Full-time Postgraduate Studentship in Digital Humanities
The Open University Faculty of Arts in collaboration with the
National Library of Wales
Understanding Welsh traditional music: its performance and
reception as cultural history
FURTHER PARTICULARS
This three-year, full-time funded studentship, tenable from 1st January 2012 or as
soon as possible thereafter, is offered by the Faculty of Arts at The Open University
in collaboration with the National Library of Wales and is funded by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council as part of its Block Grant Partnership: Capacity
Building programme. The studentship is part of the broader commitment of the
Faculty of Arts to supporting research and the digital humanities agenda with
partners outside the university sector. It should also be seen as part of the
University’s commitment to enriching cultural life in Wales. The studentship will be
based at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, but there may be some
occasions when students will attend the University’s campus in Milton Keynes for
training sessions etc.
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The Studentship Project
Welsh traditional music: its performance and reception as cultural history
Overview
The National Library of Wales’s extensive collections contain a wide range of
materials relevant to the study of cultural history and the collective memory of Wales
and particularly in respect of traditional song. These range across several media
types, with relevant sources located not just in the library’s print and newspaper
collections, but also in its rich manuscript and sound and vision archives. The primary
aim of the studentship is to enable a study of how music and the way it has been
performed and received in various contexts up to the mid-twentieth century can be
regarded as an important source for cultural history and collective memory.
Traditional song is suggested as an appropriate topic for this study because of the
strength of the Library’s holdings for this subject.
Links to part of the collections are given below. They include collections that are an
important and relatively unexplored resource for traditional song. The National
Screen and Sound Archive of Wales at the Library holds a wide range of media
containing performances, especially of Welsh-language songs. This collection
contains about 10,000 recordings from the non-microgroove (78rpm) era which are
carefully conserved and numbered, but entirely uncatalogued. The vast print
collection of the Library contains material relevant to the reception of music in Wales,
and a major digitisation project for newspapers and other periodicals is well
underway.
The University and the Library are keen to ensure that the project also explores
innovative ways of assembling and disseminating explanations of this material to a
wide and varied global audience through digital online media. The outcome of the
project could take the form of a conventional PhD thesis, but the University is
prepared to consider the alternative of an online exhibition of those parts of the
collections that have been investigated, along with a commentary (shorter than the
conventional PhD thesis) on methodologies and strategies that have been used to
create it. In allowing this type of output (rather than the traditional thesis) both
institutions hope that the studentship will produce new ways of promoting
understanding of the Library’s collections and their importance among specialist
academics and non-academic audiences including media professionals and amateur
interest groups.
To summarise, the doctorate will provide:
1. An understanding of an area of traditional music repertoire along with its
performance conventions and reception, by scrutinising segments of the
Library’s holdings in different media. In so doing it will also reveal an
understanding of the place of music in the cultural history of Wales.
2. An innovative exemplar of methods and strategies through a digital
humanities approach so as to explain and enhance understanding of the
Library’s collections to a global audience.
The Arts Faculty at The Open University has a long history of innovative engagement
with museums, libraries and galleries. It also has a number of research groups
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working in areas related to the study of cultural history and collective memory in the
context of digital humanities.
The opportunity is open to graduates who are able to live and work in Aberystwyth for
the period of the project. The requirements are detailed below, but it should be
emphasised that while applicants need not be music graduates, they should have
adequate musical skills to be able to deal efficiently with notated song texts. On the
other hand, music graduates should be committed to the idea that musical activity
can provide evidence for social and cultural history. The opportunity is not restricted
to those who are bilingual in English and Welsh, but those who are able to read
Welsh will be at a considerable advantage because of the nature of the source
material.
Framing a proposal
Applicants should submit a brief proposal (circa 750 words) providing evidence that
they can write well, and that they have familiarised themselves in a preliminary way
with the secondary literature and the online resources of the National Library of
Wales. An information section below provides some guides to the collections. The
submission should also include up to four bullet points that show that some thought
has been given to forming broad ideas into research questions.
Academic support
The student will be registered in the Faculty of Arts of The Open University (For more
information go to http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/index.html) The Faculty of Arts
comprises the departments of Art History, Classical Studies, English, History, Music,
Philosophy and Religious Studies, thus offering rich potential interdisciplinary links
and expertise for the development of the studentship project. There are over 120
research students (full and part-time) in the Faculty as a whole.
Supervision of the project will be provided by Professor Trevor Herbert
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/music/therbert.shtml who has written extensively on the
way that various forms of musical practice have contributed to cultural history. The
main supervisor at the National Library will be Professor Lorna Hughes, University of
Wales Chair in Digital Collections, who is based at the National Library of Wales
http://www.llgc.org.uk Other members of the University and Library will provide
support.
In addition to the normal supervisory arrangements, the student will be linked to the
University through virtual means (video and audio conferencing), especially for the
regular seminars of its research groups, for example, the Digital Humanities Group,
the Material Cultures Group and the Postgraduate Music Seminars. The student will
also receive full online access to all the University’s facilities for students, including
the extensive resources of the Open Library.
The Open University Research School provides an induction programme and a
training programme for new research students. It is expected that different
mechanisms will be used to support learning as appropriate, including self-direction,
supervisor support and mentoring, departmental support, workshops, conferences,
elective training courses, formally assessed courses and informal opportunities. The
student will receive training in, for example, bibliographical databases and other IT
skills, and in managing a research project through its different stages.
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The Faculty of Arts provides additional study skills training days focussed on the
particular needs of arts and humanities students, and The Open University Library
offers especially tailored sessions. Student progress is regularly monitored through
six-monthly reports. At the end of the first year, students undergo a thorough
probation review process and mini-viva, and their continued registration is conditional
on a satisfactory outcome. (For further generic information see the research degree
prospectus,
which
can
be
downloaded
from
http://www.open.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/index.php or obtained in hardcopy
from the Research School, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7
6AA; email research-degrees-team@open.ac.uk; tel. 01908 654882.)
Stipend, expenses and facilities
Tuition fees and a maintenance grant at the national standard level (£13,590 p.a. in
2010-11) will be covered by The Open University as part of its AHRC BGP: CB
allocation. Training and project-related research costs (up to a normal £1000 annual
limit and subject to approval of specific plans) will be covered.
Requirements
It is essential that the successful candidate has:

