Changing coastal livelihoods: oral histories and lived experiences of transformation in Great Yarmouth Anglia Ruskin University in United Kingdom

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Time and Tide Museum (part of Norfolk Museums Service) are pleased to announce a fully-funded collaborative doctoral studentship, beginning October 2025, under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) scheme.

The Time and Tide Museum (T&T) holds a remarkable archive of 350 oral histories—the Great Yarmouth Voices (GYV) Collection. This Studentship offers the opportunity to analyse these Oral Histories (OHs) for the first time, and to collect new OHs from diverse voices. The purpose of the research is to explore how socio-ecological change is narrated through coastal livelihoods, and how these construct Great Yarmouth as a place - considering how insights from the past can be useful for coastal resilience today.

The GYV Collection contains personal stories of coastal transition from the last seventy years: interviews with offshore workers narrate Great Yarmouth’s place in ‘black gold rush’ of North Sea oil and gas, and prompt reflection on transitions to offshore wind. Interviews with circus performers and tourism workers highlight innovations in Great Yarmouth’s history as a resort, narrating the everyday work of showmanship and the sensory atmospheres of the coast. The topical range of the OHs allows the successful candidate to shape the project towards their own interests, by choosing which aspect of the Collection to focus on.

We have written a short blogpost that showcases some of the oral histories. https://yarmouthmuseums.wordpress.com/2025/03/04/new-collaborative-phd-opportunity/

The Studentship is geared towards personalised skills development, to help with future careers in the museum and heritage sectors, and/or academia. There is opportunity to undertake placements, tailored to the candidate's needs, interests and career plans. The successful candidate will receive training in the recording of new OHs - playing a key role in diversifying the Collection (potentially addressing gaps in the representation of women, minority ethnicities and younger people). The candidate will work with T&T's Exhibition and Events team to organise public engagement and outreach activities, to connect the research into Great Yarmouth’s communities. For example, the candidate could stage displays of (in-process or completed) research outputs—such as alternative narratives—in the Smokehouse Digital Galleries to further engage a variety of publics, enabled by the supervisory team’s wide-ranging expertise on engagement and co-design.

The overarching research question is:

How is socio-ecological change narrated within the stories of coastal livelihoods in the Great Yarmouth Voices Collection?

With some indicative sub-questions:

1) What can we learn about the lived experiences of changing livelihoods, through personal testimony from Great Yarmouth workers in coastal industries, where social, ecological and economic dimensions intersect?

2) How can these ‘bottom-up’ accounts surface alternative histories that centre workers’ voices?

3) How can we further diversify the Great Yarmouth Voices Collection through the gathering of new Oral Histories from under-represented groups (e.g. people with migration histories and women)?

4) What can we learn from past lived experiences of transition to inform present and future coastal transitions facing Great Yarmouth, to ensure they are place-informed and socially engaged?

The successful candidate will spend a significant amount of time working with collections based at T&T in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, and will have opportunity to engage with colleagues from a range of disciplines and collections. Whilst at T&T, the candidate may discover more about how the collections are managed and work with museum staff on outreach and engagement activities as well as collecting new oral histories. The student will have the opportunity to work on creating new exhibitions and displays. The activities will be tailored to the candidate’s own interest and professional development needs.

Information Events:

• In person at T&T, Great Yarmouth: 5 April 2025 2-4pm
• Online: 26 March 2025 7-8pm

Register your interest here: https://forms.office.com/e/ygjZDSNbjq

If you would like to discuss this project please contact Melanie Rohse [email protected] , Lara Houston [email protected] , Johanna Jones [email protected] and Colin Stott [email protected]

Who are we looking for?

You should have (or expect to achieve) a 2:1 Bachelor’s Degree in a cognate discipline. A Master’s degree in a relevant subject is desirable.

We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply, even if you are not certain that you meet every criterion. We are keen to hear from individuals with varied expertise who can bring unique perspectives to the studentships. Experiences beyond academia, including experience in a professional setting are also highly valued; this includes diverse lived experiences and those with an understanding of diverse research practices, outputs, impacts and engagement practice. We particularly welcome applications from Ethnically Diverse backgrounds as they are currently underrepresented at this level in this area.

Applicants should ideally have or expect to receive a relevant Masters-level qualification, or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting. Suitable disciplines are flexible, but might include Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, History, or Conservation Science, Environmental Social Science, Human Geography, Museology or Museum Studies, Curation, Oral History, Heritage Management.

We are looking for applicants with passion, dedication and enthusiasm for the topic of the studentship, and for developing skills in the areas of museums, archives, oral history, heritage sector, and/or environmental transition and sustainability.

You’ll be studying at our Cambridge campus and the Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth , starting in October 2025. You would be expected to live a reasonable travel distance from the campus during the PhD.

How do you apply?

Applications must be submitted through our online portal:

Part-time: https://e-vision.anglia.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=R0042PCAM01D&code2=0018

Full-time: https://e-vision.anglia.ac.uk/urd/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=R004FCAM02D&code2=0019

You will need the following documents available electronically (in pdf, jpeg or Word format):

1.     Certificates and transcripts from your Bachelor and Master’s degrees

2.    Personal statement explaining your suitability for the project. We recommend uploading this as a Word or pdf file, but you can also type it directly on the form.

3.     Curriculum Vitae

You do not need to upload a research proposal, only a personal statement is needed.

We will review all applications after the deadline of Monday 5 May. Candidates should hear from us by 16th May, and interviews are expected to take place on Friday 23 May.

If you have any queries relating to the application process or the T&Cs of the studentship, please email [email protected]