Start date: Week commencing Monday 28 September 2026

Application Deadline: Wednesday 29 April 2026

Interviews will take place online in late May 2026

The University of St Andrews and The National Gallery, London, are pleased to announce a fully funded 4-year Collaborative Doctoral Studentship starting in September 2026 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) scheme.

Since its foundation in 1903, the Burlington Magazine has played a pivotal role in the British art world. This PhD will use the newly acquired and catalogued Burlington Magazine Archive at the National Gallery to make a significant and original contribution to our understanding of the art world and its development in twentieth-century Britain. The student will have the opportunity to shape their own research area in relation to the diverse areas covered by the Burlington, including histories of art history, the art market, museum history, and publication.

The project will be jointly supervised by Dr Sam Rose (St Andrews), Dr Jack Hartnell (National Gallery), and Dr Nicholas Smith (National Gallery). The student will be welcomed into the research community of both institutions, as well as becoming part of the wider cohort of CDP-funded students across the UK. The studentship also includes the opportunity to complement the student’s academic training with a placement of around 6 months within the National Gallery or another partner cultural organisation, allowing them to develop relevant new skills in a professional environment.

 The studentship can be studied either full- or part-time and is open to both home and international applicants. Students should have an MA degree in a relevant subject or be able to demonstrate relevant equivalent experience. We encourage applications from a diverse range of people, including those from different backgrounds and career stages.

Project Overview

This studentship aims to unlock new histories of the period through the Burlington Magazine Archive, a rich and underexplored resource for scholarship on the twentieth-century art world now held in the Archive of the National Gallery, London. This treasure-trove of materials from the Magazine’s history ranges widely, encompassing editorial correspondence with major art-world figures, administrative documents that shaped new innovations in art publishing, collections of the Burlington’s ephemera, including advertisements and covers, and governance records. Together, these materials represent a unique insight into the workings of a transformational art-world publication, from which we can begin to write new narratives of British art history and its cultural institutions, intellectual networks, and personal identities.

The studentship offers an opportunity for an ambitious and inventive early-career scholar who is interested in interrogating this unique archive in order to write a PhD that sheds new light on a key aspect or aspects of the 20^th-century British art world. The project’s research questions will be shaped primarily by the candidate in conjunction with their discoveries in the Burlington Archive and the careful support of the supervisory team. Research questions that draw on this Archive may include (but are not limited to):

1. What was the Burlington Magazine’s role in shaping art history?
   • How did the Burlington influence art writing of the twentieth century?
   • What was the Burlington’s impact on connoisseurship and its relation to art history?
   • How did particular influential figures (Herbert Read, Edith Hoffman, Kenneth Clark, Anthony Blunt) use the Burlington to advance their own art historical projects?
   • What role did artists and contemporary art play in the Burlington’s history?
2. What was the Burlington Magazine’s impact on the history of art publishing?
   •  How did the Burlington influence the cultural currents of the British publishing world?
   • How did the Burlington’s publishing mission evolve over the twentieth century?
   • What were the Burlington’s relationships to other influential contemporary publications?
3. How did the Burlington Magazine mediate networks of critics, curators, and dealers?
   • What was the Burlington’s role in connecting British art institutions and the art market?
   • What role did the Burlington’s editors and writers play as artworld powerbrokers?
   • What are the lessons today for both art publishing and art-acquiring public institutions?

Details of the Award

CDP doctoral training grants fund full-time studentships for 48 months (4 years) or part-time equivalent up to a maximum of 8 years.

The award pays tuition fees as well as an annual stipend for all students (both home and international). This stipend is tax free, and is the equivalent of an annual salary, enabling the student to pay living costs. The UKRI Minimum Doctoral Stipend for 2026/27 is £21,805. There is also a CDP maintenance payment of £600 per year, plus a partial London allowance of £1000 per year. Further details can be found on the UKRI website.

The successful candidate is also eligible to receive an additional grant of £1000 per year for all 4 years of the studentship courtesy of the National Gallery in order to support travel and related expenses during the course of the project, in addition to other sources of funding available at the University of St Andrews.

The successful candidate will be encouraged to participate in professional development events and activities organised for all Collaborative Doctoral Partnership students who are registered with different universities and studying with cultural and heritage organisations across the UK. These activities are organised by a coordination team based at the Victoria & Albert Museum and are designed to provide CDP researchers with the knowledge, networks, and skills to thrive in their future careers.

How to apply

To apply for the studentship, submit applications to both the St Andrews PhD Programme in Art History and to the Burlington Magazine CDP studentship through the St Andrews scholarship portal once you have applied to the PhD programme. As part of this process applicants are required to submit a short research proposal (500-1000 words) describing their approach to the topic and particular areas of interest within the call, and a personal statement (around 300 words). Please use the same research proposal and other details in both the PhD and scholarship applications.

This studentship is open to both Home and International applicants. Applicants should have or expect to receive a relevant Masters-level qualification in a relevant subject, broadly defined, or be able to demonstrate equivalent experience in a professional setting.

We encourage the widest range of potential students to study for a CDP studentship and are committed to welcoming students from different backgrounds to apply. We particularly welcome applications from people of Global Majority backgrounds as they are currently underrepresented at this level in this area. 

We ask all applicants to complete a voluntary EDI monitoring form here. All responses are anonymous.