[Commlist] PhD: British feminist-socialist periodical Red Rag

*SCHOOL OF ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURES (UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER) and 
THE PEOPLE’S HISTORY MUSEUM*

*FULLY-FUNDED PhD*

*Re-advertised*

**

*Start date: 1 October 2023*

*Duration: 3 years***

*Closing date for applications: **6 February 2023*

*‘Total Liberation’: Feminism, Socialism and /Red Rag/ (1972-1980)*

**

*Project Description*

‘We are in no mood’, stated the first editorial of British 
feminist-socialist periodical /Red Rag: a Magazine of Liberation 
/(1972-1980), ‘to wait for socialism to bring us liberation.’ /Red Rag 
/brought together and shaped leading post-war feminists, and provided 
cutting-edge analysis of key issues around gender, class and sexuality, 
but has been overlooked by historians. This fully-funded PhD project, 
run in collaboration between the University of Manchester and the 
People’s History Museum, seeks to fill that gap. The project challenges 
the usual parameters of labour and feminist history respectively by 
grappling with the particularly close relationship between socialism and 
second wave feminism in Britain. The project contends that the various 
positions and debates in /Red Rag/ not only anticipated later feminist 
works, but remain instructive for radical social movements now. The key 
questions posed by the PhD thesis will be: what was /Red Rag/?; how did 
it respond to its moment?; and, why does it matter, now?

Reflecting the research methodologies of the supervisory team and the 
pedagogical ethos of the PHM—an institution which promotes learning as 
social change—the project therefore links past and present. It 
integrates: theoretical analysis of questions of gender, capital and 
class; periodical analysis (close reading of the context, form and 
content of /Red Rag /and its articles, pictures, poems and stories); and 
empirical historiography (analysis of documents detailing the journal’s 
production, distribution and reception). The Labour History Archive and 
Study Centre (LHASC) at the PHM holds the unique primary sources 
necessary to cast light on these relationships, including a complete run 
of /Red Rag /and related periodicals (/Women Today and Tomorrow, Marxism 
Today/, /The Link/). The PhD student will spend on average four days a 
month in the PHM. In addition to writing a PhD thesis, they will conduct 
various tasks related to cataloguing and promoting the PHM’s holdings in 
feminist history, benefitting from expert training in archival research, 
digitization, cataloguing and public engagement.

*Qualifications needed:*

An undergraduate degree at first/upper second-class level and a Master’s 
degree (completed /with an overall average of 65% or higher [merit], 
with a minimum of 65% in the dissertation; or in its last year with an 
overall average of 65% or higher [merit]/) in one or more of the 
following disciplines: English, Women’s Studies, Gender and Sexuality 
Studies, Cultural History or cognate subjects related to the project’s 
theme. International students will have to have equivalent 
classifications. The NWCDTP bases its assessments of qualifications 
attained outside the UK on the British Council’s NARIC guide. We are 
committed to working with students from underrepresented communities and 
those from non-traditional academic backgrounds.

*Funding:*

The successful candidate will receive:

  * *Home/EU fees*at the standard RCUK rate.The studentship will cover
    tuition fees up to the Home rate (currently £4,596; further rates
    subject to confirmation from UKRI). The University of Manchester is
    committed to cover the remaining fees should an international
    student be the successfulcandidate.
  * *A maintenance grant*of £17,668 for the academic year 2023/24

(the level of the grant for the following years is subject to 
confirmation from the AHRC).

**

*Eligibility*:

Both home and International students are eligible to apply to this scheme.

  * To be classed as a home student, candidates must meet the following
    criteria:
      o Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
      o Have settled status, or
      o Have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
      o Have indefinite leave to remain or enter
If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they will be classed as 
an International student.

  * For further information on residential eligibility refer to the AHRC
    webpage:
https://www.ukri.org/funding/information-for-award-holders/grant-terms-and-conditions/ 
<https://www.ukri.org/funding/information-for-award-holders/grant-terms-and-conditions/>

**

*How to Apply:*

Applicants should email to (daniela.caselli /at/ manchester.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(daniela.caselli /at/ manchester.ac.uk)>the following by *6^th 
February, 2023 at 5pm GMT:*

  * Academic CV (max. 2 pages)
  * Two letters of reference by two named referees, one of whom should
    be your most recent academic tutor/supervisor.
  * Copy of first degree and Master’s degree transcripts (or anticipated
    grade if applicable);
  * A sample of your strongest written work (6,000 words maximum);
  * Letter of application (max. 2 pages) outlining your suitability for
    the studentship and how you would anticipate approaching the
    research. This should include the research questions that you would
    focus on and the way in which you would develop them.
*You will work with the following team of supervisors:*

Prof. Daniela Caselli, University of Manchester;

Prof. Ben Harker, University of Manchester;

Dr. Shirin Hirsch, People’s History Museum Researcher;

Mr Simon Sheppard – Archive Manager, People’s History Museum;

Ms Jenny Mabbott – Head of Collections and Engagement, People’s History 
Museum.

For further information email (daniela.caselli /at/ manchester.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(daniela.caselli /at/ manchester.ac.uk)>


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