Opportunities

Research

Collaborative research is at the heart of the project and there are a number of opportunities to contribute to these activities.

Internships

At present we offer internships to Crankstart Scholars at Oxford and AHRC-funded doctoral candidates. We are hoping to develop the availability and range of internships further during the course of the project. Details will be posted on this page.

I really enjoyed working with the team at Rugby – it was a refreshing break from the cycles of the university and the solitariness of my own research. I was also reminded of the skill and thought it takes to engage with learners outside of a university. It was also really interesting to see the different forms decolonisation as a project can take here in the UK, and how I might be able to contribute to it while working with really old institutions.

The placement has been an absolutely brilliant experience. I have greatly enjoyed working with Rugby School and I am very appreciative of Dr Thomas Smith and Dr Timothy Guard’s guidance and enthusiasm throughout my time on the project. I couldn’t recommend a placement with Rugby School more highly, and I hope other Midlands4Cities students take up the opportunity to work with Rugby School on the Schools of Empire project in future.

This internship offered me an excellent opportunity to focus on and think about the texts created in the political centre of the British empire….to have a comprehensive sense of the textually-mediated discursive practices and the ideological tendencies embedded in them was very informative.

I would wholeheartedly recommend the internship hosted by Schools of Empire. I had a great experience with Rugby school, with two days onsite scanning documents, making the process really hands on and interactive. The opportunity to read, catalogue and produce something from the primary sources was a very formative experience as someone studying an undergraduate history degree and illuminated the ‘behind the scenes’ aspects of archival research.

I thoroughly enjoyed the internship. I was able to develop new skills like how to archive, as well as develop what I already knew about taking extracts from whatever pieces of information, thus generating a creative response from it.

University of Oxford Crankstart Foundation

Two-week research internships are available to undergraduate students at the University of Oxford who are in receipt of a Crankstart Foundation scholarship. These internships combine original archival research, training in various archival skills such as object handling, digitisation and basic cataloguing, as well as the opportunity to research and write a blog post for the website. Crankstart internships are advertised at regular points in the year on a rolling basis for the duration of the project. Crankstart Scholars may view information about the internship opportunities through the Oxford University Careers Service.

AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership

Three-month research internships are available to AHRC-funded doctoral researchers to pursue original research using the archives of Rugby School as well as affiliated schools. These internships combine original archival research, training in various archival skills such as object handling, digitisation and basic cataloguing, as well as the opportunity to pursue original research, producing outcomes such as blog posts and a paper for Hydra, Rugby’s history society. These are advertised through the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership but are also available to PhD researchers at other AHRC DTPs.

Doctoral Studentship

The Open University

Applications were invited for an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP-funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at the Open University, in partnership with Rugby School.

Available from October 2023, this fully-funded studentship includes: payment of university fees throughout the funded period; a tax-free maintenance grant for your living costs at the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) minimum rate (£17,668 for 2022/23); an additional AHRC stipend of £550 per annum to support costs incurred by working with the partner organisation. An additional travel budget for research of £500 per annum is provided by Rugby School. Further details about the benefits of an Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC DTP award are available on the DTP’s studentships page.

The closing date for this opportunity has now passed.

Network

A network exists of a number of member schools actively involved in exploring the themes of education and empire. Members work collaboratively both to provide support for one another and also to develop funding bids for further research and outreach. If you would like to get involved, please write to enquiries@rugbyschool.net to express your interest.

Researchers

We are always interested in hearing from researchers active in the field working on similar topics. Please get in touch via enquiries@rugbyschool.net.