Research Assistant/Associate: Mainstream Song, Class, and Culture 1520-2020

Salary: Reserach Assistant - £33,002 to £34,610 per annum

            Reserach Associate - £35,608 to £46,049 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 13 April 2026

The Role

We are seeking three highly motivated, proactive post-doctoral researchers (or researchers currently near PhD completion) to work on the UKRI-funded project Mainstream Song, Class, and Culture 1520–2020, led by Dr Oskar Cox Jensen.

These researchers will come from different Humanities disciplines and have complementary expertise. Backgrounds may include Musicology, History, Popular Music Studies, English Literature, Heritage, and cognate fields. The researchers will be specialists in any historical period from the early modern to the contemporary. We strongly encourage candidates with expertise in any of these areas.

Mainstream Song will research a 500-year history of global song in England, and use it to: reframe cultural history around ideas of the mainstream rather than elite/popular; tell a unifying, accessible story of our common cultural heritage; and place non-commercial, everyday music-making alongside canonical composition. It will do this through archival research, reading groups and conferences; creative collaborations with musicians and partners such as the British Library; workshops with community groups; and public events and outputs, from a groundbreaking website to concerts to TV, radio, and podcasts.

Your role will be to help shape and develop this project through original independent research; co-running academic and public events; developing solo and collaborative outputs for academic and general audiences; and contributing your interests, expertise, and enthusiasm. You might lead on: transcription; recording songs with musicians; archival research; or collaborating with local singing communities of parents and educators, worshippers, carol singers, football supporters, and activists.

You will work with the PI, colleagues, partners and collaborators, and as an independent researcher. You will build your academic profile through project activities, publications, and participating fully in Newcastle’s Music Department and/or other parts of the Faculty. This includes opportunities to teach modules, present/run research seminars, and gain experience of junior administrative roles.

Music at Newcastle is a leading UK music department for research with particular strengths in creative practice, cultural and critical musicology, early music, ethnomusicology and global musics, and vernacular and folk traditions. We are in the QS World Top 100 for Performing Arts (2024), but work closely with our colleagues in other disciplines and will provide support for interdisciplinary career development needs.

You will benefit from a mentoring programme and bespoke personal development plan; an individual research expenses budget modelled on the Leverhulme Trust; and support from peers and Mainstream Song’s project manager. Newcastle University is signatory to a Concordat entitling PDRAs up to 10 days annually of personal career and research development activities.

There are 3 posts at 1fte each (applications for part-time working will be considered) starting 1 October 2026 for 3 years.

Newcastle University is an inclusive community. See https://www.ncl.ac.uk/who-we-are/equality/ for more. We also recognise that, while activism and social justice are key concerns of ours, Music at Newcastle needs to do more to honour its EDI commitments, and we are working to create a more diverse, inclusive department.

Visit https://www.ncl.ac.uk/sacs/music/ for more information. 

For informal enquiries, please contact oskar.cox-jensen@ncl.ac.uk.

We expect most candidates to be post-viva, but exceptional PhD students who can demonstrate they are close to completion are also welcome.

To apply, please upload:

• A CV (max 3 pages)
• A cover letter
• A writing sample of 5–10,000 words (chapter, article, etc) that showcases your suitability for this role
• A one-page personal response to the question, ‘what does mainstream mean to you?’

Key Accountabilities

• Conducting primary and secondary research in physical and digital archives and libraries, through fieldwork, and through creative practice and/or its analysis
•  Co-creating and carrying out a semi-autonomous, independent research programme contributing to a strand of the wider project, involving travel, research, conference presentations, and publications
• Helping to select, transcribe, and curate 500 songs from 1520–2020, and to help assemble a much larger corpus of relevant songs for analysis
• Attending, chairing, and organising a series of reading groups and workshops with other scholars, creative practitioners, and relevant publics
• Participating in fieldwork with relevant community groups involved in the singing of lullabies, playground songs, worship songs, carols, football chants, and protest songs
• Attending project conferences and co-organising at least one major conference
• Producing a sole-authored monograph or equivalent, to be submitted to a publisher by the end of the project
• Co-editing a special issue of a journal with the rest of the team
• Co-creating a project minigraph focused on methodology
• Publishing independent journal articles or chapters where appropriate
• Liaising and working with project partners (British Library, Conway Hall Ethical Society, Tyne Theatre & Opera House) and collaborators (e.g. musicians) on public engagement/impact and creative activities
• Helping deliver a public programme including the pitching of radio and TV series, podcast appearances, journalism, blogging, concerts, and producing British Library Discovering Music resources
• Collaborating with the team and web designer in the creation of a major, groundbreaking project website
• Contributing to the life of the Music department as appropriate, whether through a small amount of teaching, through co-running research seminars, taking on a junior admin role, or other activities to be determined in consultation with the PI
• Identifying other opportunities for personal and professional development in conjunction with the PI

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Research expertise, including PhD topic, on a subject relevant to the project and within a relevant discipline
• Established or emergent track record, relative to career stage, of academic presentations and publications, indicative of active engagement with the wider research field
• Experience of conducting primary research (whether archival, oral, ethnographic, creative practice, etc)
• Experience of public engagement and working, in any context, with non-academics
• A demonstrable ability to engage in interdisciplinary research and collaboration
• Familiarity with, and interest in, English history, especially its cultural history, including more specialised knowledge of any given period since 1500, up to and including the 21st century
• Experience of social media in a professional context (e.g. networking or outreach)
• Experience of working both independently and as part of a cohesive, supportive team, in any context

Desirable

• Expertise in the digital transcription of western stave-based musical notation (key for at least one candidate)
• Experience of different forms of written music: stave-based, tabs, chord charts (key for at least one candidate)
• Experience of music production and/or associated software (ProTools, Garageband, Audition, etc) (key for at least one candidate)
• Extensive experience of archival research (for at least one candidate)
• Advanced knowledge of website design (for at least one candidate)
• Advanced knowledge of MS Excel as a tool for creating complex datasets (for at least one candidate)
• Experience of musical performance in any context (choirs, bands, grade exams, concerts, busking, etc – even karaoke!)

Attributes and Behaviour

• A demonstrable passion for song in any capacity, not necessarily professional
• Enthusiasm for research, both as an independent scholar and part of a team
• Compassion, understanding, and support for colleagues, friends, and team-members, including an awareness of and consideration for different life circumstances, experiences, and responsibilities
• Outstanding organisational competence, including time-management, self-discipline, motivation, working to deadlines
• A professional approach to communication and colleague interaction
• An interest in working outside familiar areas and comfort zones, learning from colleagues and non-academic collaborators
• A commitment to engaging publics beyond academia in research
• A willingness to identify, face, and surmount challenges and problems

Qualifications

• PhD in a relevant discipline (Research Associate), or Master’s degree/equivalent and PhD demonstrably near completion (Research Assistant)

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a Gold Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 29122