Centre for Urban History, School of Historical Studies

Deadline: 01 September 2009
Start Date: 1 October 2009

We are looking for a highly motivated, well qualified person to undertake a PhD on the role of HJ ('Jim') Dyos at Leicester in the emergence of urban history in Britain. Candidates should possess a good first degree in History or a relevant subject and possess or expect shortly to obtain a Masters degree at Distinction or Merit level.

The person appointed will act as Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Historical Studies and will be expected to teach for up to six hours each week and carry out associated marking.

This is a fixed- term appointment for four years; this period is designed to allow sufficient time for a student to complete the research for a PhD whilst taking into account the teaching duties. The successful candidate will receive a fee waiver at Home/EU level for full-time PhD study and an annual stipend including a salary for teaching, starting at £13,290.

Further information about the project is available from the PhD supervisors (see contacts below).

Further information about the teaching is available from the Recruitment Office. Please also read the Particulars of Appointment.

In order to apply for this opportunity, candidates will need to submit the application form that can be found on the Recruitment Office web pages (ref. AHL00012).

Contact

Before 1 August: Professor Roey Sweet, rhs4@le.ac.uk
After 1 August: Professor Simon Gunn, sg201@le.ac.uk, 0116 252 5291

Links

• Particulars of Appointment (PDF)
• Recruitment Office: Job Vacancy Search (Reference AHL00012)
• Centre for Urban History
• School of Historical Studies

Project details

Jim Dyos is generally regarded as the founding father of urban history in Britain. Based at the University of Leicester from the early 1960s till his premature death in 1978, Dyos helped to create urban history as an innovative subject of multi-disciplinary research and teaching. Through conferences and personal correspondence he established an international network of scholars in urban history and his work encompassed a variety of domains such as conservation, London history and Victorian Studies.

This PhD will represent the first detailed study of a highly influential figure in the development of Historical Studies and of a subject – urban history – in which the University of Leicester is acknowledged to be a pioneer. Dyos' legacy includes the Centre for Urban History, founded in 1985, and the journal Urban History, both based at the University.

The PhD will be supervised by Professor Simon Gunn, Director of the Centre for Urban History, and Professor Rosemary Sweet, Head of the School of Historical Studies and a former Director of the Centre. Research for it will be based on the Dyos Archive held at the University, which contains a range of material including part of Dyos' voluminous correspondence, teaching materials and papers of the early Urban History Group. It will also include other archives, such as the Wolff papers as well as interviews with historians within the UK (and further afield) who worked with and knew Jim Dyos. Training for the various elements of the research will be provided.