PhD Studentships in Politics, International Studies & Philosophy
Queens University Belfast
PhD Study Commencing 2015
**Apologies for Cross-Posting**
The School of Politics, International Studies & Philosophy at Queen’s University
Belfast is pleased to announce a number of funding opportunities for PhD
students beginning September 2015. We welcome student proposals in a wide
range of scholarly areas, with particular emphasis on the following:
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Governance and Public Policy
International Relations
Comparative Ethnic Conflict
Contemporary Irish History
Political Theory
Philosophy
The School funding opportunities available are as follows:
FACULTY OF ARTS, HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCE PhD STUDENTSHIP
AWARDS: The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences invites
applications for PhD Studentship Awards, funded by the Northern Ireland’s
Department of Employment and Learning (DEL), available for full-time PhD
research commencing in autumn 2015. 23 studentships are available in total
and they will be allocated to outstanding students undertaking PhD study
across the broad range of disciplines within the Faculty. The studentships are
available to UK and other EU and EEA nationals, however specific eligibility
criteria apply. For example, for UK Based students, each award will cover
approved tuition fees and maintenance payments for three years, whereas EU
and EEA students are eligible for fees only. Applications are invited from
potential doctoral students seeking to undertake projects within the remit of
the following thematic areas:
o Arts & Humanities (incorporating all subject areas in the Faculty
supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council)
o Security, Rights and Conflict Transformation
o Governance and Public Policy
o Life Course Studies
o Innovation and Economic Performance
All studentships will be awarded on a competitive basis to outstanding
applicants who have: an excellent undergraduate degree; completed, or are
due to complete by September 2015, a Master’s degree in a relevant subject;
an original and exciting research proposal that will contribute to the further
enhancement of areas of research strength in the Faculty.
 Arts and Humanities Applicants: If you are interested in applying for a
studentship in the Arts and Humanities, please complete the application
process in line with the AHRC’s Northern Bridge Doctoral Training
Partnership’s BDTP studentship competition (see below). The deadline
for this competition is 26 January 2015. Further details are provided
here.
 Applicants for Thematic Areas: If you wish to be considered for a
studentship in any of the other 4 thematic areas, please complete the
online postgraduate application portal, registering your application
against the home School of your proposed primary supervisor. The
deadline for applications in these 4 areas is 5pm on 5 February 2015.
Applicants must specify within their applications which of the 4 thematic
research themes their project will address and must not specify more
than one area.
DEL STRATEGIC AWARD “Citizen-Based Post-Conflict Democracy”: The School
is offering a PhD studentship to work on an interdisciplinary project in
conjunction with the School of Psychology entitled: “Citizen-based post-conflict
democracy: Experimentally investigating public support for the resolution of
contentious issues by randomly chosen citizens. ” The project description is as
follows:
Achieving social justice, human rights and appropriate
recognition of one's identity are core aims of citizens of any
democracy, but are particularly difficulty to achieve within the
entrenched political divisions of a post-conflict society. This
project examines how post-conflict democratic institutions may
most usefully be reformed in order to enable citizens to directly
debate and make decisions about sensitive issues relating to
justice, rights and identity. Specifically, the project
experimentally investigates public support for (or opposition to)
the idea of a Northern Ireland Citizens' Assembly comprising a
randomly selected cross-section of citizens who would discuss
and make decisions on contentious issues that political parties
cannot agree on: 'conflict issues' such as flags, parades,
remembering the past and language rights, and 'non-conflict'
issues such as welfare reform. Public perceptions of the
legitimacy of the body are hypothesised to depend upon: how
members are seen to ‘represent’ the broader population (in
terms of the manner of their selection and their ‘prototypicality’
or centrality within their community, but also their knowledge
and ability to advocate their political views); the types of
partisan or universal issues the body discusses and the quality
of its conclusions; the powers the body has to enforce its
decision. These hypotheses are tested in a series of
experiments: respondents view a news clip about the idea of a
Citizens Assembly, with embedded manipulations of citizen
representation, issue type and Assembly power traits in order to
identify how these factors drive overall evaluation of the idea of
a Citizens' Assembly.
Students wishing to be considered for these studentships should contact the
principle supervisor Dr. John Garry (j.garry@qub.ac.uk), and are required to
have submitted a completed application, including research proposals and
references, on or before the deadline of 5pm, 5th February 2015. The School
expects to be in a position to make offers of an award to successful candidates
before the end of March 2015.
AHRC NORTHERN BRIDGE DOCTORAL AWARDS: As part of the Northern
Bridge Consortium which includes Newcastle University and Durham
University, Queen’s is part of a programme of funding that will offer up to 50
fully funded PhD positions across these three institutions. These are specific
opportunities for ‘Humanities Facing’ subject areas within the School of
Politics, International Studies and Philosophy which include, but are not limited
to, Philosophy, Political Theory, Political History, Diplomatic History, Cultural
Studies and Aesthetics and Politics. Further Information on this funding
scheme can be found here Northern Bridge Scholarships: Please note that the
deadline for this competition is 26th January 2015
OTHER FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES: Queen’s has a number of other relevant
schemes for PhD funding including awards from specific national governments
(e.g. China Council Studentships), the British Council, and other specific regions
(e.g. Commonwealth Scholarships). Eligibility and deadlines vary for each of
these studentships. For further information on other possible funding
opportunities, please click here.
Further information on all these funding opportunities can be found on our
webpages:
http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofPoliticsInternationalStudiesandPhiloso
phy/ProspectiveStudents/PostgraduateResearchDegrees/
Likewise, you can contact Dr. Debbie Lisle for more information:
D.Lisle@qub.ac.uk