PhD Studentship in Ethical Monotheism (Dangoor Scholarship)
Applications are invited for this three-year fully funded PhD scholarship in the Department of
Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, to begin in October 2014. The PhD is attached
to a project in Ethical Monotheism and will involve researching young people’s engagement with
monotheistic religious faiths in the UK and their understanding of the social, ethical and political
consequences of membership of, and identification with, faith communities. It is expected that the
student will carry out an empirical study with young people in UK Christian, Islamic and/or Jewish
communities exploring religious, cultural and social affiliations. The student will have a background
in a relevant discipline in the social sciences, such as psychosocial studies, social psychology,
sociology or anthropology, or in theology or philosophy. A good knowledge of qualitative research
methods is essential.
Please contact Professor Stephen Frosh (s.frosh@bbk.ac.uk) for an informal discussion and further
information. To apply, please complete the Department’s PhD application form on
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/2013/phd/programmes/RMPPSYSL. Please mark your application
clearly ‘Dangoor Scholarship’.
Closing date: 16 May 2014
Dangoor PhD Studentship: Further Information
The Studentship is part of a project focused on identifying core assumptions of the three major
monotheistic groups in the UK as ‘lived’ by their adherents, through work located principally within a
psychosocial studies framework. The PhD studentship will be in the area of young people’s
engagement with monotheistic religious faiths and their understanding of the social, ethical and
political consequences of membership of, and identification with, faith communities. The project
also includes a Postdoctoral Researcher working on a theme in the engagement with monotheism,
related to social and ethical values.
Research Orientation
The project is based in the Department of Psychosocial Studies in the School of Social Sciences,
History and Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London. Psychosocial Studies is a transdisciplinary
practice concerned with the inter-relation between individual subjectivities and individual and group
identities, and historical and contemporary social, cultural and political formations. It combines
insights drawn from psychology and its related disciplines (such as psychoanalysis, psychotherapy
and group analysis) with understandings of the social and political domain in disciplines such as
sociology, political studies, anthropology, cultural studies, philosophy, feminism, post-colonial
studies and queer theory. It is methodologically innovative, with a focus on ethnographic and
qualitative research methods that engage critically with psychological and social processes. The
current project will be located in this general psychosocial studies framework.
Dangoor PhD Scholarship
This three-year scholarship is for a PhD student to work in the area of young people’s engagement
with monotheistic religious faiths in the UK and their understanding of the social, ethical and
political consequences of membership of, and identification with, faith communities. It is expected
that the student will carry out an empirical study with young people in UK Christian, Islamic and/or
Jewish communities exploring religious, cultural and social affiliations. The student will have a
background in a relevant discipline in the social sciences, such as psychosocial studies, social
psychology, sociology or anthropology, or in theology or philosophy. A good knowledge of
qualitative research methods is essential.
Whilst the exact parameters of the study are open to discussion between the PhD student and
her/his supervisors (one of whom will be Professor Stephen Frosh), in outline it is likely to involve
the PhD student in conducting research on London young people aged 14-18 years old who
participate in the religious life of their Christian, Islamic and Jewish communities. It will investigate
the accounts given of their religious identities by these young people. The aim of the research is to
document and analyse the variety of modes and intensities of affiliation to, or dissension from, the
social and ethical ‘messages’ of the religions as understood by the young people themselves. The
objectives of the research are to:
1. collect accounts by young people of the extent of their sense of ‘religious identity’ and
document how these identities are described;
2. analyse the extent to which these identities are emergent, being consolidated or resisted;
3. document the extent to which these young people utilise religious guidance on ethical and
social issues;
4. document similarities and differences in the modes and intensities of ethical identification
with the values of each of the three religions.
It is expected that the young people will be accessed through churches, synagogues and mosques in
London. Given the use of intensive, qualitative research methods, it is likely that only one or two
sites for each religion will be used, generating the possibility of in-depth interviews with at least 20
young people from each religion. Sampling issues will be crucial given the wide variety of religious
beliefs within as well as between the different religions.
Both group discussions and individual interviews will be carried out using well established semistructured and conversational methods and analysed according to thematic and narrative
procedures. The focus will be on developing an intensive understanding of the function of religious
values derived from the main monotheistic religions in the lives of these young people.