Asian and African Collections is hosting a doctoral fellowship. The project focuses on cataloguing two donations of material from the South African elections held in 1994. These donations provide interesting insight to the 1994 elections and political landscape of the time through materials like voter education manuals, pamphlets, posters, photographs, and election paraphernalia.

A selection of works from the 1994 South African elections to be catalogued including: a voter education manual produced by Matla Trust titled “Our time to choose”, a pamphlet from the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania and a photograph of Nelson Mandela being sworn into parliament from Argus photographers.

You will be given the opportunity to understand collection management and library cataloguing systems, and you’ll be able to make a real difference in improving access to a number of important and unique items for the research, inspiration and enjoyment of future generations using the British Library. The placement also offers opportunities to research South African political history in relation to the donations and to present this research through writing blogposts, delivering staff talks and/or creating a series of Tik Toks.

Please see the project profile within the pdf attached here.

Interested applicants are encouraged to carefully read and fill out the attached form:  Doctoral Fellowship Application Form.

For enquiries related to this placement email: [email protected] 

The deadline for applications is: 5 pm UK time (17.00 GMT) on Tuesday 18 March 2025.

Mariam de Haan, Lead Curator, African collections