Postdoctoral Research Fellow (East India Company)

Based at University of York campus (with some remote working options available).

The School for Business and Society at the University of York brings together business history, management, and social and public policy in a School committed to research that serves the public good. This post sits within RISK-LABS: Risk Societies: The Global Firm as a Laboratory of Risk Management, 1280–2030, a five-year European Research Council Advanced Grant led by Professor Teresa da Silva Lopes. RISK-LABS reconceives the firm as a historical laboratory of risk governance, tracing across seven centuries how firms identified, distributed and managed risk under conditions of uncertainty. It does so through four British global firms: the Merchants of the Staple, the English East India Company, Jardine Matheson and BAE Systems.

Role

You will lead Work Package 3 on the English East India Company, the archetype of the early modern company-state, and examine how an organisation combining private commerce with sovereign authority governed overlapping risks: famine, epidemic disease, war, rebellion, fiscal instability and supply-chain disruption. Your research will centre on the India Office Records at the British Library and The National Archives, covering the Company's governance, its shipping and maritime risk, and its transition from commerce to territorial rule, situating these within the histories of capitalism, mercantilism and colonialism. You will build and manage historical datasets, including quantitative material; publish in leading journals; present at conferences; help organise project events; and work closely with the Principal Investigator, the team and the project's research assistants in India and Hong Kong.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

• A PhD, awarded or submitted, in business history, economic history, or a cognate discipline.
• Knowledge of the English East India Company and of the British commercial and imperial world.
• Knowledge of the literatures on commercial and political risk, on the histories of capitalism, mercantilism and colonialism, and the judgement to work with archives.
• Ability to read and interpret manuscript sources in early modern and modern English, and reading knowledge of a further European language relevant to the Asia trade is desirable (e.g. French, Portuguese, or Dutch).
• A record of independent archival research in the India Office Records, The National Archives or comparable collections, and a publication record commensurate with career stage.
• Ability to build and manage structured historical datasets, including quantitative material from accounts and shipping records; familiarity with prosopographical or network methods and with cutting-edge AI transcription techniques.
• Excellent written and spoken English, and the ability to communicate research to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in an international team across countries and time zones, and willingness to travel for extended archival research.

The University strives to be diverse and inclusive – a place where we can ALL be ourselves. We particularly encourage applications from people who identify as Black, Asian or from a Minority Ethnic background, who are underrepresented at the University. We offer family friendly, flexible working arrangements, with forums & inclusive facilities to support our staff. As a Disability Confident employer, we will ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants that meet the minimum (essential) criteria for each position will be offered an interview. Read more about the University of York’s commitments under the Disability Confident scheme.

£46,049 to £51,753 per year.