Royal Holloway, University of London and the British Library are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship from 1 October 2025 under the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme. The project is entitled:

The Music Collection of Paul Hirsch (1881-1951): The Collecting Practices of a German-Jewish Emigré to England in the WWII Period

This project will investigate the history and provenance of Paul Hirsch’s music collection—one of the world’s most significant private music libraries at the time of his escape from Germany to the UK in 1936. The student will investigate how Hirsch built his collection and how it acted as a salon and sanctuary for intellectuals in Frankfurt, within the context of other collections that the Nazi regime targeted and which were subsequently relocated, dispersed, or destroyed during the 1930s and early 1940s.

This project will be jointly supervised by Professor Stephen Rose and Dr Simone Gigliotti at Royal Holloway, University of London and by Dr Loukia Drosopoulou and Mr Chris Scobie at the British Library. The student will spend time at both Royal Holloway and the British Library and will become part of the wider cohort of AHRC CDP funded PhD students across the UK.

Start date: 1 October 2025
Application Deadline: Friday 25 April 2025, 12 noon UK time
Interviews will take place online on Thursday 15 May 2025