Privileged information: the archive as public inquiry/the public inquiry as archive

This PhD project will investigate what happens when public inquiries become public archives. It will do this by examining the processes by which operational inquiries are transferred, catalogued, and made available to the public.

Working at the intersection of public history, archival studies, and legal studies, the researcher will investigate the ethical and technical procedures and protocols used to manage the transfer of inquiries into The National Archives. They will also consider their practical and conceptual implications.

The project starts from the observation that the political expectations, as well as the ethical and procedural norms that structure public inquiries, do not map straightforwardly onto those of a public archive. The principles of the Public Records Act interact in different ways with the legal norms of the inquiry, in making complex decisions about the preservation, destruction, and availability of data.

This research project will address these topics by tracking an inquiry that is in the process of being transferred to the National Archives and comparing it with other inquiries that have already been transferred. The thesis will analyse both processes and documents, using qualitative research techniques such as interviews, observations and focus groups. It will systematically map the relationships between the inquiry, its witnesses and the users of the archive.

For more information about this project, please get in touch with The National Archives’ project team: Scott Anthony and Zoe Thomas.

EOI form

Submit your Expression of Interest here

Please submit your expression of interest using this form. The closing date for receiving EOIs is 17.00 on Friday 9th October 2026.