U della Svizzera italiana: Studentship in Intercultural Communication & Migration (Switzerland)

“Studentships“Ph.D. student and research assistant in Intercultural Communication and Migration, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland. Deadline: 15 December 2024 (but open until filled).

The Institute of Communication and Public Policy at the Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland invites applications for a fully funded Ph.D. position in Intercultural Communication and Migration to conduct research for the project entitled “Relational integration in place: affect and power in everyday practices,” funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The candidate will join the research team of Prof. Jolanta Drzewiecka, conduct research for the project and carry our their PhD dissertation within its framework.

The project advances understanding of migrant integration as an affective process of negotiating difference and power in social relations and everyday practices in neighbourhoods. The project is interdisciplinary in nature as informed by scholarship in communication, discourse studies, cultural geography and cultural studies. It employs qualitative ethnographic and affective methods. Fieldwork will be conducted in Ticino, Switzerland.

The requirements include a master’s degree in communication, ethnic studies, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology or related disciplines; knowledge of qualitative methods, excellent English academic writing skills, and fluency in Italian.

Cardiff U: Studentship in Politics, International Relations and Area Studies (UK)

“Studentships“Ph.D. Studentship: Politics, International Relations and Area Studies, Cardiff University,  Cardiff, Wales, UK. Deadline: 11 December 2024.

The School of Modern Languages (MLANG) at Cardiff University is delighted to offer a fully funded Welsh Graduate School for the Social Sciences (WGSSS) (ESRC DTP) studentship in the Global Language-Based Area Studies Pathway starting in October 2025.   Language-based area studies draws upon foreign language skills to explore the society, politics or culture of a particular country or region. Students may do research on Britain, Europe and its member states; African studies; China or Japan, nationalism and identity politics; justice and incarceration; multilingualism and social linguistics; international relations, security and comparative politics.

Applications on topics which require knowledge of, or a readiness to undertake study of one of the major European languages, Chinese or Japanese, are particularly welcome. Other languages may also be available via the University’s Languages for All programme or via hard language training.

U Southern Denmark: PHD Scholarships in Political Science (Denmark)

“Studentships“3-4 Ph.D. Scholarhips in Political Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Deadline: 15 October 2024.

The Department of Political Science and Public Management, University of Southern Denmark invites applications for 3 to 4 PhD scholarships within the research areas political science, public administration, international and regional politics, welfare studies or journalism studies as of January 1, 2025, or as agreed.

As a PhD student, you will be affiliated with one of the department’s three research sections: Public Administration, Welfare and Politics (PAWP), International and Regional Politics (IRP), or Journalism (JOUR). For more information about the department organization, strategy, research, and teaching, please visit the website.

The Public Administration, Welfare and Politics research section is comprised of the two research fields public administration and welfare studies. The scholars focus on various research areas within public management and administration, comparative welfare studies and social policy as well as comparative politics and political economy. The section also provides high-quality, research-based teaching and supervision in the political science study program and the two professional master study programs in public management, and they disseminate research-based knowledge to key stakeholders.

The International and Regional Politics research section consists of the Center for War Studies, the Centre for Border Region Studies, and the Danish Centre for Rural Research. They conduct research on different areas such as contemporary security issues, the changing characteristics of war and the relationship between war and peace; European border regions in the past and present; as well as understanding and improving life in rural areas.

The Journalism research section, consisting of the Centre for Journalism, is centered around two joined research networks; one is focused on rhetoric and journalistic usage of language, the other on social, societal, and political aspects of journalism. The Centre for Journalism offers both bachelor and graduate degrees in journalism, short-term, mid-career courses for journalists, and trains doctoral students.

U Greenwich: PHD Studentship: Racist Hate Speech (UK)

“Studentships“Ph.D. Studentship: Racist Hate Speech: How Bystanders Become Upstanders When Witnessing Derogatory Remarks, University of Greenwich, London, UK. Deadline: 30 October 2024.

Looking for a PhD researcher to conduct research on racist hate speech. The successful candidate will be joining a vibrant community of academics and fellow PhD researchers based at the Greenwich campus in London, where they will be supervised by Professor Sofia Stathi, Dr Jo Kenrick, and Professor Jill Jameson. A comprehensive programme of ongoing training and career development is provided by the Research & Enterprise Training Institute (RETI) at the University of Greenwich.

Insulting statements intended to derogate an individual or group based on perceived attributes such as race are often referred to as hate speech. Racist hate speech is on the rise and threatens vulnerable groups as well as the cohesion of democratic societies. The Council of Europe explicitly highlights the link between hate speech and escalation to violence, and recommends attention and action via education and counter-speech. As such, the topic of hate speech requires urgent scholarly attention that not only highlights its consequences but also identifies strategies that tackle it.

