The Queen’s College, University of Oxford, is offering a Junior Research Fellowship in History for candidates who hold a doctorate in History or a closely related field, or can confidently be expected to have been awarded such a doctorate by the expected starting date of 1st October 2023. The Fellowship offers researchers the opportunity to develop their research within one of the world’s leading universities and so strengthen their future position in the academic job market. Many previous Junior Research Fellows have moved on to permanent faculty positions at leading world universities.
We are committed to fostering equality, diversity and inclusiveness. We particularly encourage applications from women, disabled people and people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, as these groups are currently under-represented in the College's academic staff.
Junior Research Fellowships are tenable for a fixed term of three years and it is expected that the successful candidate will take up the post no later than 1st October 2023. Consideration will be given to any field of specialisation in History. Research Fellowships will not normally be awarded to people who have held comparable post-doctoral positions.
The Junior Research Fellow will be a member of the Senior Common Room at The Queen’s College, and entitled to free meals. The appointee will be nominated for associate membership of the Faculty of History.
There are no teaching responsibilities associated with the post. However, the Junior Research Fellow may engage in paid teaching up to a maximum of six hours weekly and, if teaching undergraduates, would normally be expected to give priority to the College’s own undergraduate teaching needs.
The postholder is required to perform the following duties to the satisfaction of the Governing Body:
Selection criteria
The successful candidate will meet the following criteria. They will:
If, for any reason, you have taken a career break or have had an atypical career and wish to disclose this in your application, the selection committee will take this into account, recognising that the quantity of your research may be reduced as a result.
Salary: the salary for this post is £34,308 per annum. The Junior Research Fellow will be automatically enrolled in the USS pension scheme unless they opt out.
Research Allowance: a personal allowance of £1,781 per annum is provided by the College for research activities such as conference attendance, research assistance, and the purchase of books and software.
Place of Work: The College will provide a non-residential study room on the main site in central Oxford. It may also be possible to provide, as an alternative, single residential accommodation at a charge. The successful candidate is expected to reside in or near Oxford.
The person appointed will be entitled to lunch and dine free of charge at the Common Table and to bring a guest (upon payment) upon all occasions (other than Gaudies) when a Fellow may bring guests. The Fellow will be automatically enrolled in the USS pension scheme unless they opt out.
The Queen’s College
The Queen’s College, founded in 1341, is one of the oldest Colleges in the University of Oxford and represents most aspects of the University community and its scientific and scholarly work. There are approximately 45 fellows, about 160 graduate students and about 330 undergraduates.
History is represented in the College by two tutorial Fellows, Dr Conor O’Brien and Dr Meleisa Ono-George, and one Career Development Fellow, Dr Sadie Jarrett. Dr O’Brien’s research focuses on the religious and cultural history of the early Middle Ages. He is currently writing a book about The Rise of Christian Kingship and researching the extent to which a ‘secular’ can be said to have existed in the early medieval period. Dr Ono-George is the Brittenden Fellow in Modern British History. She is a socio-cultural historian who specialises in the history of women of African ancestry in Britain and the Anglo-Caribbean, from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. Dr Jarrett is a historian of early modern Britain and the British Atlantic world with particular research interests in Wales, gentry culture, and colonialism. Queen’s is also home to the Visiting Harmsworth Professorship in American History, held each year by a distinguished American historian.
The College admits up to 12 students per year to read for the schools of History, Ancient and Modern History, History and Politics, History and English and History and Modern Languages.
The College has one of the finest college libraries in Oxford, with around 50,000 volumes in the current lending collection—used extensively by students—and around 100,000 volumes in the antiquarian collection. The library’s recent expansion provides new reading rooms, enhanced accommodation for its special collections, and more space for students and the working collection. The College organises a symposium that meets twice a term for graduate students and faculty to showcase their research and discuss their interests.
For more information about the College please visit queens.ox.ac.uk
The Faculty of History
The Faculty of History in Oxford is the largest in the UK, and one of the largest in the world. It enjoys a very strong international reputation for its scholarship and its teaching of undergraduate and graduate students, with particular strengths that reach from late Roman times to the contemporary world, in the history of the British Isles, the history of continental Europe, imperial and global history, the history of the United States, economic and social history, intellectual history, and the history of science, medicine, and technology. Within the Faculty there is also a department for the History of Art. With the size of its History Faculty, its lively and varied research seminars and the major resources for research, which include, among others, the outstanding collections of the Bodleian Library and the University museums, Oxford offers a uniquely attractive research environment.
The Humanities Division is one of four academic divisions in the University of Oxford, bringing together the faculties of Classics; English; History; Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics; Medieval and Modern Languages; Music; Oriental Studies; Philosophy; and Theology and Religion, as well as the Ruskin School of Art. The Division has over 500 members of academic staff, approximately 4,100 undergraduates (more than a third of the total undergraduate population of the University), 1,000 postgraduate research students and 720 students on postgraduate taught courses. The Division offers world-class teaching and research, backed by the superb resources of the University’s libraries and museums, including the famous Bodleian Libraries, with their 11 million volumes and priceless early book and manuscript collections, and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. Such historic resources are linked to cutting-edge agendas in research and teaching, with an increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary study. Our faculties are among the largest in the world, enabling Oxford to offer an education in Arts and Humanities unparalleled in its range of subjects, from music and fine art to ancient and modern languages. In recent years, this has been facilitated by the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) which has several interdisciplinary programmes strongly affiliated to the Faculty of History.
