Two International PhD
Studentships
Further details:
Applicants
are required to demonstrate that they have the necessary qualifications and
experience to complete a doctoral thesis in three years. Shortlisted candidates
will be expected to send a sample of their work and be available for interview
(by telephone or internet link if necessary). The successful applicants will
have relevant disciplinary backgrounds and will have a Masters degree which
includes an element social science research training. They will have engaged in
work on themes related to the topics outlined below.
1.
A Sociological Analysis of Borders
and Walls
This
PhD topic is focused on a sociological analysis of borders and walls in
contested states and cities. It
seeks to explore the operation of walls and contested borders in states and
cities marked by ethnic, national
and religious conflict. In particular, it will explore reasons why such
barriers are proliferating under contemporary conditions of globalisation, the
meanings they represent and the impact that they have on people most directly
affected by them. The
international studentship will be linked to two major ongoing research projects
within the Research Cluster: Social
Divisions and Conflict: (1) The Cambridge/Exeter/QUB five year project
entitled Conflict in Cities and the
Contested State: Everyday Life and Possibilities of Transformation in Belfast,
Jerusalem and Other Divided Cities (in Europe and the Middle East) (www.conflictincities.org). Four PhD students supervised by
Professor O’Dowd are currently doing fieldwork in Berlin, Mostar, Tripoli
(Lebanon) and Jerusalem; (2) Ongoing interdisciplinary research under the aegis
of the Centre of International Borders Research(which has attracted
international students as interns over a number of years- www.qub.ac.uk/cibr) The PhD topic will be
linked into burgeoning international fields of research to which the School is
already making a major contribution. In addition, it has the potential to link
the study of both developed and developing societies - exploring the
relationship between them, while further developing the comparative study of
social divisions and conflict.
2.
Poverty
Measurement in ‘Medium’ and ‘Low’ Human Development Countries.
The ESRC large grant project on Poverty and Social Exclusion
in the UK (PSE), involving six universities across the UK, will collect and
analyse quantitative and qualitative data in order to deepen understanding of social
exclusion. The international studentship will be linked to the PSE project, in
order to build capacity in techniques of poverty measurement, and to examine
the applicability of quantitative and qualitative research instruments in a
country categorised by the UN Human Development Index (HDI) as either ‘medium’
or ‘low’.
The method of poverty measurement pioneered by the PSE
surveys, often referred to as the ‘consensual’ approach, has influenced official
UK and EU poverty measures, but has rarely been used beyond Europe. The
consensual method combines measures of income, material possessions and
participation in social activities, with what the majority of people decide are
‘the basic necessities of life’.
Defining the latter, in a robust and meaningful way, is a key element of
the method. With some modification, it has been piloted in medium/low HDI
countries, demonstrating that the technique is not necessarily dependant on
sophisticated government statistical data or expensive surveys, and that ‘basic
necessities’ are both culturally and economically specific. The doctoral
research, therefore, involves adapting, applying and evaluating the consensual
technique alongside the HDI itself and any other measures specific to the
chosen country. The studentship provides a strategic opportunity to link with
one of Queen’s University’s priority countries for internationalisation, which
include India and China (both ‘medium’ HDI countries).
