Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG)

News

New AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship:

Disability-oriented research for the Stephen Hawking Collection and its public offerings

with the Science Museum and the University of Leicester

A photo of Prof Stephen Hawking sitting in his wheelchair in his office at the University of Cambridge

  • Start date: 1 October 2025
  • Online information and Q&A sessions: 12 May 2025 (12.00pm-1.00pm) / 30 May 2025 (10.00am-11.00am).  BSL interpretation will be provided at both sessions. To reserve your place, please email rcmg@leicester.ac.uk
  • Application deadline: Thursday 13 June 2025 (midday GMT)
  • All applicants will be notified by 25 June 2025.
  • Interviews with shortlisted candidates will take place on Friday 11 July 2025 and will take place in person in London at the Science Museum. (Alternative online arrangements will be made if shortlisted candidates are unable to attend in person).

Full details of this CDP (PDF, 282kb)

About this CDP

The Science Museum and the University of Leicester are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2025 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships (CDP) scheme.

A collection of over a thousand items from the late physicist Stephen Hawking will be put on display at the Science Museum in London in 2028. The Science Museum Group (SMG) and the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG), University of Leicester, will support a student with expertise in disability, ethics, interpretation and museum studies to carry out research that can inform and enrich the way we talk about Hawking’s life and relationship to disability in our exhibitions, research and public engagement.

This project will be jointly supervised by Juan-Andres Leon and Selina Hurley (Science Museum) and Professors Suzanne MacLeod and Richard Sandell (University of Leicester) and the student will be expected to spend time at both the University and the Museum, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP-funded students across the UK.

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. Given the focus of this PhD, we particularly welcome applications from students with lived experience of disability 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.
  • The studentship is open to both home and international applicants. 
  • The studentship can be studied either full-time (4 years) or part-time (7 years). 
  • We encourage applications from a diverse range of people, from different backgrounds and career stages.
  • The approach to the research presents the student with an option for a practice-centred PhD where - rather than submitting an 80,000-word thesis - the student will be able to decide whether they submit a shorter, 60,000-word thesis and a portfolio. This alternative approach will award the student with the same qualification (PhD in Museum Studies).

RCMG wins the Museums + Heritage Judges' Special Recognition Award

RCMG is delighted to announce it has won the Museums + Heritage Judges' Special Recognition Award for its work over the last 25 years supporting the cultural sector!

Nine people posing for a photo in front of a red backdrop with the Museums + Heritage Awards Logo

The judges said, "Celebrating a team whose ethical heart and bravery are matched only by its kindness and steadfastness. RCMG is unstinting in supporting our sector to be more bold, more ambitious, and more impactful in its socially engaged thinking and practice."

Find out more on the Museums + Heritage Awards website and on the University news page.

Design Archive at University of Leicester Archives and Special Collections

University of Leicester Archives and Special Collections are delighted to be working with Professor Suzanne Macleod and Peter Lester to acquire, appraise, catalogue and preserve archives of several design companies who have been instrumental in changing the experience of visitors to museums over the last 40 or so years:

'The collections we have received so far comprise physical and digital material – including models of prospective exhibitions or buildings, pitch and tender documents, correspondence, photographs, publicity material and newscuttings. Peter has catalogued the physical outputs of one company, Land Design, creating over 350 entries describing the documents created in the course of making pitches or successfully carrying out a project. The most well know of Land’s work is probably the Playzone at the Millennium Dome, but they have also worked across the UK, in Europe and the Middle East, as have the other companies, giving this collection a real international flavour. We have also received the physical archive of Metaphor, including models which have been a challenge to box and store but are now safely housed – though some of the ‘little people’ have taken to lying down in the model galleries!

This is a project that we are just at the beginning of, and there is still a lot more work to do, including learning how to process large volume of digital material, which is a new step for the team. We are really grateful for the help we have received from Peter, Suzanne, and the company directors and staff so far, and hope that we will be able to report great progress in cataloguing the digital collections, and giving access to researchers.'

Diorama of a gallery space which includes miniature people and paintings. Some of the figurines are standing up, while others are lying on the floor. One of the miniature museum walls is also resting on the floor.

Newsletter archive

Sign up to the RCMG newsletter.

Back to top
MENU