Call for applications
University of Sheffield School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Dr Chris Millard Dr Esme Cleall
Dr Chris Millard Dr Esme Cleall
Monday, March 16, 2026 Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
SheffieldUnited KingdomBritish And Irish HistoryHeritage StudiesHistoryModern HistoryPublic PolicySocial History
About the Project
This PhD project will use the Scargill Archive, supported by other mining Special Collections to understand the complicated role of the NUM as a source of welfare, healthcare and advocacy on behalf of miners between the 1970s and 2000s. It will also focus on the embodied experience of miners as they navigated illness and care in connection with NUM advocacy and provision. The Scargill Archive is especially important because it covers a period when the welfare state is transformed, under both Conservative and Labour administrations. The role of the NUM – and of Scargill within that – in traversing this fracturing landscape provides an important example of how non-state actors interact with healthcare and welfare.
There is an established scholarly literature on Trade Unions as public health actors, and on mining unions organising around particular industrial diseases – particularly lung complaints related to coal dust. Scargill is best known as the firebrand figurehead of the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85. However, as head of the NUM – and before as a regional official – his Archive can shed important light on the NUM’s interventions in health, safety and compensation for miners right at the point where the welfare state consensus fractured under Thatcher’s Conservatives.
The role of the NUM articulating health demands is under-explored, especially how the union formed a resource for securing the health of miners – including in retirement. As the retraction of welfare under Thatcher turned into ‘third way’ welfarism under New Labour, the NUM’s actions around the health of miners changed again. The change in the obligations and duties of the state to promote and protect the health of citizens between the late 1970s and the early 2000s are vast. The Scargill Archive forms the basis for a fascinating case study in trade unions, public health, industrial disease and the rise of health and safety in Britain. It can show these shifts, decentring the strike in Scargill’s story. Unions are the source of everyday support and sustenance to members, not only in the realm of employment protections and wage negotiations, but also around health – public health, health and safety, and combatting industrial disease. The Scargill archive contains abundant empirical sources to understand how unions, the welfare state - and miners themselves – interacted with public health, health and safety, and chronic illness.
Supervisors:Dr Chris Millard c.millard@sheffield.ac.uk
Dr Esme Cleall e.r.cleall@sheffield.ac.uk
Funding Notes:
Each studentship will be for 3.5 years and will include: Full Home tuition fee
Stipend at the UKRI rate (currently £20,780 for 2025/26)
A Research Training and Support Grant of £1,500 per annum for research costs, training and conference attendance:
Enquiries email:
Dr Chris Millard c.millard@sheffield.ac.uk
SheffieldUnited KingdomBritish And Irish HistoryHeritage StudiesHistoryModern HistoryPublic PolicySocial History
About the Project
This PhD project will use the Scargill Archive, supported by other mining Special Collections to understand the complicated role of the NUM as a source of welfare, healthcare and advocacy on behalf of miners between the 1970s and 2000s. It will also focus on the embodied experience of miners as they navigated illness and care in connection with NUM advocacy and provision. The Scargill Archive is especially important because it covers a period when the welfare state is transformed, under both Conservative and Labour administrations. The role of the NUM – and of Scargill within that – in traversing this fracturing landscape provides an important example of how non-state actors interact with healthcare and welfare.
There is an established scholarly literature on Trade Unions as public health actors, and on mining unions organising around particular industrial diseases – particularly lung complaints related to coal dust. Scargill is best known as the firebrand figurehead of the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85. However, as head of the NUM – and before as a regional official – his Archive can shed important light on the NUM’s interventions in health, safety and compensation for miners right at the point where the welfare state consensus fractured under Thatcher’s Conservatives.
The role of the NUM articulating health demands is under-explored, especially how the union formed a resource for securing the health of miners – including in retirement. As the retraction of welfare under Thatcher turned into ‘third way’ welfarism under New Labour, the NUM’s actions around the health of miners changed again. The change in the obligations and duties of the state to promote and protect the health of citizens between the late 1970s and the early 2000s are vast. The Scargill Archive forms the basis for a fascinating case study in trade unions, public health, industrial disease and the rise of health and safety in Britain. It can show these shifts, decentring the strike in Scargill’s story. Unions are the source of everyday support and sustenance to members, not only in the realm of employment protections and wage negotiations, but also around health – public health, health and safety, and combatting industrial disease. The Scargill archive contains abundant empirical sources to understand how unions, the welfare state - and miners themselves – interacted with public health, health and safety, and chronic illness.
Supervisors:Dr Chris Millard c.millard@sheffield.ac.uk
Dr Esme Cleall e.r.cleall@sheffield.ac.uk
Funding Notes:
Each studentship will be for 3.5 years and will include: Full Home tuition fee
Stipend at the UKRI rate (currently £20,780 for 2025/26)
A Research Training and Support Grant of £1,500 per annum for research costs, training and conference attendance:
Enquiries email:
Dr Chris Millard c.millard@sheffield.ac.uk
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