For more information, please visit: www.humanities.ox.ac.uk
About the University of Oxford
Oxford’s departments and colleges aim to lead the world in research and education for the benefit of society both in the UK and globally. Oxford’s researchers engage with academic, commercial, and cultural partners across the world to stimulate high-quality research and enable innovation through a broad range of social, policy, and economic impacts.
Oxford’s self-governing community of international scholars includes Professors, Associate Professors, other college tutors, senior and junior research fellows, and over 2,500 other University research staff. Research at Oxford combines disciplinary depth with an increasing focus on inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary activities addressing a rich and diverse range of issues.
Oxford’s strengths lie both in empowering individuals and teams to address fundamental questions of global significance, and in providing all staff with a welcoming and inclusive workplace that supports everyone to develop and do their best work. Recognising that diversity is a great strength, and vital for innovation and creativity, Oxford aspires to build a truly inclusive community which values and respects every individual’s unique contribution.
While Oxford has long traditions of scholarship, it is also forward-looking, creative and cutting-edge. Oxford is one of Europe's most entrepreneurial universities. It consistently has the highest external research income of any university in the UK (the most recent figures are available at www.ox.ac.uk/about/organisation/finance-and-funding), and is ranked first in the UK for university spin-outs, with more than 130 spin-off companies created to date. Oxford is also recognised as a leading supporter of social enterprise.
Oxford admits undergraduate students with the intellectual potential to benefit fully from the small group learning to which Oxford is deeply committed. Meeting in small groups with their tutor, undergraduates are exposed to rigorous scholarly challenge and learn to develop their critical thinking, their ability to articulate their views with clarity, and their personal and intellectual confidence. They receive a high level of personal attention from leading academics.
Oxford has a strong postgraduate student body which now numbers over 10,000. Postgraduates are attracted to Oxford by the international standing of the faculty, by the rigorous intellectual training on offer, by the excellent research and laboratory facilities available, and by the resources of the museums and libraries, including one of the world’s greatest libraries, the Bodleian.
For more information, please visit www.ox.ac.uk/about/organisation.
How to apply
Applicants are invited to apply online via www.queens.ox.ac.uk/vacancies. The form will ask you to upload the following documents:
Applicants are also asked to arrange for two letters of recommendation to be sent by their referees in pdf format to The Academic Administrator (sarah.mchugh@queens.ox.ac.uk) no later than midday on the closing date.
Your application will be judged solely on the basis of how you demonstrate that you meet the selection criteria stated in the job description.
All applications and references must be received no later than midday on Monday 16th January 2023
Informal enquiries concerning the post may be made to Dr Conor O’Brien (conor.obrien@history.ox.ac.uk) Please direct any technical queries about the online form to vacancies@queens.ox.ac.uk.
Applications will be considered by a selection committee containing representatives from The Queen’s College. The selection committee is responsible for conducting all aspects of the recruitment and selection process.
Interviews
Interviews will be held in person in February. Shortlisted candidates will be notified in early February and asked to submit a sample of written work not to exceed 8000 words; during the interview they will be expected to deliver a research presentation to the selection committee.
Ideally candidates will have had their viva prior to the interview date.
Note: Because of the number of applications received in such competitions, feedback will only be offered to shortlisted candidates.
Pre-employment screening
Please note that the appointment of the successful candidate will be subject to standard pre-employment screening, as applicable to the post. This will include right-to-work, proof of identity and references. We advise all applicants to read the candidate notes on the University’s pre-employment screening procedures, found at: www.ox.ac.uk/about/jobs/preemploymentscreening/
Diversity and Equal Opportunity at Queen’s
The Queen’s College embraces diversity and equal opportunity. Applications are particularly welcome from women and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in Oxford. The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. For more information, visit https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/equality-information
The College invites all applicants to familiarise themselves with its equal opportunities policy, available on its Equality Information page: https://www.queens.ox.ac.uk/equality-information
The College also shares the university’s commitment ‘to fostering an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a working, learning and social environment in which the rights and dignity of all its staff and students are respected.’ The university’s full policy is available at: https://edu.admin.ox.ac.uk/equality-policy
We are committed to the principles of equal opportunities and respect for individuals in creating and maintaining an inclusive environment that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We value and celebrate diversity and feel that is critical to achieving our strategic aims and long-term success. We work to recruit employees and admit students from a wide range of backgrounds and promote an inclusive culture in which:
All College meetings include consideration of its duties under the Equality Act 2010 as they pertain to the meeting’s actions and decisions. In formal and informal settings alike, the College endeavours to make decisions that afford equal opportunities to, and foster good relationships between, different groups of people.
In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, the College set up a working group, including students and staff, which made recommendations and took action in a range of areas where the College aims continuously to improve: in our outreach activities, in admissions, and in financial support, for undergraduates and postgraduates alike; in the procedures related to hiring and retaining academic and non-academic staff members of the highest calibre; in student support; and in all aspects of fostering an inclusive community in which everyone feels respected, valued, and heard. These actions continue, supported by improvements in monitoring and data.
Visa Applications
If the successful candidate requires a Skilled Worker visa, the College will cover the visa application fee, but not the immigration NHS surcharge.