AHRC PhD Studentship
Who were the Nuns? A Study of the English Convents in Exile in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Department of History
Queen Mary, University of London
October 2008 – September 2011 (fully-funded studentship)
The department has secured funding for a major AHRC research project entitled “Who were the Nuns? A Study of the English Convents in Exile in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries“.
Applications are invited to write a PhD thesis within the scope of the project title. The project’s PhD student will work on aspects of the political culture of the English convents in exile, c. 1600-1800. Possible themes for the PhD include: patronage networks supporting the convents; the nature of the patronage offered by some of the convents to the Jacobites after 1688; and the contribution of the convents and conventual networks to the changing of attitudes towards Catholicism in eighteenth-century England. The final choice of topic will be made after discussions with the project manager and principal investigator.
We anticipate that the student will contribute to contextual genealogical research on the main project and draw from this material to underpin their own research topic. The student will be given guidance on research methods, on the use of the appropriate archives in England, France and Belgium and training in the software used in the main project. They will be part of a team while at the same time developing their own research. A working knowledge of French is required. The candidate to be appointed must have been resident in the UK for the last three years. We would expect the successful applicant to have completed, or be in the process of completing an MA, or to have equivalent research experience.
There is no application form. To discuss the studentship in more detail please contact Professor Michael Questier at m.c.questier@qmuc.ac.uk or Dr Caroline Bowden, Project Manager at c.bowden@qmul.ac.uk. Those who are interested in applying are asked to send a CV and covering letter to Professor Michael Questier, and also the names of two referees (Department of History, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS) describing their previous academic experience, including research, and current interests.
Closing Date: 10 September 2008