This PhD will focus on examining: (a) how witnessing racist hate speech influences bystanders, and (b) how to counter racist hate speech and enhance allyship with victimised ethnic groups. Both are important to protect and support victims, and to understand and support bystanders who are also (indirectly) affected. Understanding these will provide a more nuanced perspective on the broader effects of racist hate speech and will highlight (individual and contextual) factors that can not only help tackle racist hate speech but also demonstrate allyship with victimised ethnic groups.

U Oslo: PHD Research Fellowships in Political Science (Norway)

“Studentships“1-3 Ph.D. Research Fellowships in Political Science, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Deadline: 1 September 2024.

The Department of Political Science is recruiting 1-3 Ph.D. Research Fellows. They invite applications from excellent candidates in all sub-fields of political science, including public policy and administration, comparative politics, political theory, international relations and research methods. The appointment is for a fixed, non-tenured term of 4 years, and has a 25% teaching component. The Department teaches in all the sub-fields mentioned above, and directs study programmes in Political Science, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Studies, and Public Administration and Leadership. The successful candidate will be part of the Faculty’s PhD programme. The work is expected to lead to a PhD in political science.

Utrecht U: Cancelling as a Postcolonial Strategy for Repairing Cultural Heritage (Netherlands)

“Studentships“Ph.D. in Cancelling as a Postcolonial Strategy for Repairing Cultural Heritage, Utrecht University, Netherlands. Deadline: 15 August 2024.

The Department of Media and Culture Studies is looking for a PhD candidate for a project that delves into the meaning and applications of canceling practices within antiracist and decolonial movements. The specific focus is on cancelling as a reparative strategy aimed at addressing the enduring impact of historical injustices in the present. Termed ‘reparative canceling,’ these practices seek to rectify symbols, art, knowledge, cultural heritage, and ingrained cultural norms that are deemed harmful and unjust, thus perpetuating the legacy of colonial history.

You will investigate how reparative cancelling of cultural heritage is performed within antiracist and decolonial activism in both postcolonial (Global South) and post-imperial (Global North) societies. Specifically, it will scrutinise the foundations, justifications, reparative outcomes, and potential drawbacks of the diverse canceling strategies employed by contemporary antiracist and decolonial publics to engage with memory and cultural heritage.

The project will address the following sub-research questions:
* Where does the ‘right to cancel’ stand in relation to the ‘right of memory’ and the preservation of cultural heritage?
* How is the emergence of decolonial and antiracist counter-narratives and counter-memories facilitated by reparative cancelling?

You will tackle these questions by analysing chosen case studies encompassing a range of reparative cancelling practices, such as suppressing/banning, removing/displacing, renaming, and blacklisting/censoring, situated in different geographic locations – namely two postcolonial contexts and two post-imperial contexts.

U Sheffield PhD Studentship: Status Conflict in Teams Led by Women & Ethnic Minorities 2024 (UK)

“Studentships“
PhD Studentship 2024-5: Status Conflict in Teams Led by Women and Ethnic Minority Team Members, Sheffield University Management School, University of Sheffield, UK. Deadline: 10 July 2024.

This PhD project will use two secondary datasets and a series of experiments to explore how teams led by white women and ethnic minorities manage status related conflict in newly formed teams. The project will draw on Expectation States Theory which highlights how individuals in newly formed performance-oriented groups are likely to be granted high and low status positions. In the absence of task expertise, diffuse status characteristics (e.g. gender, ethnicity) tend to be used as indicators of high status, meaning that women and ethnic minorities often occupy low status positions in teams. Recent work has found that teams seem to perform ‘better’ when ethnic minorities and women are in low status positions. This is theorised to occur due to the absence of status related conflict among team members, which illustrates the barriers that women and ethnic minority leaders face when adopting leadership roles. This project will therefore explore when and how minorities are able to overcome status conflict in these teams using an interaction process analysis methodology.

Given the quantitative nature of this research, the successful candidate will have a very strong aptitude for research design and statistics and will have a background in psychology or a related discipline. They will be supervised by Dr Sam Farley, Dr Nicola Thomas, and Professor Jeremy Dawson from the Institute of Work Psychology Sheffield University Management School.

The project offers the opportunity to collaborate with Professor Eden King and Professor Mikki Hebl from Rice University’s Department of Psychological Sciences. Professors King and Hebl are experts in Diversity and Inclusion and have a longstanding collaborative relationship with Professor Jeremy Dawson. The plan is for the successful candidate to have a four week stay at Rice University in the final year of their studies, so that they can write up their findings for journal publication under the guidance of Professors King and Hebl, who would feed into the supervision throughout the PhD project.

