Call for Applications – 2022/23 Entry
The University of Kent is delighted to invite applications for 2 doctoral scholarships starting in the academic year 2022/23, starting in September 2022 or January 2023. One of the two scholarships will be named in honour of Emeritus Professor Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature and a former student and staff member at the University of Kent, whose work and personal life have highlighted the condition of migrants and refugees.
The call is open to candidates interested in pursuing a PhD programme in any discipline at the University of Kent on a research project directly linked to the themes of migration and movement. Interdisciplinary projects are warmly encouraged, but applications that fall within a single discipline are also welcome. Applications will be ranked by an interdisciplinary panel and must be written in plain language, avoiding over-reliance on disciplinary jargon. Candidates will be required to articulate why their project is timely, original and important, and why they are the right person to undertake the proposed research.
We particularly welcome applications from candidates from minority backgrounds (as protected by the UK Equality Act 2010) and people with lived experience of migration and/or forced displacement as they are under-represented at this level in this area.
About the Migration and Movement Signature Research Theme
The Migration and Movement SRT is a vibrant community of scholars and practitioner academics working in the field of migration and movement, led by Prof. David Herd (English), Dr Bahriye Kemal (English), Dr Amanda Klekowski von Koppenfels (Politics), Dr Margherita Laera (Drama), Dr Tom Parkinson (Higher Education) and Dr Sweta Rajan-Rankin (Sociology). Members bring a number of interdisciplinary perspectives, from International Law to Urban Planning, Pharmacy, Statistics, Politics and Entrepreneurship. The SRT aims to expand our understanding of migration beyond the movement of people to include the migration of pathogens, remittances, technologies, cultures, scriptures, coffee, drugs, medicines, labour, and ideas.
The Migration and Movement SRT launched in September 2021, at a historical moment when intersecting crises of movement were (and still are) taking place. As Covid-19 continues to spread, governments are enforcing lockdowns and movement restrictions, yet the UNHCR reports forced displacement at upwards of 75 million people. As climate change accelerates and conflicts escalate, people will continue to seek sustainable existences elsewhere and will be compelled to move, yet governments in the global north are preparing to render the seeking of asylum more difficult or even illegal.
As a public-facing, civic-oriented SRT, we believe universities – our institution in particular – can play a key role as leaders of intellectual debates and as creators of advocacy and evidence-based research around migration, its contexts, histories and benefits. We are committed to learning from the work of decolonial and postcolonial colleagues, and from the perspectives of persons with lived experience. Reflexive learning and intersectional empathy underpin every aspect of our ethics. We are keen to foster the next generation of scholars working on issues of migration and movement, broadly conceived, and welcome applications from scholars in all disciplines represented at the University.