The Science Museum is developing major new Medicine Galleries to showcase thousands of objects from our medicine collections for the next generation. Thanks to the initial financial support from the Wellcome Trust, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Wolfson Foundation, these six new galleries will open in 2019, transforming much of the first floor of the Museum and putting the history of medicine and biomedical research at the heart of the Science Museum. We are seeking researchers to work with our curators and carry out short projects and help deepen our knowledge of particular areas of the collection.
This position will involve research in secondary literature and other relevant resources. It may also include working with the museum’s collections, for which training will be provided. The researcher will receive a fixed fee to produce text following a set brief and should be able to express complex subjects clearly and accurately within a tight deadline (usually less than one month). We are looking for a diligent post-graduate or early-career researcher with excellent organizational and communication skills. Candidates should be available to work in February and March, 2016.
Candidates should apply to work on no more than one of the following research questions:
- What were the operational practices and material culture of British pharmacies in the first quarter of the twentieth century and how is this represented by the Science Museum’s collection?
- How is photography used in medicine today and what objects could be used to represent these uses?
- How has our understanding of obesity changed in the last ten years and what objects could be used to represent these new understandings?
- How has our understanding of the role that a person’s emotional state plays in their interactions with medicine changed in the last forty years and what objects in the Science museum’s collection could represent these changes?
- What might three European engraved Astrological Tables in the science museum’s collection (object number: 1992-631) tell us about medicine, diagnosis, man and his body c.1600-1800?
- How does the Southern Nigerian Medicine Man’s outfit (object number: A657336) relate to other objects in the museum’s collection from the same area? Do these objects relate to any contemporary traditional medical practices?
Requirements:
- A good degree in a related field
- Post-graduate research experience
- Strong research and writing skills
- Knowledge of the relevant field
- Ability and availability to work to deadlines
Application process:
Candidates should send their CV as well as a brief statement (no more than 1 page), detailing their area of research, their suitability for the position, and how they would approach their chosen research question, to Oisin Wall by February 7th, 2016.