The current opportunity is available for current Manchester Met students, to apply you must be based in the UK for the duration of the role.
The key purpose of this role is to support a DFG-funded project on rural retailing in England and Germany by checking and completing a database of shop goods listed in the probate inventories of rural shopkeepers in Cheshire and Staffordshire, c.1660-1760. The project involves external partners at Tübingen University.
Dates: 2 February to 6 March 2026
Hours: up to 15 hours per week flexible, 70 hours in total
Location: flexible; Geoffrey Manton Building
Research Activities
The key tasks are completing and checking a bespoke database on shop goods, the data being drawn from manuscript probate inventories of village shopkeepers (c.1660-1760).
This involves:
1. Familiarisation with the database and how it works.
2. Accurately reading the name, quantity and value of shop goods listed in probate inventories.
3. Identifying the nature of goods and accurately allocating them to the hierarchical classification system used within the database.
The RA needs to be able to:
1. Plan and prioritise their own work sources, within research project framework, in order to determine the most effective way to achieve agreed research objectives.
2. Use their initiative and judgement in reading the inventories and allocating goods to defined categories
3. Liaise with external partners at Tübingen University, including the project co-lead and technical staff.