

 

2023 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

The eighth round of Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships will begin in October 2023, in partnership with the University of Reading and the University of Warwick. 

For both studentships people from under-represented backgrounds are especially encouraged to apply and interviews will be guaranteed to applicants from specified ethnic backgrounds who meet the essential eligibility criteria; see each advert for further details. 

 

Evaluating the Influence of Tangible 3D Printed Replicas on the Museum Experience

The University of Warwick and Oxford University Museum of Natural History are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded doctoral grant from October 2023. The project will explore in-depth the impact of tangible 3D printed replicas on education outcomes and visitor experience. It will employ a rigorous, mixed-methods approach borrowing heavily from the well-established discipline of industrial user experience (UX) and user centred design, augmenting traditional museum evaluation techniques with robust UX methods that have been extensively tested in other industries.

This studentship will begin on 1 October 2023 and will be jointly supervised by Professor Mark Williams & Dr Paul Wilson, University of Warwick, and Professor Paul Smith & Janet Stott, Museum of Natural History, Oxford.

For full details of the studentship, including further particulars and how to apply, please follow the link to the advert on the University of Warwick website.

In preparing your application and proposal, you are encouraged to contact the supervisor at Warwick, Professor Mark Williams (m.a.williams.1@warwick.ac.uk), who would be very glad to communicate with prospective applicants by email, telephone, or Skype/Zoom.

Application deadline: Closed

 

 

Rivers of Bronze in the age of Iron (RoBIn): an interdisciplinary study of Iron Age copper-alloy material culture from the middle–upper Thames Valley

The University of Reading and the Ashmolean Museum are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded doctoral grant from October 2023. The project will enable a student to explore the production and circulation of metalwork in the middle and upper Thames Valley during the Iron Age in Britain (c. 750 BCE–43 CE), using an integrated characterisation approach to Iron Age metallurgy.. The successful applicant will have autonomy to shape the project based on their interests and will divide their time between the two institutions, receiving advanced research training and benefiting from experience in the Ashmolean's incredibly rich and diverse collections.  

This studentship will begin on 1 October 2023 and will be jointly supervised by Dr Peter Bray & Professor Duncan Garrow, University of Reading, and Dr Courtney Nimura & Dr Kelly Domoney, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. 

For full details of the studentship, including further particulars and how to apply, please follow the link to the advert on the University of Reading website.

In preparing your application and proposal, you are encouraged to contact the supervisor at Reading, Dr Peter Bray (p.j.bray@reading.ac.uk), who would be very glad to communicate with prospective applicants by email, telephone, or online (e.g. Zoom).

Application deadline: 26 May 2023

 

 

Creating the first Europeans. Tracing the development of Sir Arthur Evans’s vision of Minoan civilisation through documents and objects

The University of Bristol (School of Humanities, Department of Classics and Ancient History) and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford (Department of Antiquities), are pleased to announce a fully-funded four-year (full-time) / up to eight years (part-time) AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership grant from October 2023 (or January 2024) to conduct research on the Sir Arthur Evans Archive and related Aegean Bronze Age collections in the Ashmolean Museum. By examining Evans's unpublished writings, held in the Sir Arthur Evans Archive at the Ashmolean, alongside his publications and the objects he acquired, the student will assess how Evans's vision of the Minoans developed over the decades either side of World War I. 

This studentship will begin on 1 October 2023 and will be jointly supervised by Professor Nicoletta Momigliano and Dr Shelley Hales, University of Bristol, and Dr Andrew Shapland and Dr Eleanor Standley, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

For full details of the studentship, including further particulars and how to apply, please follow the link to the advert on the University of Bristol website.

In preparing your application and proposal, you are encouraged to contact Professor Momigliano (n.momigliano@bristol.ac.uk) or Dr Shapland (andrew.shapland@ashmus.ox.ac.uk).

Application deadline: Friday 9 June, midday BST

2022 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums

The seventh round of Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships will begin in October 2022, in partnership with University College London (UCL) and the University of Kent. 

Further details of the studentships will be available in due course.

  • Decolonizing Collections: The Reception and Consumption of Classical casts in pedagogy in the British Empire

    Amalia Wickstead (UCL, in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)

    Supervised by Professor Phiroze Vasunia (UCL) and Dr Milena Melfi and Dr Shailendra Bhandare (Oxford)

  • Centring the marginal: Western medieval manuscript fragments in the Bodleian Library

    Jemima Bennett (University of Kent, in partnership with the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford)

    Supervised by Dr David Rundle and Dr Emily Guerry (Kent) and Matthew Holford and Nicole Gilroy (Oxford)

2021 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums

 

The sixth round of Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships will begin in October 2021, in partnership with the University of Brighton, University of Exeter and University of Leeds. 

 

 

2020 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums

 

The fifth round of Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships began in October 2020, in partnership with the University of Bristol; and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), Birkbeck and the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study (all part of the University of London). Further details of their research can be found by following the links below: 

 

 

2019 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

 

The fourth round of Oxford University Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships began in October 2019, in partnership with University College London (UCL), University of Leicester and University of Warwick. Further details of their research can be found by following the links below:

 

 

2018 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

The third round of Oxford University Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships began in October 2018, in partnership with University College London and the University of Leeds. The studentships were awarded to Elaine Charwat and Susan Newell, further details of their research can be found by following the links below:

 

    2017 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

    The second round of Oxford University Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships began in October 2017, in partnership with the University of Birmingham, the University of Leicester, and Birkbeck, University of London. The studentships were awarded to Abbey Ellis, Helen Goulston and Beth Hodgett; further details of their research can be found by following the links below:

     

     

    2016 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

    The first round of Oxford University Museums Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships began in October 2016, in partnership with the University of Warwick and the University of Cambridge. The studentships were awarded to George Green and Emily Roy; further details of their research can be found by following the links below: