Plays and Playing at Petworth House (1590-1640)
University of Sussex - School of English at the University of Sussex and The National Trust at Petworth House, West Sussex
Applications are invited for an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards between the School of English at the University of Sussex and The National Trust at Petworth House, West Sussex on Plays and Playing at Petworth House (1590-1640) beginning October 2011.
The doctoral project is based on the detailed study of sixteen bound volumes of 146 early modern plays collected as part of the library of the ninth and tenth Earls of Northumberland at Petworth House (West Sussex) before 1640. The project is part of an ongoing collaboration between the Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Sussex and the National Trust at Petworth House.
To date no study has been made of these texts, which have been kept separate from the main libraries at Petworth since they passed to the National Trust in 1947 and are largely unknown. The quartos seem to have been bound together some time subsequent to the 1690 catalogue of the library (the 'Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae Petworthianae'), in which these plays are catalogued individually and in a different order. Each volume contains between six and eleven plays, and initial research suggests that they were purchased as a collection rather than individually.
The broad aim of the doctoral project is to map out and to contextualise these quartos, exploring both their specific connection to Petworth and to the circumstances of their production.
The doctorate will be jointly supervised by Dr Matthew Dimmock and Andrew Loukes, the National Trust House and Collections Manager at Petworth House. There is also a team of secondary supervisors involved in the project that will offer support.
The award pays tuition fees and a maintenance grant for three years of full-time doctoral study. Please note that, in order to receive the maintenance award from the AHRC, residency conditions apply. Please refer to the 'AHRC Postgraduate Studentships: Guide to Student Eligibility' for detailed information: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Documents/GuidetoStudentFunding.pdf
Applicants should possess:
A 1st class or Upper 2nd Class Honours degree in a relevant humanities discipline.
A Masters degree or one completed by October 2011 (with distinction or merit) in an area relevant to the project.
Applications for a place on a research degree programme must be made on the standard University of Sussex application form at: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/pg/applying/
Where you are asked to outline your research project you should describe how your academic interests fit this collaborative doctorate and your reasons for applying.
If you have already applied to Sussex and wish to be considered for these awards, please send directly to Dr Dimmock details about how your academic interests fit these projects and your reasons for wanting to apply to them.
Please contact Dr Matthew Dimmock (m.dimmock@sussex.ac.uk) for further information on academic related questions about these awards.
The deadline for applications is Friday 12 August 2011.
