Job alert: ‘Valuable Lives’ Research Assistant and Research Fellow DH roles

The UCL Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery are excited to announce 3 roles as part of their Valuable Lives project team

• 2 x Research Assistant (Digital Humanities)
• 1 x Research Fellow (Digital Humanities)

Deadline for applications: Friday 23 January 2026

Interview date: Wednesday 11 February 2026

Start date: 1 March 2026 (or as soon as possible thereafter)

Please see the embedded links above for full details on the requirements and application process. The roles are part-time (18.5 hours per week) and are fixed term until December 2028.

Valuable Lives: Black Unfreedom and the Collapse of Slavery in Jamaica is our newest major project aimed at creating the first and most comprehensive publicly available database on black lives under British slavery. Our main source is the Register of Returns of enslaved people published triennially from 1817-1832. In the study of British slavery, no other data set is more textured, systematic, and detailed in documenting black lives. We will harness modern database technology, computational approaches, and innovative historiographical methods to digitize the records and produce new findings on enslaved lives that will have disciplinary, and especially public, relevance in both Britain and the Caribbean.

Please feel free to share around to any interest parties and to get in touch if you have any questions. Specific questions about the application process and requirements can be directed to history.operations@ucl.ac.uk.