The Department of History at the University of Liverpool invites applications for two full-time Post-Doctoral Research Associate posts for 3 years to work with Professor Mark Towsey as part of the newly-funded AHRC project Libraries, Reading Communities and Cultural Formation in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic.

The project investigates the contribution made by books to social, cultural and political change in the eighteenth century. The primary aim is to collect and make available in a single open access database the largest collection of contextualised bibliometric data on eighteenth-century library holdings, membership and usage in the British Isles and North America ever assembled. The project will use this new data to conduct research on the acquisition, organisation, circulation and dissemination of books. You will join a team of eight researchers from the UK, the USA and Australia, working in close collaboration with ten partner institutions including the Bristol Central Library, the Linen Hall Library in Belfast, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the New York Society Library and the State Library of New South Wales.

You will have responsibility for the primary research content of the database, including data entry, bibliographical research on library holdings and prosopographical research on library members. You will collaborate with Partners on workshops and exhibitions, co-edit (with the PI) a volume of essays, and produce an article and a book chapter on topics arising from the database. As well as enhancing your own expertise in this field, you will have significant career development opportunities through advanced technical training onsite at Western Sydney University and involvement in impact partnerships, publication and editing.