Doctoral Studies

We host a range of collaborative doctoral students who we co-supervise with university partners. These projects span a wide range of subjects across our collections and practice, all closely aligned with our Research Strategy.

Doctoral researchers have received funding through major UK research councils, including the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), via the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP), Techne and the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-east England (CHASE).

Ongoing

Supervisors: Dr Domenico Sergi, London Museum
Dr Serena Iervolino, King’s College London

This PhD project examines how socioeconomic differences and working-class experiences can be more meaningfully represented within UK museums. Using London Museum as a case study, it explores the analytic category of “working class” through the lived experiences of low-paid Londoners and considers how these narratives can be better incorporated into museum practice. The research aims to develop approaches that support more inclusive collecting, interpretation and engagement, ensuring that working-class histories and perspectives are reflected with greater depth and visibility across the museum sector.

Completed: March 2025

Supervisors: Alex Werner and Dr Domenico Sergi, London Museum;
Prof Alastair Owens, Dr Regan Koch and Dr William Monteith, Queen Mary University of London, Geography

This thesis traced the history of London’s wholesale meat market from its opening in 1868 to its renovation in 1993, combining archival research with cultural analysis. It reconstructed the labour, anxieties and experiences of those who imported, stored, traded, regulated and transported London’s meat, treating Smithfield as a contested site of cultural meaning and public value.

Across six thematic chapters, the research examined representations of the market in administrative records, government inquiries, novels, newsreels, radio, sculpture, photography and oral histories, highlighting how these practices shaped the functioning and perception of the marketplace. The study explored Smithfield’s globalisation within an imperial food system, its post-imperial economic and cultural decline, and its enduring place in London’s imagination through the concept of ‘gendered nostalgia’, reflecting idealised memories of the male workforce.

Conducted in collaboration with London Museum ahead of its 2026 opening in a derelict wing of Smithfield, the research will inform a series of site-specific installations showcasing original findings.

Completed: November 2024

Supervisors: Lauren Parker, London Museum;
Prof Monica Degen, Brunel University

This research examined the social identity and experience of Smithfield, a historic working district in London, in the context of London Museum’s relocation to the area in 2026. Conducted as a Collaborative Doctoral Award between 2020 and 2024, the study used a grounded theory approach and mixed methods, including document analysis, ethnographic observation, walking interviews and participatory workshops, to explore how accelerated culture-led development shapes local ‘sense of place’.

The thesis showed that local identity and experience are mediated through material, sensory and imagined cues, reflecting both the effects of urban change and the strategies of municipal and institutional actors. Drawing on sociology, urban studies, and museum studies, the research offered methodological, theoretical and practical contributions: adapting rhythmanalysis through a process-oriented understanding of place, theorising accommodation within senses of place, and developing a strategic blueprint for museums to engage equitably with new local contexts, disseminated via an online resource for professionals.

Completed: July 2024

Supervisors: Beatrice Behlen, London Museum;
Prof David Gilbert, Royal Holloway University of London

This thesis examined how fashion curation shapes understandings of cities and their museums, using London Museum as a central case study during a period of transformation. It analysed three major exhibitions – Mary Quant’s London (1973), The London Look (2004) and Pleasure Gardens (2010) – to show how fashion displays materialised shifting visions of the city and the museum.

A survey of recent international fashion exhibitions highlighted alternative approaches to urban-fashion curation. Together, the findings offered insights and provocations for the future development of the reconceived London Museum, opening in 2026.

Completed: February 2024

Supervisors: Meriel Jeater, London Museum;
Prof Miri Rubin, Dr Eyal Polegand Virginia Davis, Queen Mary University of London

This thesis examined the production, trade and use of devotional objects in London during the long fifteenth century (1370–1530), a period marked by vibrant developments in lay religious practice. Drawing on London Museum’s extensive collections including one of the world’s largest holdings of pilgrim badges, as well as carvings, tiles, beads, rings and inkpots – alongside documentary sources such as London customs and civic records, the research reconstructed the networks of production and trade that supplied devotional objects to the city. It identified key actors, including London haberdashers and their foreign counterparts, and considered the wide range of objects associated with pilgrimage and daily devotional use.

The thesis also examined how these objects were employed in parish churches, using churchwardens’ accounts to highlight varied forms of participation by parishioners, craftspeople and merchants. Concluding with the impact of the Reformation, the research demonstrated both profound changes and notable continuities in London’s material culture of devotion.