ESRC Collaborative Doctoral Award on
Migration and Mixed Heritage Identities in a West Midlands City
The Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Centre at the University of Warwick,
one of 21 such centres in the UK, embodies the university’s commitment to producing the next
generation of leaders in social science research. Internationally renowned for its research
excellence, Warwick is now inviting applications for an ESRC Doctoral Studentship in association with
our collaborative partner Coventry Ethnic Minority Action Partnership (CEMAP), to commence in
October 2016. As part of this collaborative project, the successful candidate will:
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Research and write a PhD thesis which develops an understanding of how categories of mixedrace, mixed-heritage, migration and local belonging are articulated in everyday talk within and
across generations in Coventry.
Contribute to academic debates around concepts of ‘post-racial politics’ and superdiversity, by
considering how relationships to racial schema change over time and migrant settlement status,
while focusing on the potential disruption of institutional categories of ‘racial’ and ethnic
monitoring caused by an increasing mixed-heritage population and complexity of migration
paths.
Work in collaboration with CEMAP as an organisation providing strategic representation on
ethnic minority issues across Coventry, to develop understanding of emerging complexities of
identification, and how this can be negotiated in civic and political contexts.
Our ESRC studentships cover fees and maintenance stipend and extensive support for research
training, as well as research activity support grants. The project is expected to last 3 or 4 years,
depending on research training needed.
BACKGROUND
A wealth of research exists on mixed-race and mixed-heritage identities in the USA, but a smaller
field is evident in the UK and Europe (Song, 2014). Most studies focus on questions of political
mobilisation, ideas of being ‘caught between two cultures’ or ‘cultural erasure’, with a subfield
concerned with the experiences and interests of mixed-heritage children and adoption. This study
will expand the field thus: firstly, it will directly address the question of migration status (or
‘superdiversity’ (Vertovec, 2007)) as part of the discussion on mixed-heritage (which usually refers to
‘racial’ categories); secondly, it will consider how generation and time affect understandings of
categories of race, ethnicity, belonging and migration; third, it will provide a geographical focus,
considering how Coventry and its history relate to understandings of these questions; fourth, the
research design has an action research element, connecting CEMAP’s interests in how a race
equality organisation might engage with shifting and ambiguous categories of ethnic identification
and exclusion, while engaging both young and old participants in interrogating the issues at hand
through repeated, longitudinal focus groups.
Coventry is identified as an important field site, because its earlier history which includes the WWII
bombing of the city in 1940, led Coventry to promote an identity based on toleration and mutual
respect between peoples. Second, as a city which developed a strong manufacturing base after
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WWII, Coventry became a destination for workers not only from other parts of Britain but also the
New Commonwealth, thus laying foundations for a multicultural centre. Third, as a city which views
itself as leading Britain in welcoming people seeking refuge (e.g. as the first ‘City of Sanctuary’ in the
UK), Coventry has received asylum-seeking populations from politically unstable countries and this
has furthered multiculturalism as a lived reality. Through periods of war damage, reconstruction,
economic recessions and recoveries, Coventry has maintained an identity as a place of refuge,
peace, tolerance and multicultures. This identity is immortalised in local culture and the 2-Tone,
anti-racist music of the late 1970s, created by the Specials and other bands, and is also expressed
through the city council’s support for ventures ranging from the City of Sanctuary network, Coventry
Peace House and the Institute of Community Cohesion (now Centre for Trust, Peace and Social
Relations), at Coventry University. Today Coventry is ethnically mixed with non-white minorities
composing a third of its population. Moreover, those identifying as mixed-race/ethnicity constitute
2.7 per cent of the city’s population although this figure increases strikingly where school-age
children are concerned. In this population, mixed-race categories account for six per cent (Coventry
City Council 2015). Hence, Coventry constitutes an ideal site for exploring changing and mixed
identities.
References
Coventry City Council (2015) ‘Equality Fact Sheet 6: Coventry People and … Race and Ethnicity’,
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF8#q=how+many+different+nationalities+in+Coventry+city+council+uk
Song, M (2014) “Does a recognition of mixed race move us toward post-race?” in K Murji and J
Solomos (eds) Theories of Race and Ethnicity: Contemporary Debates and Perspectives,
Cambridge: CUP.
Vertovec, S (2007) “Superdiversity and its implications”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30 (6): 1024-54.
ABOUT THE RESEARCH PARTNERS
The PhD project will be carried out under the joint supervision of Dr Hannah Jones, Department of
Sociology, University of Warwick; Dr Khursheed Wadia, Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of
Warwick; and Viv Brosnahan, Community Action Trainer, Coventry Ethnic Minority Action
Partnership.
