The studentship investigating the collegiate churches of medieval Scotland is one element of the Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project (http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/corpusofscottishchurches), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The successful applicant will be an Art Historian, preferably with an established interest in medieval ecclesiastical architecture. S/he is expected to develop expertise in applying historical documentation to the understanding of medieval architecture, and in the liturgical and institutional functions of collegiate churches.

The successful applicant will have a first class or good upper second class degree. The project will involve extensive fieldwork, and a clean driving licence and access to a car will be an advantage. There will be a mileage allowance to cover approved travelling expenses.

Nature and scope of study

As the most ambitious means of endowing soul masses, establishing dynastic mausolea, and funding expiatory acts of posthumous charity, the foundation of collegiate churches was an important aspect of later medieval spirituality. Several scholars have worked on aspects of either the historical or the architectural evidence, but there has been no integrated study of all aspects of the collegiate churches. The area of the second phase of the Corpus of Scottish Parish Churches, covering the dioceses of St Andrews and Brechin, offers an ideal starting point for undertaking a detailed study of those churches across Scotland.

The PhD student will primarily base his/her work on a detailed architectural analysis of the surviving buildings, linked with a study of the documentation relating to the collegiate foundations. S/he will consider the religious motivations, the charitable provisions, the scale and types of the bodies of clergy, the evidence for the religious observances, the patterns of patronage, the ways in which colleges might be accommodated within enlarged or existing buildings, the range of building types and their inter-relationships, and the ancillary structures associated with the churches themselves. S/he will also consider the impact of the Reformation, the subsequent adaptations they underwent, and the survival of their buildings.
The relationship of the study to the Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches project

The student’s work will be directly supervised by Professor Richard Fawcett of the University of St Andrews, and s/he will be based in the School of Art History at St Andrews; Professor Richard Oram of the School of History and Politics at Stirling University and Dr Julian Luxford of the University of St Andrews will also be fully involved in the ongoing supervision. In the initial stages the student will travel extensively with members of the project team, as part of the induction and training process. Subsequently there will be timetabled monthly meetings to exchange ideas and to discuss progress, with additional meetings as required.

Further information is available from Dawn Waddell (dsw1st-andrews.ac.uk) or from Professor Richard Fawcett (rf41st-andrews.ac.uk)

Applications should be submitted using the University of St Andrews normal PhD application form which is available from our website:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/media/ApplicationForm-PostgraduateResearch.pdf

Closing date for applications - Wednesday 29th February 2012