Research Fellow - Early Modern Studies

This post has arisen as a result of the award of an AHRC grant entitled ‘The Cultural Lives of the Middling Sort: writing and material culture 1560-1660'. The project is led by Professor Catherine Richardson at the University of Kent (Principal Investigator); Dr Tara Hamling at the University of Birmingham (Co-Investigator) and Professor Graeme Earl at King's, London (Co-Investigator). The successful applicant will be based at the University of Birmingham under the direction of Dr Hamling, working primarily on the strand of the project engaged with visual and material culture.

The post holder will be expected to learn some additional digital skills as necessary. Training will be provided. Dr Hamling will be more than happy to address questions prior to application.

The project will examine the cultural lives of the literate, urban ‘middling sort' in early modern England, analysing the broad range of written and material forms with which they were engaged as producers and consumers. Some of the most popular writers in English were members of this key, but neglected, social group and the project will provide the first sustained and holistic analysis of their cultural practices. Fully understanding their production and consumption patterns will allow us to ‘reconstruct' the urban aesthetic and scribal cultures in which significant prose and dramatic writers such as Nashe and Shakespeare grew up and participated. The project aims to offer a more comprehensive and accurate sense of the cultural identities of a range of influential professional writers, clerics, physicians, tradesmen, lawyers and urban administrators: how their writing related to their broader aesthetic environment, and how their outputs mediated culturally between those above and below them - the way they used them to further their social and political ends.

The successful applicant will have a PhD in an area of Early Modern Studies with experience working with material sources (art history, history, architecture, archaeology, social and cultural history), and will have a track record of disseminating their work to a range of audiences. Experience of object-based study of buildings, interiors, artworks, archival work and strong palaeographical skills will be essential, as this project will demand a significant amount of digging for ‘hidden histories'. The successful applicant will also be expected to undertake analysis of the material and to prepare that analysis for publication in reputable journals. A research interest in representation of the past and its consumption is desirable.

The job involves use of a range of digital humanities tools and data, including use of databases, interaction design, web content management systems, and digital photography. Familiarity with digital imaging tools such as photogrammetry and graphical modelling, and tools for recording and editing acoustic data such as music, is desirable but not essential.

Person Specification

• First degree in area of specialism and normally, a higher degree relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones
• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
• Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
• Contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
• Co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort

Closing Date: 5 Mar 2019