V&A Museum of Childhood
V&A PhD Placement, A Visual Narrative: Photography and the Construction of the 1862 Building
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Salary Unpaid PhD Placement
Location Cromwell Road, London
This is a Temporary, Part Time vacancy that will close in 3 hours 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. All successful applicants will be required to attend an induction day on 30 September 2026.
About The Role
This placement will explore the V&A’s collection of photographs documenting the construction of the 1862 Exhibition building, designed by Captain Francis Fowke and formerly located on the site now occupied by the Natural History Museum and Science Museum. The collection includes approximately 260 photographs, comprising images commissioned by the Department of Science and Art during construction and photographs of the completed building contained within Spackmann’s scrapbook. These materials provide a valuable resource for understanding the technical and social history of the building but remain relatively understudied.
The placement researcher will investigate the potential of the photographic collection through close analysis and primary and secondary source research. Working with V&A researchers and curators, the student will explore the construction process, architectural techniques, and social history documented by the photographs, including evidence of labour practices, prefabrication, and the role of the Royal Engineers. The project may also consider the potential for visual or 3D reconstruction of the building and will contribute to the V&A’s understanding and future public presentation of this important collection.
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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
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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