The Past Speaks

I am pleased to announce that we are now in the process of recruiting a PhD student. The PhD student, who will receive a full tuition-fees waiver and a living stipend, will work on a project of their own design that relates to the archives of Barclays Bank, our private-sector partner. At the end of the process, you will received a PhD from the University of Liverpool. This PhD project could lead to employment in private industry or as an academic in either management or archives and records studies.

If you wish to discuss this matter with me before the application deadline, please email me. Full details of the studentship are below. As you can see from the description below, we are seeking applications from people who have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least three years. Our preference would be for a PhD student who already has a Master’s degree, although a strong candidate with a good degree in any humanities or social science subject would also be considered.
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Studentship 2016: ‘Accounts with Interest’ – Opening up the Archives of Barclays Bank

The University of Liverpool and Barclays Group Archives (BGA) invite invitations from suitably qualified candidates for the first of two fully-funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentships. The project will centre on access to, and the research use of, data – and particularly nominal data – held within the Bank’s archives.

The successful candidate student will enjoy privileged opportunities to work in situ as a member of the professional archival team responsible for Barclays Group Archives in Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester: S/he will explore the possibilities for developing access to the rich information resources available in these archives, focusing in particular on the customer/nominal data. Such information exists in a number of different locations across the bank’s holdings, but its research potential remains to be fully realised.

‘Accounts with Interest’ is conceived as a genuinely interdisciplinary project; we are keen to attract suitably-qualified candidates from any area of the humanities and social sciences who can demonstrate their potential to conceive a coherent research project aimed at enabling access, adding value to the information held in archival records, and promoting audience development. Thus, while the research might be conceived with the framework of archival science or organisational studies, and take a methodological stance from either of those disciplines, it is not restricted, or limited to, either. Whatever approach is adopted, outcomes of the project will include enhanced understanding of the research potential of the materials, and of how Barclays can provide enhanced corporate and (appropriate) public access. The candidate will work closely with a second studentship holder, to be appointed from October 2017, whose research will take place within a technology/digital humanities-based framework. It is anticipated that the successful candidate will either have completed (or be close to completing) a Master’s degree by 1 September 2016.

Download AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Studentship 2016 (pdf) for further details or email Dr Margaret Procter, Senior Lecturer, Record and Archive Studies or Dr Andrew Smith, Senior Lecturer in International Business.

Deadline for applications and interviews

The deadline for receipt of applications is 5.00pm on Wednesday, 6 April 2016.

Interviews will be held in Liverpool on 19/20 April 2016.