Arts and Humanities Research Council Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Awards at the Museum of the Home

Hidden histories of home: domestic stories and displays, 1600 to the present

The Centre for Studies of Home (CSH) is a partnership between Museum of the Home and Queen Mary University of London. Building upon the CSH’s long track record of innovative collaborative doctoral research, the Museum of the Home has received funding for nine fully funded AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentships, with the second cohort of three students starting from October 2025.

In addition to supervision by their Higher Education Institute (HEI), successful candidates will be jointly supervised by relevant subject specialists at Museum of the Home.

Proposals for new studentships are made jointly by a member of Museum of the Home staff and a member of academic staff at a UK HEI (and, in some cases, a named student in collaboration with a full supervisory team).

We encourage CDP applications that critically engage with the Museum of the Home’s unique collections and displays and align with the CSH’s aim to deepen and diversify understandings of home for academic and public audiences.

Museum of the Home is constantly seeking to adapt and improve to better represent our diverse audiences, and to expand our understanding of home. We invite applications which will challenge current ideas of home and how stories of home can be collected, catalogued, displayed, experienced and evaluated.

The CDP research students will be embedded at Museum of the Home and within the collaborative research community at CSH and will benefit from specialist training (including on employability) and cohort development provided by both. Engagement and impact will be core to their research through the opportunity to shape the re-design of the period rooms and associated programming.

The selection process has two stages:

The first stage is a call for an initial expression of interest (EOI) from UK university supervisors. Applicants should discuss their proposals with a member of the Museum of Home research team prior to submission. The deadline for EOIs is 5pm on Friday 25 October 2024.
EOIs will be reviewed and shortlisted internally at the Museum. Supervisors who have submitted successful EOIs will be asked to submit a full proposal. The deadline for proposals is 5pm on Friday 6 December 2024.
Proposals will be assessed by a panel comprising of Museum of the Home and Centre for Studies of Home staff, as well as external members from other CDP award-holding organisations. This panel will select the final three projects and will convene in December 2024 or January 2025.

The panel will assess each proposal using the AHRC’s grading scores and consider its academic quality, the suitability of the proposed project for doctoral-level research, and the potential benefits to the Museum of the Home and the student. Successful applicants whose projects the Museum of the Home intends to nominate to the AHRC for final approval, will be notified in early 2025.

Proposed projects must demonstrate academic originality, be appropriate for collaborative study at doctoral level, and fall within AHRC subject remit. While applications on a wide range of topics are welcomed, proposals will also be assessed in relation to their likely contribution to the Museum of the Home’s CDP strategic research priorities:

Sensory, spatial, and political dimensions of home – building on the Museum’s exploration of these themes in modern contexts; unearthing stories of identity and diasporic home-making; health and care; the impact of the environment on homes and domestic life
Diverse dwellings and ways of living – drawing on the Museum’s expanded definitions and explorations of home to examine the connections between home and city; private and shared space, different types of dwelling e.g. prisons, temporary accommodation, experiences of homelessness
Democratizing home on display – expanding upon the Museum’s innovative implementation of co-creative practices, engaging in practice-based research based in the Museum and partner organisations, and examining museological approaches to domestic stories and display

A particular emphasis for this cohort will be projects with a focus on the early modern period, though we still very much welcome projects outside of this scope.

Further details on the CDP schemes are available from the AHRC and CDP Consortium websites.

For any other enquiries, please contact research@museumofthehome.org.uk

Current CDP Projects

The Home Darkroom and the Freedom of Photographic Production in Britain, 1950s-present, with the University of Westminster
Growing Up Queer: 1790-1918, with the University of Oxford
Making and Unmaking of Home - exploring multi-generational living in East London, with the Open University