V&A Museum of Childhood
PhD Placement - Cataloguing the Yu-Chee Chong Collection of Southeast Asian Photography, 1860-1920
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Salary Unpaid PhD Placement
Location: Cromwell Road, London
This is a Temporary, Part Time vacancy that will close in a month at 23:59 BST.
The Role
About The V&A PhD Placement Scheme
The V&A has created a range of PhD placements based in collections departments, archives, the National Art Library, research, and collections care and access to support the professional development of PhD researchers across the UK and internationally. In addition to on-the-job experience and mentoring from supervisors, PhD placement students will have access to the Museum’s wider range of workshops, talks and postgraduate training opportunities, alongside a training package designed for the PhD placement cohort. Depending on the project, placements may combine onsite and remote work, with the exact working pattern agreed between the student and placement supervisors.
Eligibility: V&A doctoral placements are unpaid and only open to students currently studying on a funded PhD programme. International applicants welcome. There will be two start windows for 2026–2027 placements: October 2026 and January 2027.
About This Role
This placement will contribute to the cataloguing and research of the V&A’s recently acquired Yu-Chee Chong Collection of Southeast Asian Photography (1860–1920), an outstanding collection of early photography unrivalled in its scope and significance. Spanning Southeast Asia and beyond, the collection documents a wide range of architectural, topographical, portrait and ethnographic subjects, including many rare photographs and some of the earliest known images of the region.
Working with colleagues in the Photography Section, the placement researcher will help catalogue the collection by assimilating existing research into the V&A’s record-keeping systems and undertaking further research into individual photographs and photographic studios active across the region. The placement offers a unique opportunity to work closely with a major collection of early Southeast Asian photography and to help situate it alongside the V&A’s world-class photography holdings.
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The V&A
The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects, books and archives that span over 5,000 years of human creativity. The museum holds many of the UK's national collections and houses some of the greatest resources for the study of architecture, furniture, fashion, textiles, photography, sculpture, painting, jewellery, glass, ceramics, book arts, Asian art and design, theatre and performance.
Our Mission Is To Be Recognised As The World's Leading Museum Of Art, Design And Performance, And To Enrich People's Lives By Promoting Research, Knowledge And Enjoyment Of The Designed World To The Widest Possible Audience. We Strive To Make The V&A Matter To More People And In That Context We Work To The Following Six Strategic Objectives
- To create a world class visitor and learning experience across all V&A sites and collections.
- Focus and deepen the relevance of our collections to the UK creative and knowledge economy.
- Expand the V&A's international reach, reputation and impact.
- To operate with financial and organisational initiative and efficiency.
- Showcase the best of digital design and deliver an outstanding digital experience.
- Diversify and increase private and commercial funding sources.
The Benefits
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Benefits
- Generous pension scheme
- 29 days plus bank holidays
- Flexible working
- Tickets to V&A exhibitions
- Subsidised staff canteen
- 25% discount in V&A shops
- Give as you earn scheme
- Bicycle loan
- Interest-free season ticket
- Interest-free rental deposit loan
- Free safety checks and small repairs to your bike with Doctor Bike
- Wide range of training and professional development opportunities
- Employee Assistance Programme
- Staff diversity networks
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ED&I at The V&A
At The V&A, We Are Committed To Equality, Diversity And Inclusion (EDI) For All And Strive To Go Above And Beyond Public Duty Placed Upon Us By The Equality Act 2010. As Such, We Are Delighted To Share That We Are a Disability Confident Employer Level 2. The V&A Makes The Following Commitments To All Applications
The Disability Confident Employer scheme offers guaranteed interviews – Interviewing applicants with a disability who successfully evidence the essential criteria on a person specification and consider them on their abilities; Providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. Making reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process so disabled job applicants have the best opportunity to demonstrate that they can do the job. Supporting employees and adjustments during employment.
In some circumstances, such as when we receive a high volume of applications that meet the minimum criteria, we may not be able to guarantee an interview under the scheme. In these cases, we will interview only the highest-scoring applicants, from both people with disabilities and people without a disability.
Job Descriptions are currently uploaded as PDF's, if for any reason you require the documents in Word Format, please email careers@vam.ac.uk with your request.
Documents
- Application Guidance - Download
- Role description - Download
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