Department of Sociology, University of Warwick
The Sociology Department at Warwick is lively, friendly and one of the largest in the country. We
have over 40 academic members of staff, over 80 graduate students on masters and doctoral
programmes and over 400 studying on our undergraduate programmes.
The Department continues to do exceptionally well in teaching league tables. We have been ranked
second in the Independent and Times and we are now third in the Guardian. We are consistently
rated in the top five for Sociology in the national league tables. This reflects our strong commitment
to undergraduate and graduate teaching of the highest quality.
Research within the Department of Sociology covers the broad span of the discipline and is
organised in terms of three main areas:
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Economy, Technology, Expertise
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Inequalities and Social Change
Justice, Authority and the Geopolitical
We are host to a number of Research Centres, such as the Social Theory Centre, and the Centre for
the Study of Women and Gender, which put on visiting seminars, workshops and conferences and
contribute to the intellectual culture of the department and the university more widely. This high
level of research activity is beneficial to undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
We pride ourselves as a department on the internationalism in our research and teaching
excellence, the diversity of our student body and a strong sense of community.
Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Warwick
For more than 30 years the Centre for Lifelong Learning (CLL) has been a centre of expertise in the
education of lifelong learners in different contexts, with a focus on enabling adult learners to
achieve their personal and professional goals by accessing a Warwick education, irrespective of
background.
Our aims are to:
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enable all adult learners to achieve their personal and professional goals, from those taking their
first steps back into education through to those seeking to extend and develop their professional
skills and knowledge
provide an outstanding student experience, centred around innovative and flexible pedagogies,
enabling learners to fulfil their potential
undertake theoretically robust, methodologically rigorous, innovative research that has an
impact on academic discourse, policy, professional practice, the student experience and the lives
of those communities and users with which we engage
act as a focal point for external links and networks with local, regional, national and international
organisations with an interest in lifelong learning and for engagement with local communities,
particularly those with low rates of participation in HE
The Centre for Lifelong Learning offers three PhD programmes within a supportive environment with
world-renowned academics and an emerging PhD community.
Coventry Ethnic Minority Action Partnership
CEMAP provides strategic representation on Ethnic Minority issues across the city, helping to create
a range of opportunities for Ethnic Minority groups and organisations to come together, network,
share ideas, discuss issues of mutual interest and concern, and develop best practice.
CEMAP has engaged in and continues to carry out consultations and research within the BME and
New Communities in Coventry which has resulted in increased and more focused service provision.
In addition a range of empowerment and job related training has been successfully delivered to the
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BME and New Communities following the identification of training needs. CEMAP's input has led to
greater integration and assisted community cohesion within the city.
THE PROJECT
This is an opportunity for an exceptional candidate to undertake advanced academic training in
research leading to a PhD, while working in collaboration with an active race equality organisation to
produce relevant research outputs that contribute to strategic development and civic engagement in
Coventry and beyond.
During fieldwork, the student will be based in Coventry and will work closely with the project
partners at CEMAP and remain in touch with the PhD supervisors to:
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Make contact with members of two community organisations (the Hope in Unity older people’s
social and welfare group and the Young Vibes/ACCYPP youth work group), linked to CEMAP, with
the aim of constituting two focus groups each of which will meet approximately eight times over
a year;
Develop trust and rapport with potential focus group members in order to gain their
commitment over a period of a year and enable them to be active in the research process,
commenting on and shaping emerging findings;
Make contact with stakeholder organisations in Coventry and invite ‘outside’ perspectives to
alternate focus group meetings in order to provide new standpoints for focus group discussion,
and enable stakeholders to participate in conversations with young and old Coventry residents.
Organise focus group meetings which will seek to draw out themes around how mixed-heritage
and complex migration statuses are understood in the context of everyday Coventry life, and the
implications of these understandings for institutions and practices.
Throughout the project, the student will be expected to produce the following outputs:
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PhD thesis addressing the following key research questions:
o How do people understand race and ethnicity as fluid or fixed categories in a context
of increasing mixity and increasing complexity of migration and racialised statuses?
o What are the implications for this of changes in experiences and understandings of
ethnicity and migration over generations?
o How does this relate to Coventry’s cultural geography and history?
o How might these insights be used to inform the work of race equality practitioners
in Coventry and beyond?
Six-monthly reports for CEMAP/with CEMAP for wider dissemination in Coventry
Input into consultation on the future of the National Census (with a focus on understandings
of ethnic groupings)
Wider engagement, dissemination and impact activities as appropriate
The student will be required to undertake advanced research skills training provided through the
University of Warwick’s Doctoral Training Centre, and will write a full PhD dissertation on their
independent research.
