The Open University (Milton Keynes) and the Museum of the Home (London), Oct 01, 2025
Application deadline: Apr 7, 2025
Arts and Humanities Research Council funded PhD Studentship.
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The Open University.
Project title: Netherlandish networks: Home-making in an age of emerging global capitalism (1565-1799).
Stipend: Approximately £21,380 per annum for four years and tuition fees covered.
Closing Date: 12:00 noon (GMT) on 7th April 2025
Interview date: week commencing : 21st April 2025
We are delighted to invite applications for a PhD Studentship in the Department of Art History at the Open University funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in partnership with the Museum of the Home (London) and the Centre for the Studies of Home at Queen Mary, University of London. (For further details, see: Arts and Humanities Research Council Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Awards at the Museum of the Home | Museum of the Home.)
Project overview:
Working with the Open University and the Museum of the Home, this project will explore the hidden histories behind a set of early modern objects belonging to the Museum, including a Flemish tapestry, Delftware, Chinese porcelain, japanned furniture and items inlaid with rosewood. These diverse objects all share one quality: a relationship to the Netherlandish maritime trading networks (‘Netherlandish’ here refers to the profoundly entwined economies and cultures of what is roughly now Belgium and Holland). These Netherlandish networks spanned the globe but at their centre lay the cities of Amsterdam and Antwerp, not least because their Sephardic Jewish communities facilitated otherwise difficult trading connections between Northern Europe and the extensive Spanish and Portuguese Empires. London and the emerging British Empire relied heavily on these Netherlandish networks, especially across the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Crucially, these networks allowed for the circulation of religious and other refugees, merchants, skilled craftworkers and enslaved people as well as materials like tropical hardwoods, objects like ceramics, clocks and metalwork and types of design that were then copied locally.
For full announcement with application details, click here.