Heriot-Watt U PhD Studentships: 2 in Languages & Intercultural Studies 2024 (Scotland)

“Studentships“
2 PhD Studentships with Graduate Teaching Assistantships 2024-5 in Languages and Intercultural Studies, School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Deadline: 10 July 2024.

The School of Social Sciences seeks to award a number of PhD scholarships with associated Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) positions to outstanding doctoral candidates with clear potential to excel as academic teachers and researchers. The GTA PhD scholarship is a four-year fixed term position: Students undertake a PhD on a 0.75 FTE basis alongside a 0.25 FTE teaching contract. Remuneration consists of a PhD stipend of £14,427 per annum (0.75 of the standard UKRI rate), plus a salary of £7,401. In addition, PhD tuition fees will be covered.

Two posts are available in the Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies. One of the posts will provide teaching support in Spanish, and the other will provide teaching support in British Sign Language (BSL). Under the leadership of the Head of Department, Prof. Jo Drugan, the role-holders will provide teaching support, including large and small group teaching, tutorials and assessment activities.

Queen Mary U: PhD Studentship in Linguistic Integration in Quebec (UK)

“Studentships“
Funded PhD Studentship: Linguistic Integration in Quebec, Queen Mary University, London, UK. Deadline: 24 June 2024.

Forming an independent project in its own right, this PhD studentship in applied linguistics or French (applied/sociolinguistics) will contribute to a broader Leverhulme-funded project on the ethics of linguistic integration in England, Quebec and Wales, by providing the empirical data on Quebec and contributing to the development of an innovative interdisciplinary approach that combines insight from applied/sociolinguistics and political theory/philosophy. Informed by theoretical debates on linguistic integration from these and other disciplines, your project will focus on the following specific research questions: a) How is linguistic integration conceived, practised and experienced by different parties in Quebec? b) What language-related expectations result from these conceptions and experiences? c) What is the relative legitimacy of these expectations when assessed against core liberal democratic values and principles (e.g. justice, equality, inclusivity, solidarity)? To address these questions, you will undertake a qualitative analysis of a broad sample of documentary materials in Quebec (e.g. legislation, policy documents, media debates, speeches, campaign pamphlets) and conduct (in French) semi-structured interviews and/or focus groups with policymakers, second-language teachers and adult immigrant language learners during a fieldtrip.

You will be based at Queen Mary University of London and supervised primarily by Professor Leigh Oakes of the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film. You will also benefit from input from political philosophy/theory through additional supervision by Professor Yael Peled of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, and from participation in a rich set of group activities (e.g. four meetings per year, reading groups, conference participation, joint publications) involving the other members of the research team: Dr Huw Lewis (Aberystwyth), Dr Gwennan Higham (Swansea) and another PhD student based in Aberystwyth. This is a unique opportunity to be part of an innovative, collaborative research project and a new generation of scholars committed to interdisciplinary approaches to the politics of language.

NOTE: The studentship is funded by the Leverhulme Trust and will cover 100% of home tuition fees and an annual tax-free maintenance allowance at the UKRI London rate for three years. Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is unfortunately only open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK home rate.

Swansea U: Studentship – From Wales to the World (UK)

“Studentships“
PhD Scholarship: From Wales to the World: A History of the Children’s Peace and Goodwill Message, 1922-1972, Department of History, Swanse University, Wales, UK. Deadline: 13 May 2024.

Swansea University, and the National Library of Wales are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2024 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership Scheme.

Every year without fail since 1922, a message of Peace and Goodwill has been broadcast to the world in the name of the children of Wales. Emerging in response to the violence of the First World War and in support of international peace, the message elicited responses from young people around the globe. The Goodwill Message linked Wales and the world and was a key means through which peace activists sought to mobilize children in the cause of peace against the backdrop of international upheaval. Despite having no parallel in modern history, little has been written of the history of the Goodwill Message or the international responses to it.

This innovative project stands at the intersection of Welsh and international history. Based at Swansea University and the National Library of Wales and working in conjunction with the Welsh Centre for International Affairs, it will utilise the NLW’s rich collections to research the history of the first fifty years of the Goodwill Message, analysing how visions of peace were articulated in the face of international turmoil and questioning how young people appear in the historical record. There will be opportunities to take part in the programme of CDP Cohort Development events and other activities organized for CDP students by the AHRC, as well as training and development provided by Swansea University and the CDP Welsh Culture and Heritage Consortium.