good academic qualifications in an arts and humanities subject (i.e., a 1stclass or 2:1 degree from a UK institution, or equivalent from a non-UK
institution, and/or a Masters degree)

experience of studying primary source material OR of curating historical
artefacts

demonstrable ability to produce high-level academic writing

evidence of the self-discipline and organizational skills requisite to
complete a major academic project in three, or at most four, years

an interest in collaborating across disciplinary boundaries

basic IT skills (such as an ability to use the facilities of programmes such
as those included in Microsoft Office) and an enthusiasm for developing
skills in digital humanities.

willingness to participate in the broader intellectual communities of both
The Open University and the National Library of Wales
In addition, it is desirable that the successful candidate has:



a Masters degree in a relevant arts and humanities subject
expertise in the preparation and execution of public exhibitions, including an
understanding of the different registers required in communicating with
diverse audiences
an ability to work bilingually in Welsh and English
Please apply on the standard research degree application form (which can be
downloaded from http://www.open.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/index.php or
obtainable in hardcopy from the Research School, The Open University, Walton Hall,
Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA; email research-degrees-team@open.ac.uk; tel. 01908654882). With the application form, please enclose:
a) a covering letter (up to two sides of A4) explaining why you think you are a
suitable candidate for this studentship
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b) a proposal (up to three double-spaced sides of A4 – about 750 words) setting
out your initial ideas as to how you would define and approach a specific
research topic, as described above
c) a sample of recent written work (e.g. a portion of an MA thesis) of up to 5,000
words
Resources for preparing an application
Information about the Arts Faculty of The Open University is given at
http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/index.shtml
The main website of the National Library of Wales is at http://www.llgc.org.uk
The introductory ‘Encore’ site giving background information on the music collections
of the Library is at
http://digidol.llgc.org.uk/METS/XCD00001/ardd?locale=cy
The manuscripts division of the Library is at
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=manuscripts1
Some of the Welsh ballads collection has been digitised and can be found at
http://cat.llgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/gw/chameleon?skin=baledi&lng=en
Music manuscripts and papers [c. 1750]-1945, including hundreds of folk songs
brought together by Dr J. Lloyd Williams in his role as Editor of the Welsh Folk-Song
Society, and papers relating to his researches into the history of Welsh music, are
likely to be an important source for this project. Search the NLW catalogue for GB
0210 JLLW for the fonds level description
The National Screen and Sound Archive for Wales site at the library is given at
http://www.archif.com/
The most recent publication on the traditional music of Wales is Phyllis Kinney’s
Welsh Traditional Music (University of Wales Press, 2011)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Welsh-Traditional-Music-PhyllisKinney/dp/070832357X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311574889&sr=8-1
Details of a Welsh edition are at
http://www.ylolfa.com/chwilio.php?func=pori_awdur&awdur=Meredydd%20Evans
The Welsh language
The Open University has a Welsh language scheme. All information relating to this
studentship is available in both English and Welsh. Applicants can apply in either
language, but students who elect to use Welsh should also provide an English
translation. This is so that applications can be fairly assessed by non-Welsh
speakers.
The opportunity is not restricted to bilingual applicants.
CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: FRIDAY 7th OCTOBER 2011
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INTERVIEWS WILL BE HELD DURING THE FIRST TWO WEEKS IN NOVEMBER
2011
THE STUDENTSHIP WILL START IN JANUARY 2012 OR AS SOON AS IS
POSSIBLE THEREAFTER
In addition to the supervisory contacts listed above, informal enquiries may be made
to Dr Paul Lawrence (Associate Dean - Research) for the Faculty of Arts
p.m.lawrence@open.ac.uk
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