AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership; CDP Studentship: Charity and Voluntary Archive

• AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) Studentship:
  Charity and Voluntary Sector Archives at Risk:
  Conceptualising and Contextualising a Neglected Archives Sector

26 May 2021

London, Richmond

UCL and The National Archives are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2021, under the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme .

The project explores archives and records management practices across the UK voluntary sector. It will be jointly supervised by Dr Georgina Brewis and Professor Elizabeth Shepherd at UCL and Kathryn Preston and Tina Morton at The National Archives. The student will be expected to spend time at both UCL and The National Archives. They will also become part of the wider cohort of CDP funded students across the UK, with access toCDP Cohort Development events .

The studentship can be studied either full or part-time.

It is important to us that our organisations are more diverse, so we encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and identities. We especially keen to hear from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds as they are currently underrepresented at this level in this area.

Students should have a Masters degree in a relevant subject OR be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting, such as work in archives or the voluntary sector.

Project Overview

The archives and records of charities and voluntary organisations constitute a neglected resource. They are sources of institutional identity and accountability, and can give access to personal and collective memories. In particular, voluntary organisations, campaigning bodies and community groups’ records preserve the histories of marginalised and disenfranchised individuals and communities whose voices can go unheard. This includes the UK’s BAME communities;

LGBT+ individuals and groups; people with disabilities or ill health; as well as communities marginalised in myriad ways through poverty and other inequalities. High-profile inquiries into the history of public, corporate and charitable bodies have highlighted the evidential value of records. These archives help explain the significance of charities to society, past and present. However, without the legal protection afforded togovernment records, charity archives also lack the financial resources and support networks that protect other private archives.

Records are retained by charities in varying states of preservation and access, few organisations have staff with records management/archive expertise and many collections remain invisible. Today, the voluntary sector faces the perfect storm: a major loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic combined with unprecedented calls on organisations’ services. This is a timely and urgent project that draws on qualitative research with charity leaders to explore archives and records management practices across the voluntary sector.

It will produce a practical action plan to address identified challenges, propose improvements to support infrastructure and contribute to TNA’s strategic vision for the archives sector.