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Professor (Research & Education) in Pre-Modern Heritage Collections (
25000720)
Department of History
Grade 10: – From £72,693 per annum
Open-Ended/Permanent – Full Time
Contracted Hours per Week: 35
: 07-Jul-2025, 11:59:00 PM
Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement: Not Applicable.
Working at Durham University
A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other.
As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people’s lives.
We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it’s also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community.
Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential.
Our Purpose and Values
We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.
Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Join Us? – Information Page
Discover more about our total rewards and benefits package here.
The Post and Heritage 360
As part of Durham University’s strategic Heritage 360 initiative, the Department of History seeks to appoint an outstanding candidate to the role of Professor in Pre-Modern Heritage Collections. Heritage Collections are defined broadly and openly to include, but not be limited to, object collections , archives, manuscripts and rare books, and the physical locations which house them. The post is open-ended in terms of specific geography or chronology within pre-modern studies, with a focus on expertise across medieval and early modern periods and collections, and a track-record of collaboration across disciplines and/or sectors. Demonstrable capacity to work with collections held in Durham University is essential.
The successful candidate will have research and teaching expertise in both medieval and early modern manuscript, book, and collections history, of whatever geography, and demonstrable familiarity with heritage science and/or technology techniques and possibilities for research (including digital humanities). The successful applicant will have an outstanding research record with evidence of substantial grant capture, collaborative working within and without academe, and agenda-setting leadership. In addition, they will have the ability to teach at all levels (undergraduate to postgraduate), and a proven commitment to academic citizenship.
Heritage 360
Heritage 360 is a new and exciting research platform funded through Durham University’s Strategic Research Fund. Dedicated to holistic approaches to heritage, and in particular to drawing together research on natural and cultural heritage, Heritage 360 will have senior posts in six academic departments (Archaeology, Biosciences, Chemistry, Geography, History, Modern Languages and Cultures) and two posts in Library and Collections (Curator and Technician). The successful postholder will be departmentally-based but for the four-year duration of the initiative will be focused on research, with teaching by agreement with department and Strategic Research Fund management. Contribution to Heritage 360 masters and continuing professional development programmes will also be expected. The successful postholder will be expected to bring leadership across disciplines, departments, and faculties, working to enhance existing areas of excellence in heritage research, and to bring innovative approaches and vision for the field. External grant capture is a key part of the scheme and candidates will be expected to have a track-record in this arena, to have well-advanced plans for applications, and to respond to opportunities for wider sources of funding including philanthropic as they arise.
Five themes provide the framework for Heritage 360: Water and Food Security, Heritage Landscapes, Built Environment and Energy, Social Justice and Wellbeing, Heritage Collections. Some 35 members of Durham staff are involved in the platform as co-investigators; new colleagues will be joining a lively and committed research group. While posts are departmental the Heritage 360 Management Group, consisting of the chairs and co-chairs of the thematic areas, will review and advise on the academic content of the platform and emergent projects.
Heritage 360 is challenge-led with active involvement from seven platform partners from the UK Heritage sector. Individual projects will be expected to work actively with partners and to integrate them into the wider platform. Outreach and engagement with communities, local and global, are also encouraged, as part of the civic obligations of the university, to promote further the work of the platform, and for access to wider community wisdom, learning, and collaboration.
The Department
The Department of History at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Professor. We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of Heritage Collections. We particularly encourage candidates whose research complements and expands the Department’s current strengths. Applications from candidates whose work draws connections between multiple geographical regions or takes a transcultural approach, and who share the Department’s commitment to decolonising the curriculum, are especially encouraged.
Durham University History Department is one of the larger centres in the UK for the study of History. We are consistently ranked amongst the top departments in the country by the Complete University Guide, the Times and Sunday Times, and the Guardian University Guide. We place research at the very heart of our varied undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, inducting our students into a community of historians from the outset. Our research expertise and teaching provision extend from late antiquity to the present day, and we are home to scholars of Europe, Africa, Asia and North America and of social, cultural, political, economic, religious, intellectual, environmental and gender history. We believe that this chronological range and breadth opens up possibilities of transnational, transhistorical and comparative work that tends to be the hallmark of ground-breaking research in our discipline. As a group of researchers, we are alive to the fact that historical questions constantly evolve, and we are committed to developing the intra- and inter-disciplinary breadth to respond to, initiate and shape the discipline and scholarship more broadly defined. This brings us together as historians and makes Durham an exciting place to work, research, and study. Current pre-modern research projects include: science in the Latin West and trans-cultural exchange with Islamicate thought; the history of Christian theology; cities and urban communities; agriculture, social mobility and rural history; cultural exchange across the Indian Ocean; history of food; scientific study of manuscripts; multi-disciplinary approaches to our World Heritage Site.
