MERL Fellowships
MERL Fellowships are open to scholars and researchers wishing to pursue collections-related research based at the Museum.
The Museum’s collections connect with academic disciplines across a broad spectrum including agriculture, rural and business history, design, archaeology, social policy and plant and animal sciences.
The aim of the Fellowship scheme is to provide opportunities for pursuing research that enhances understanding and knowledge of the countryside, food and farming in its widest sense, with particular emphasis on exploiting the Museum’s outstanding object, archive and library collections.
The scheme is open to scholars and researchers wishing to pursue collections-related research based at the Museum and will attract a stipend of up to a maximum of £10,000 for a period of twelve months or less. Applications for shorter programmes of research are welcome, but would be expected to attract a commensurately smaller stipend. The funding may be used to offset teaching and administration costs, and other research-related expenses. Office accommodation and research facilities will be provided at MERL. Fellows will also be encouraged to participate in the academic programmes of the Museum, including the seminar and short conference programme and other forms of promulgation of research initiatives linked to the Museum, as appropriate. It is expected that Fellows will take up their position at the beginning of the academic year, other than by special agreement.
Fellowship scheme 2010-11
Please download the details of MERL Fellowships 2010-11 (pdf 37KB)
The deadline for applications is April 16th, 2010
Fellowship scheme 2009-10
Fellowships for the 2009-10 year:
i) The West Berkshire Fellowship.
The title relates to the source of funding and does not signify any geographical constraint on the scope or content of the research.
Research proposals are invited from any discipline that reflects the broad scope of the Museum collections: for example, its strengths in the practical, technical, scientific and economic aspects of agriculture; the rural crafts, trades and industries; rural ethnology, material culture, fieldwork, and rural industrial archaeology. The collections relate to academic disciplines across a broad spectrum, including agriculture, rural and business history, design, archaeology, social policy, plant and animal sciences. We are particularly interested in applications from those able to demonstrate proven or potential research leadership in any academic field associated with the Museum and those with an interest in investigating and highlighting new areas of research interest within its collections.
How to apply
Applicants for either Fellowship should submit a written proposal (of not more than two A4 sides), including a breakdown of expenditure for the stipend requested, a cv and the name of two referees to Dr Roy Brigden at the address below by 8th April 2009. Applicants should provide details of plans for the dissemination of their research programme, including publication and the preparation of research funding proposals.
The assessment of applications will be by a process of peer review and for short-listed candidates there might be a short interview, with the successful candidate being expected to submit a report on completion of their Fellowship, which will also be subject to evaluation by peer reviewer.
For further informal enquiries please contact Dr Roy Brigden, Keeper of MERL:
Museum of English Rural Life
University of Reading
Redlands Rd
Reading
RG1 5EX
UK.
email: r.d.brigden@reading.ac.uk
tel: 44 (0) 118 3788663
The Sir John Higgs MERL Fellowship 2008-9
Dr Clare Griffiths was appointed as the Sir John Higgs MERL Fellow for 2008-9. Dr Griffiths is a Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Sheffield. She has a background in rural and agricultural history, with particular interests in agricultural policy and rural politics. Her books include Labour and the Countryside: the politics of rural Britain 1918-1939.
Her work as MERL Fellow focused on the photographic collections to look at the changing image of farmers and farming during the course of the twentieth century. The results will include both an academic article and a public exhibition in 2010.
Dr Griffiths gave a MERL Seminar on 19 May, 2009, entitles 'Heroes of the reconstruction? Images of farmers and farming in war and peace' in which she discussed her research.
Previous Fellows
- David Viner, former museum director and now freelance consultant on farm wagons.
- Richard Tranter, Centre for Agricultural Strategy, University of Reading, on how the Interwar agricultural recession affected the Berkshire Downs.
- Professor Andrew Godley, University of Reading Business School on the development of the chicken industry.
Download a paper about the project: The Chicken, the Factory Farm and the Supermarket.
Professor Godley has recently been awarded £500 000 from the Economic and Social Research COuncil (ESRC) to continue his research on the chicken industry.
- Dr Richard Bonser, Centre for Biomimetics, School of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading, on the biomimetics of the chicken.
- Dr Nicola Verdon, now of Sussex University, on women in agriculture between the wars