University of Essex & John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre

Samantha Woodward’s Collaborative Doctoral Award was co-designed by the University of Essex and the John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre. Her doctoral research examines democracy within the John Lewis Partnership and how it has changed throughout the 50 year period, using documents from the business archive and oral histories from retired Partners who would have been involved in the democratic structure.

Judy Faraday, CDA supervisor (John Lewis Partnership) says: “[The CDA scholar offered] a fresh pair of eyes combined with academic rigour [for] a piece of work which we did not have the resources to undertake internally but which has high resonance within business. I would recommend this to those looking to build a relationship with academia.”

Dr Alix Green, CDA supervisor (University of Essex) says: “CDAs are a fantastic vehicle for collaboration. They add capacity to the partner organisation: a student working closely on a topic of interest and relevance, backed by the expertise of academic supervisors. They create a working relationship of mutual trust from which all kinds of other projects can emerge.”

Read more about the John Lewis Partnership Heritage Centre here.