PhD opportunities in the School of Social Sciences
There are currently funded PhD opportunities in the following areas. For further information, contact the named staff below.
Funded PhD Opportunities
The School of Social Sciences is seeking to recruit a new cohort to undertake research in a number of key areas. The funding consists of a tax-free stipend paid monthly and has a current value of £16,062 per annum. The bursary is renewable annually for up to 36 months in total, subject to you making satisfactory progression within your PhD research.
Successful applicants for our funded PhD studentships will receive a tax-free research stipend that tracks UK Research Council rates (currently £16,062) and a fee waiver to the value of Home student PhD fees (currently £4,596). All applicants will receive the same stipend irrespective of fee status, however only Home fees will be covered and non-Home fee status applicants will be required to meet the difference in fee costs from their own funds.
You must upload your Research Proposal to your application. Please ensure you include the Project Number and Title on your Research Proposal and upload it in place of the Personal Statement. We are not able to consider incomplete Applications. Details of how to apply and what is required in a Research Proposal can be found here.
Deadline for submissions: May 31, 2023
Start date: September 2023 (home students); February 2024 (international students)
If you have any queries on the application process please contact the BLSS Doctoral Research College: blssdoctoralresearchcollege@bcu.ac.uk
School of Social Sciences PhD Studentships
Documenting the Dark: Youth, music, and the underground.
School: Social Sciences
Supervisory Team: Dr Eveleigh Buck-Matthews, Dr Nathan Kerrigan and Dr Martin Glynn
Project overview:
Despite being overlooked as sites of social engagement and ignored as being merely spaces of leisure, DIY (Do-it Yourself) youth music scenes are an important aspect of how young people express selfhood and identity (both individually and collectively), build networks, relationships, and communities, and are crucial in providing a platform for young people to resist and rebel against dominant (mainstream) culture. There is a rich history of scholarship (see, for instance, the work of the Birmingham Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies) that has studied the musical subcultures of young people. However, this work has tended to limit focus on the importance of space and spatiality in the role of DIY music youth culture.
This study aims to unpack the social significance of these spaces for young people, denoting that whilst they are trivialised in the public imagination, they hold significance for young people themselves as they demonstrate modes of being together in which young people can express identity and community-making social practices. Using filmmaking, the study will document a contemporary UK music scene(s) by creating a ‘live archive’ of young people’s DIY social and cultural practices while participating in the scene(s). The project will produce a 70–90-minute documentary which tells the story of the contemporary youth-based music scene(s) and its participants, providing informationally rich audio-visual documents of the lived moment and experiences of young people within specific music space(s) and scene(s) by capturing the production, performance and consumption of the DIY music scene(s); its events, rituals, and ceremonies.
Contact information:
Dr Eveleigh Buck-Matthews
Email: eveleigh.buck-matthews@bcu.ac.uk