*This role is available to current PGR students to support career development*

• Start date: ASAP
• End date: July 2022
• Hours: 14 hours per week. Hours can be delivered flexibly across the working week.
• Rate of pay: £18.57
• Location: Remote working with an option to hotdesk with BDFI in 1 Cathedral Square.

Bristol Digital Futures Institute (BDFI) is looking to recruit a part time research student to assist the ‘History of the Sheds’ project with Dr James Watts and the BDFI Team.

BDFI is a university research institute with a mission to transform digital innovation for more inclusive, prosperous and sustainable futures. The Institute will move to its new home (The Sheds’) on Avon Street, Temple Quarter, in May. The new research facilities were the former headquarters of the Bristol Gas Company, and since, an automotive garage. Both have links to technological innovation and change in Bristol, shaping the lives of local people, economy and environment.

We want to consider our role as stewards of this historic site and as an institute committed to using sociotechnical digital innovation to provide inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous futures for all, we are keen to explore if and how the social, economic and environmental concerns of the past still play out today? This is being undertaken through the project  ‘History of the Sheds’.

The Project has produced a report which summarises the histories of the buildings that have been renovated for BDFI.  Understanding these histories will inform how we work in these spaces and think critically about our role as custodians of the building

We’re looking for a PGR student in history or a related discipline to take the project to the next stage.

The role

As a student researcher on this project, you will:

-          work to ‘launch’ the existing report

-          run an engagement project which invites recent histories from former employees of the site, residents living nearby, or those with another connection.

-          engage with those connected to the site (perhaps through workshops near the site)

-          find ways of honouring the histories we uncover (a £3.5k budget is available to work with designers/ artists to effectively showcase the histories uncovered

-          explore the implications for BDFI practice and policy

As a researcher within BDFI, you will also have the opportunity to work with and alongside the team and explore opportunities to link with a wider digital futures research agenda as part of the Institute’s £100m programme.

We’re particularly keen to hear from you if:

-          You are a current PGR history (or related) student with an interest in local histories, and/or digital tech

-          You’re self-motivated with good attention to detail

-          Have ideas for how we could collect and showcase the histories we uncover

 

How to apply: Please send a CV and short cover letter to bdfi-partnerships@bristol.ac.uk using ‘History of the Sheds – Researcher Opportunity’ in the email title,  by 8^th April 2022.