AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership; CDP studentship: Histories of Pollution Urban
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Position: AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship: Histories of Pollution in the Urban [...]
Location: Greater London
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship:
Histories of Pollution in the Urban Art Museum, c. 1840–1900 AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship:
Histories of Pollution in the Urban Art Museum, c. 1840–1900 (UCL and The National Gallery) The deadline for this position has been extended to 25th May. Interviews will now be held the week commencing 15th June 2026. UCL and the National Gallery are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship from 1 October 2026 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. This project examines intersections between urban pollution and the Victorian art museum. By exploring the threat that pollutants posed to cultural artefacts and buildings, and the ways that curators, conservators, scientists, critics, artists and the public responded, this PhD project will develop new understandings of the relationship between the museum and environmental histories of the nineteenth century. Centring the National Gallery as a key site of critical scrutiny and the development of new practices across this period, this research will explore networks of key individuals involved in studying the effects of pollution and mitigating its impact on art museums and art objects. This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Nicholas Robbins at UCL and Dr Susanna Avery-Quash at the National Gallery. The student will be expected to spend time at both UCL and the NG, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP-funded students across the UK. The studentship can be studied either full or part-time. We encourage the widest range of potential students to study for this CDP studentship and are committed to welcoming students from different backgrounds to apply. We particularly welcome applications from people of Global Majority backgrounds. Students should have a master’s-level degree in a relevant subject (history of art, museum studies, cultural history, technical art history) or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting. The studentship is open to both home and international applicants.Project OverviewThe environmental conditions of Victorian London presented increasingly hazardous conditions for people, the built environment and works of art alike. This Collaborative Doctoral Award will examine how practices of displaying, documenting, conserving, and writing about art changed in response to the threats that pollution posed to art objects and museum spaces. While attention has been paid to the way works of art depicted airborne pollution and urban overcrowding, this project intends to focus on the impact of these changing urban conditions on museums and the collections within them, building on the work of historians of conservation. This research will explore this topic through the history of the National Gallery, identifying it as the locus of a wider network of museum professionals, conservators, critics and artists who spanned many of London’s other art institutions. This will include attention to figures from across cultural spheres, including but by no means limited to:
Charles Eastlake, Michael Faraday, John Ruskin, R.N. Wornum, George Field, William Dyce, and William Morris. Drawing on the rich archives of the NG and other London institutions, the project will uncover and situate these archival histories within an evolving historical literature on environment and ecology in art history, conservation history, and cultural history. From parliamentary Select Committees to occasional correspondence between museum employees, there was constant attention across the nineteenth century to the damage airborne and other pollutants caused to paintings and other works of art. Subsequent practical measures were put in place, and, more broadly, efforts were taken to design museum spaces that could maintain a suitable and predictable environment for art. Beyond direct interventions in object care and conservation, these also included new methods for framing and displaying works of art;
new technologies of heating, ventilation and lighting; new technologies for testing and…
Location: Greater London
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship:
Histories of Pollution in the Urban Art Museum, c. 1840–1900 AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship:
Histories of Pollution in the Urban Art Museum, c. 1840–1900 (UCL and The National Gallery) The deadline for this position has been extended to 25th May. Interviews will now be held the week commencing 15th June 2026. UCL and the National Gallery are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship from 1 October 2026 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. This project examines intersections between urban pollution and the Victorian art museum. By exploring the threat that pollutants posed to cultural artefacts and buildings, and the ways that curators, conservators, scientists, critics, artists and the public responded, this PhD project will develop new understandings of the relationship between the museum and environmental histories of the nineteenth century. Centring the National Gallery as a key site of critical scrutiny and the development of new practices across this period, this research will explore networks of key individuals involved in studying the effects of pollution and mitigating its impact on art museums and art objects. This project will be jointly supervised by Dr Nicholas Robbins at UCL and Dr Susanna Avery-Quash at the National Gallery. The student will be expected to spend time at both UCL and the NG, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP-funded students across the UK. The studentship can be studied either full or part-time. We encourage the widest range of potential students to study for this CDP studentship and are committed to welcoming students from different backgrounds to apply. We particularly welcome applications from people of Global Majority backgrounds. Students should have a master’s-level degree in a relevant subject (history of art, museum studies, cultural history, technical art history) or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting. The studentship is open to both home and international applicants.Project OverviewThe environmental conditions of Victorian London presented increasingly hazardous conditions for people, the built environment and works of art alike. This Collaborative Doctoral Award will examine how practices of displaying, documenting, conserving, and writing about art changed in response to the threats that pollution posed to art objects and museum spaces. While attention has been paid to the way works of art depicted airborne pollution and urban overcrowding, this project intends to focus on the impact of these changing urban conditions on museums and the collections within them, building on the work of historians of conservation. This research will explore this topic through the history of the National Gallery, identifying it as the locus of a wider network of museum professionals, conservators, critics and artists who spanned many of London’s other art institutions. This will include attention to figures from across cultural spheres, including but by no means limited to:
Charles Eastlake, Michael Faraday, John Ruskin, R.N. Wornum, George Field, William Dyce, and William Morris. Drawing on the rich archives of the NG and other London institutions, the project will uncover and situate these archival histories within an evolving historical literature on environment and ecology in art history, conservation history, and cultural history. From parliamentary Select Committees to occasional correspondence between museum employees, there was constant attention across the nineteenth century to the damage airborne and other pollutants caused to paintings and other works of art. Subsequent practical measures were put in place, and, more broadly, efforts were taken to design museum spaces that could maintain a suitable and predictable environment for art. Beyond direct interventions in object care and conservation, these also included new methods for framing and displaying works of art;
new technologies of heating, ventilation and lighting; new technologies for testing and…