Durham University has an outstanding reputation in the field of medieval and early modern studies, and the Department is closely involved in the interdisciplinary Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, which brings together colleagues from across the University, and whose research strategy dovetails with that of Heritage 360. Durham also holds excellent and wide-ranging resources for the study of heritage collections which incorporate medieval manuscripts, incubula, early modern book, medieval and early modern records and artefacts at Durham Cathedral and the University and the collections of the Oriental Museum. Departmental colleagues work closely with Library and Collections staff. There are also strong links with the Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures, the Centre for Nineteenth Century Studies, the Centre for Catholic Studies, and the Centre for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, and the Centre for the Study of the Ancient Mediterranean and Near East as well as with the departments of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and wider connections to Computer Science, Biosciences, Chemistry, Physics, Archaeology, Geography, and Anthropology. Our postgraduate students and post-doctoral researchers are also active in this interdisciplinary environment. We are currently home to students funded by two doctoral training centres, the AHRC Northern Bridge Partnership and the ESRC NINE DTP.
This post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent research and teaching while allowing you unrivalled opportunities to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. For more information, please visit our Department pages at https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/history/
Professors at Durham
Professor are encouraged to focus on quality and innovation throughout your teaching and research activity. But we’ll also look to you to provide genuine leadership and citizenship – not just in your field, but across the University environment, and in the way your department functions administratively.
Academic colleagues will have the freedom to deliver teaching and pursue research that is world leading and world changing, in terms of originality, significance and rigour. And we’ll support your ambitions to publish internationally significant research in your area of interest, provide resources to enable you to attend conferences and to fund research activity.
Applicants must demonstrate research excellence in the field of heritage collections, with the ability to take a leading role in the development of the Department’s research and teaching, and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University.
We strive to provide a working and teaching environment that is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect. Candidates will be expected to demonstrate these key principles as part of the assessment process.
Key responsibilities:
Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion
Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key component of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do. We also live by our Purpose and Values and our Staff Code of Conduct. At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all colleagues undertake activities that are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI.
We welcome and encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented in our work force, including people with disabilities and from racially minoritised ethnic groups.
If you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of your research outputs and other activities, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. The selection committee will take this into account when evaluating your application.
The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Leader status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role.
Person Specification
Candidates must demonstrate research excellence in the field of heritage collections, with the ability to teach our students to an exceptional standard and to fully engage in the services, citizenship and values of the University.
Research
Candidates will demonstrate world-leading and world-changing research, and leadership in a research field within and / or beyond their institution(s), with research outputs consistently recognised as internationally excellent.
Essential Research Criteria – Grade 10
Education
Candidates will be able to evidence excellence in the development and delivery of teaching. They will demonstrate leadership, distinction and innovation in the design and delivery of high-quality learning environments and curricula, including curriculum development, that enables student to achieve their potential.
Essential Education Criteria
Services, Citizenship and Values
Candidates will demonstrate sustained excellence of leadership in the provision of the administrative and collegial functioning requirements of the Department, Faculty and University, positively contributing to the University Values and to fostering a respectful environment; as well as demonstrating their commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.
Essential Services, Citizenship and Values criteria – Grade 10
Contact Information
Department contact for academic-related enquiries
Professor Giles E. M. Gasper (g.e.m.gasper@durham.ac.uk)
Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application
If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email. Please send your name along with a brief description of the problem you’re experiencing to e.recruitment@durham.ac.uk
Alternatively, you may call 0191 334 6801 from the UK, or +44 191 334 6801 from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday, UK time. We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).
University contact for general queries about the recruitment process
If you have any general queries about the recruitment process please contact the recruitment team on e.recruitment@durham.ac.uk.
How to Apply
We prefer to receive applications online.
Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement Job Applicants/Potential Job Applicants – Durham University which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.
What to Submit
All applicants are asked to submit:
Where possible we request that you provide accessible web links to your publications, which the hiring Department will use to access your work. The application form contains fields in which to enter each of the web links.
Please note we are unable to access publications behind a paywall.
In the event you are unable to provide accessible links to online hosting of your work, publications should be uploaded as PDFs as part of your application in our recruitment system.
Please ensure that your PDFs are not larger than 5mb. Your work may be read by colleagues from across the Department and evaluated against the current REF criteria;
All application documents should be uploaded with your name and document type as PDF files.
We will notify you on the status of your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to ensure you receive all emails.
Referees
You should provide 3 academic referees they should not (if possible) include your PhD supervisor(s). The majority should be from a University other than your own.
References will be requested for candidates who have been shortlisted and will be made available to the panel during the interview process.
As part of your application, you will be asked whether you give your consent to your academic references being sought should you be invited to attend an interview. We will only request references where permission has been granted.
Next Steps
All applications will be considered; our usual practice is for colleagues across the Department to read the submitted work of long-listed candidates.
Short-listed candidates will be invited to the University, either virtually or in-person and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department. The assessment for the post will normally include a presentation to staff and PGR students in the Department and a teaching assessment followed by an interview and we anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over two days in late September.
In the event that you are unable to attend in person on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date.
Applicant Guidance
For further guidance on your application please see HERE
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