Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

Oxford's CDP studentship programme offers up to four fully funded doctoral studentships per year

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 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.

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)

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.

Other lives of the image: examining the meanings of an apartheid-era collection of photographs in South Africa today

Anna Sephton (University of Brighton, in partnership with the Pitt Rivers Museum/African Studies Centre, University of Oxford)

Supervised by Professor Darren Newbury and Dr Julia Winckler (Brighton) and Dr Chris Morton and Professor Jonny Steinberg (Oxford)
Decolonizing Collections: Investigating Knowledge Formation Networks in Colonial India with specific reference to Numismatics

Shreya Gupta (University of Exeter, in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford)

Supervised by Professor Nandini Chatterjee and Professor Nicola Thomas (Exeter) and Dr Shailen Bhandare (Oxford)
Coming Out of the Shadows: Women and Geology in Oxford, 1813-1914

Grace Exley (University of Leeds, in partnership with Oxford University Museum of Natural History)

Supervised by Dr Jon Topham and Professor Graeme Gooday (Leeds) and Eliza Howlett and Professor Paul Smith (Oxford)

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:

Biocultural knowledge, power and poetics in South American featherwork
Rosa Dyer (Birkbeck College, University of London, in partnership with the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford)
Supervised by Professor Luciana Martins and Dr Carmen Fracchia (Birkbeck); Dr Laura Van Broekhoven, Professor Andrew Gosler and Jeremy Uden (Oxford)
Creating the first Europeans
Jack Fuller (Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Bristol, in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)
Supervised by Professor Nicoletta Momigliano and Dr Shelley Hales (Bristol); Dr Andrew Shapland and Dr Eleanor Standley (Oxford)
The Duchess of Botany: Mary Somerset, Jacob Bobart, and the Formation of the Oxford Botanic Garden
India Cole (Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with Oxford Botanic Garden)
Supervised by Dr Richard Coulton and Professor Markman Ellis (Queen Mary); Professor Simon Hiscock and Dr Chris Thorogood (Oxford)
Early Modern Copper Plates at the Bodleian Libraries
Chiara Betti (School of Advanced Study, UoL, in collaboration with the Bodleian Libraries)
Supervised by Dr Elizabeth Savage and Dr Laura Cleaver (London) and Dr Alexandra Franklin and Mike Webb (Oxford)

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:

The evaluation of museum engagement: User Centred Design principles and the development of audience-focussed interpretation
Ellie King (University of Warwick in partnership with Oxford University Museum of Natural History)
Supervised by Professor M Paul Smith at Oxford University Museum of Natural History and Professor Mark Williams and Dr Paul Wilson at Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) at University of Warwick
The Iron Age to Roman transition in Britain from the perspective of coin hoards
Anni Byard (University of Leicester and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

Supervised by Prof. Colin Haselgrove and Prof. David Mattingly (Leicester), Prof. Chris Howgego and Prof. Chris Gosden (Oxford)
Material cultures of refuge in Lebanon
Hadiqa Khan (University College London and Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford)

Supervised by Dr Matthew Davies and Dr Hanna Baumann (UCL), Professor Dan Hicks (Pitt Rivers Museum) and Dr Letty Ten Harkel (School of Archaeology, University of Oxford)
Science in the service of religion? A museum study

Mathilde Daussy-Renaudin (University College London in partnership with the History of Science Museum in Oxford)

Supervised by Dr Silke Ackermann (Oxford) and Professor Michael J. Reiss (London)

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:

The Nature of Replication: Re-contextualizing Natural History Models and Casts from 19th to early 20th century Britain and beyond
Elaine Charwat (University College London) in partnership with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Supervised by Dr Alice Stevenson (UCL) and Mark Carnall (OUMNH)
Museum Collections, Academic Teaching, and the Making of Geology in the Nineteenth-Century University
Susan Newell (University of Leeds in partnership with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Ashmolean Museum)
Supervised by Dr Jon Topham (Leeds), Ms. Eliza Howlett (Head of Earth Collections, Oxford University Museum of Natural History) and Dr Jim Harris (Ashmolean Museum)

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:

Archaeological Plaster Casts: In Search of Authenticity
Abbey Ellis (University of Leicester in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum)
Supervised by Dr Sandra Dudley (Leicester), Dr Milena Melfi and Professor Bert Smith (Oxford)
Where Art and Science Meet: Art and Design at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Helen Goulston (University of Birmingham in partnership with the Oxford University Museum of Natural History)
Supervised by Dr Claire Jones (Birmingham) and Professor Paul Smith (Oxford)
Visual Archaeology: the photographic character of the archaeology of OGS Crawford
Beth Hodgett (Birkbeck, University of London in partnership with the Pitt Rivers Museum)
Supervised by Dr Lesley McFayden and Dr Jennifer Baird (Birkbeck) and Professor Chris Gosden and Dr Chris Morton (Oxford)

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:

Gold Coinage in the Roman World
George Green (University of Warwick in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum)
Supervised by Professor Kevin Butcher (Warwick), Professor Christopher Howgego and Professor Mark Pollard (Oxford)
Modernization, cultural exchanges and innovation in Russian print culture: St Petersburg in the Talbot Collection
Emily Roy (University of Cambridge in collaboration with the Ashmolean Museum)
Supervised by Dr Rosalind Blakesley and Dr Wendy Pullan (Cambridge) and Professor Catherine Whistler (Oxford)

Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships

CDP 2023 call for projects now open

Further information, application form and guidance notes

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

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

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

2019 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

2018 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

2017 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

2016 CDP Student Projects at Oxford University Museums

Coronavirus notice script (DO NOT EDIT)

Coronavirus warning content (Edit this content)