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Methodology
It is expected that this research project will be addressed primarily through a series of repeat focus
groups with participants from community associations linked with CEMAP. Participants from
CEMAP’s Hope in Unity (older people’s social and welfare group) and Young Vibes/ACCYPP (youth
work group) will be invited to participate in eight sessions over a year, which will enable them to be
active in the research process, commenting on and shaping emerging findings. Both these groups
meet regularly, have a connection to CEMAP in terms of their organisation, and have memberships
of diverse ethnic and migration backgrounds. Working with existing groups will help to develop trust
and rapport among the research group, as well as providing a structure for the regular meetings
required by the longitudinal focus group method.
It is envisaged that the older people’s and youth groups will meet separately for the first seven
sessions, with a final discussion group bringing the two together. The focus groups will be organised
and facilitated by the PhD student, to draw out themes around how mixed-heritage and complex
migration statuses are understood in the context of everyday Coventry life, and the implications of
these understandings for institutions and practices.
In order to build participant relationships and allow longer-form reflection, focus groups will
alternate between closed groups with just the participants, and a focus group inviting an outside
practitioner to discuss how their work is related to questions of race and ethnicity equality and
monitoring. A draft programme may look like this:
1. Closed session for participants only [separate sessions for youth and older groups]
2. Session with participants + Census analyst [separate sessions for youth and older groups]
3. Closed session for participants only [separate sessions for youth and older groups]
4. Session with participants + community cohesion practitioner from Coventry [separate
sessions for youth and older groups]
5. Closed session for participants only [separate sessions for youth and older groups]
6. Session with participants + local politician [separate sessions for youth and older groups]
7. Closed session for participants only [separate sessions for youth and older groups]
8. Final event bringing youth and older groups together
The focus groups will be facilitated by the PhD student, transcribed after each meeting, and the
transcripts subjected to a thematic analysis, extracting emerging themes to be discussed at the
subsequent focus groups. The addition of ‘outside’ perspectives at alternate groups will provide new
standpoints for participant discussion, and enable additional stakeholders to participate in these
conversations with the groups of young and old Coventry residents.
Potential candidates are encouraged to contact us to discuss any questions and their suitability for
this opportunity: h.jones.1@warwick.ac.uk or khursheed.wadia@warwick.ac.uk
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS
Applicants need to meet the University of Warwick’s standard entry requirements:
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A first degree of at least an upper second class UK honours standard or the equivalent and/or a
Master's degree or its equivalent.
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English Language Qualifications: If your first language is not English you will be expected to
obtain the recognised English Language qualification IELTS (International English Language
Testing System) at level 7.0 with no more than 2 elements at 6.5/6.0 (and none below 6.0)
To be eligible for a full award (stipend and fees), you must:
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have settled status in the UK, meaning there are no restrictions on how long you can stay.
have been 'ordinarily resident' in the UK for three years prior to the start of the studentship
grant. This means you must have been normally residing in the UK (apart from temporary or
occasional absences).
not have been residing in the UK wholly or mainly for the purpose of full-time education. This
does not apply to UK and EU nationals.
To be eligible for a fees only award, you must:
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must be ordinarily resident in an EU member state, in the same way as UK students must be
ordinarily resident in the UK.
We particularly encourage applications from candidates who are committed to completing the PhD
project, and have experience working in culturally diverse environments and/or some knowledge of
Coventry and the West Midlands.
HOW TO APPLY
To apply for this position, please submit the following materials by email to
h.jones.1@warwick.ac.uk and in an email with the subject line “Collaborative PhD Application”, not
later than 12 noon UK time 18th April 2016:
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A personal statement document of no more than 1500 words to include an explanation of your
interest in this area of research, and a discussion of both a tentative theoretical and
methodological approach that you would like to adopt in approaching the research questions.
An up to date CV
Two references, at least one of which should be an academic reference. If you have been in
education within 5 years before your start date, then both your references must be academic
and not professional/personal.
The successful candidate at interview stage will also be required to supply:
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A transcript of your academic achievement. If you are made an offer you must also forward
original or certified copies of your transcripts (official documents setting out details of subjects
studied and grades obtained) to The Student Admissions Office. If your official transcript is not in
English, then an official certified translation should also be provided.
Students who are educated outside the UK or another English speaking country: original or
certified copies of certificates of their English language qualifications. You must have a minimum
of 7.0 IELTS score with no more than 2 elements at 6.5/6.0 (and none below 6.0). If your
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previous education was entirely in English, you may be exempt from this requirement. Please
note that the pre-sessional English course at Warwick is NOT sufficient to replace an IELTS score
of 7.0.
Deadline for applications 18th April 2016.
Interviews for shortlisted candidates will be held on Thursday 5th May 2016.
The successful candidate is expected to begin the studentship in October 2016.
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