Re-storying the Sussex Weald Garden: Exotics, Empire and Ecobiography. AHRC/CHASE Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD studentship in collaboration with University of Sussex and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Applications are invited for a funded collaborative PhD between the University of Sussex and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew), investigating the plants and people of three estates in the Sussex High Weald. This offers a unique opportunity to reassess the histories of Wakehurst, Nymans and Sheffield Park, whose owners commissioned new landscaping schemes featuring ‘exotic’ species in the early 20^th century. Beyond the beauty of these gardens lies a challenging history of horticultural dealing and nurture, late-imperial trading and environmental change, to be told through the related life stories of people and plants. Through using archives recording the development of these gardens in Sussex and original research into European and global botanical and cultural trade, the research will enable new perspectives on the gardens’ development, offering also the opportunity to support RBG Kew (which manages and funds Wakehurst) and the National Trust (which owns all 3 estates) in critically learning more about their own histories which can then be deployed in engaging both existing and new publics.

 

Research methods

This interdisciplinary research will be informed by environmental history; landscape and place-making; social history; gender, class, race, sexuality, decolonial studies, life writing and botany. The researcher will be supported to use qualitative network analysis and focus on a small number of case studies of people and plants. They will not be expected to have detailed botanical knowledge. The historical aspects of the research will be largely reliant on the archival resources based in Sussex and at Kew Gardens, London.

Re-storying these gardens will transform their associations. Through the frames of RBG Kew and the National Trust, properties often perceived as quintessentially English will be enriched through new multicultural histories. Further, the project will develop original and creative methods for conceptualising the interdependence of plant and human lives in the context of climate change.

Training Opportunities

The University’s Researcher Development Programme provides training and development opportunities matching Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework. The Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities (MAH), through its Research Institute, offers further support, as does the Sussex Researcher School.

The researcher will be supported in relevant methods. RBG Kew will support training in general botanical knowledge and use of archives. The student will join a cohort of about 20 Interdisciplinary Research students at Kew and will enjoy staff-level access to collections plus other benefits.

Partner Resources

RBG Kew offers opportunities to gain professional skills. This may include writing blog posts, developing learning materials for schools or community groups; supporting creation of new visitor trails; offering guided tours. They may choose to take up a placement. There will be opportunities to interact with scientists and horticulturalists at Kew alongside critical and creative artists and writers at Sussex.

Research Environment

The postgraduate researcher will be situated in the Faculty of Media, Art and Humanities (Cultural Studies and History) and with a third supervisor in the School of Global Studies (Geography). The University of Sussex is home to the Centre for World Environmental History and the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research. Other research centres and networks at the University include the Keep archives and a range of Equality, Inclusion and Diversity networks.

The candidate:

Essential skills/attributes:

In addition to an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject such as History, English Literature, Environmental Studies or Human Geography, and a master’s degree or equivalent professional experience, you will have experience of archival research.

At RBG Kew and the NT you will be working with a range of practitioners across different departments, so an ability to work as part of a team and good interpersonal skills will be important. Readiness to travel to properties and archives at Kew Gardens and East and West Sussex and to international archives will be necessary.

Desirable skills/attributes:

–         Experience of communicating project findings to wider audiences, through talks, blog posts, tours, etc.

–         Experience of engagement with the heritage sector

–         Experience of community engagement projects.

 

How to apply:

Please submit a formal application through the University of Sussex’s online application system attaching a CV, degree transcripts, certificates and a detailed statement of interest which responds to the specifics of the proposal. Please also upload two academic references.

On the application system, you will need to select a degree programme in the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities. Please ensure you state the project title under funding and include the proposed supervisors’ names where required.

This studentship is open to both UK and International students. We would be interested in hearing from candidates from diasporic or Global South backgrounds, and particularly candidates from the source regions of the exotic plants introduced to the three estates i.e. South Asia, East Asia and South America.

For enquiries about the application process, please email MAH-PGR@sussex.ac.uk

For enquiries about the project, please contact Prof Margaretta Jolly: M.Jolly@sussex.ac.uk  

Terms and conditions

The studentship is subject to UKRI eligibility criteria and will cover home or international fees and stipend at UKRI rates for a maximum of four years full-time, or eight years part-time study, subject to institutional regulations.