The School of Humanities at the University of Southampton encompasses a diverse range of subjects providing high-quality teaching within a vibrant research and enterprise culture. Southampton Digital Humanities contribute to that environment by enabling staff and students across the School of Humanities to take digital and computational approaches to the humanities teaching, research, and enterprise.
You will play a central role in the successful delivery of the Southampton Digital Preservation Advisory Unit (SDPAU), a new flagship enterprise project hosted and supported by Southampton Digital Humanities. The SDPAU will launch in 2024 with a plan to be income generating within 5 years. It will offer expert, hands-on, and targeted commercial training, advice, and support in navigating, interpreting, and implementing digital preservation best practice. Initial market research indicates a primary market for these services of galleries/gardens, libraries, archives, and museums and of community heritage groups, as well as a secondary market of corporate and civil institutions. The SDPAU will respond to relevant tenders and research funding opportunities, and will support wider knowledge exchange and enterprise activity in the School of Humanities.
As part of the Southampton Digital Preservation Advisory Unit you will deliver training, advice, and support in the domain of digital preservation, develop areas of specialism, contribute to income generation, and provide outstanding services to clients and partners. As an expert in digital preservation, you will have appropriate professional qualifications or equivalent experience. We are particularly interested in candidates with experience delivering training in a cultural heritage context, though this is not essential.
You will join a team of dedicated educators, researchers, and technicians supported by recent investment in Digital Humanities expertise, estate, and resources. Notable among these is our Digital Humanities Hub, an infrastructure that supports study, research, and enterprise, is a hub for expertise and critique, and provides access to technologies that enable us to capture, compute, and create in new ways.
A founding member of the prestigious Russell Group, the University of Southampton has a global reputation for its passion and ability to work collaboratively in delivering world-class education, research and innovation that makes a proven impact on society’s greatest challenges. We are a top 100 global university (QS World Rankings, 2023) and we are top 20 in the UK (Complete University Guide, 2023). We bring people and ideas together to achieve the remarkable. We provide the environment, the support, and the challenge for them to realise their fullest potential.
This position will be offered on a full time, permanent basis.
For an informal discussion of the post, please contact Professor James Baker (Director of Digital Humanities) by email at j.w.baker@soton.ac.uk.