Postgraduate research funding

The School of Histories, Languages and Cultures at the University of Liverpool is pleased to invite applications for a fees-only PhD studentship. This bursary provides three years of full-time funding for University fees at the home-student rate (£4,712 for 2024/2). This competition is open to all Home students who will be commencing PhD studies at the University of Liverpool in the autumn of 2024.

How to apply

To apply for thhis studentship please provide:

1. CV
2. Transcripts
3. 1000-word research proposal, inlcuding poropsed supervisors
4. 500-word statement outlining:
1. Your reasons for choosing the programme
2. How the programme will help you achieve future career plans
3. Why you should be considered for funding support
5. Indicate if you are applying for any other UoL bursary, awards or scholarships. The School of Histories, Languages and Cultures is committed to delivering reparative actions to address barriers to representation across all academia. We have a number of funding opportunities available as part of this action. Please indicate on your application if you wish to be considered for any of these opportunities.

For consideration, applications must be submitted to hlcscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk. Please give the subject line of your email as ‘School of Histories, Languages and Cultures PhD Studentship Application’.

Application deadline: 13th May 2024

The Institute of Irish Studies in pleased to offer the Owen Templeman prize for 2024.

Amount

The prize is a £3000 bursary towards funding postgraduate study related to the discipline of Celtic Studies.

Open to

You must have been assessed for fee status as a ‘home’ student, or expect to be assessed as a ‘home student’.

How to apply

To apply for the Owen Templeman Prize please provide:

1. CV
2. Transcripts
3. Research proposal
4. 500-word statement outlining:
1. Your reasons for choosing the programme
2. How the programme will help you achieve future career plans
3. Why you should be considered for funding support
5. Indicate if you are applying for any other UoL bursary, awards or scholarships. The School of Histories, Languages and Cultures is committed to delivering reparative actions to address barriers to representation across all academia. We have a number of funding opportunities available as part of this action. Please indicate on your application if you wish to be considered for any of these opportunities.

For consideration, applications must be submitted to hlcscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk. Please give the subject line of your email as ‘Owen Templeman Prize Application’.

Application deadline: 31^st July 2024

The Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology is pleased to invite applications for one fees-only scholarship to support one doctoral student in Ancient Near Eastern Studies, tenable from 1 October 2024.  The successful candidate will receive a scholarship covering full-time funding for University fees at the home-student rate (£4,712 in 2024/25).

The competition is open to all Home students who have applied to undertake PhD research in Ancient Near Eastern Studies and will commence their studies in the 2024/25 academic year or who are currently in their first year of PhD research in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. Students who begin their PhD studies in 2024/25 are eligible for three years of support (subject to satisfactory progress), students who have begun their PhD studies in 2023/24 are eligible for two years of support (subject to satisfactory progress). 

Application process

To apply for the Rankin Studentship in Ancient Near Eastern Studies please provide:

How to apply

To apply for this studentship please provide:

1. CV
2. Transcripts
3. 1000-word research proposal, inlcuding poropsed supervisors
4. 500-word statement outlining:
1. Your reasons for choosing the programme
2. How the programme will help you achieve future career plans
3. Why you should be considered for funding support
5. Indicate if you are applying for any other UoL bursary, awards or scholarships. The School of Histories, Languages and Cultures is committed to delivering reparative actions to address barriers to representation across all academia. We have a number of funding opportunities available as part of this action. Please indicate on your application if you wish to be considered for any of these opportunities.

For consideration, applications must be submitted to hlcscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk. Please give the subject line of your email as ‘Rankin Studentship in Near Eastern Studies Application’.

Application deadline: 13th May 2024 

Terms and conditions:

These scholarships are intended to fund a student who is undertaking full-time doctoral study in Ancient Near Eastern Studies.

Students may not be in possession of any other bursary, award or scholarship awarded by the University of Liverpool, or of external doctoral funding such as the AHRC NWCDTP studentships.

The Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology is pleased to invite applications for one fees-only scholarship to support one doctoral student in Egyptology, tenable from 1 October 2024.  The successful candidate will receive a scholarship covering full-time funding for University fees at the home-student rate (£4,712 in 2024/25).

The competition is open to all Home students who have applied to undertake PhD research in Egyptology and will commence their studies in the 2024/25 academic year or who are currently in their first year of PhD research in Egyptology. Students who begin their PhD studies in 2024/25 are eligible for three years of support (subject to satisfactory progress), students who have begun their PhD studies in 2023/24 are eligible for two years of support (subject to satisfactory progress). 

Application process

To apply for the Rankin Studentship in Egyptology please provide:

How to apply

To apply for this studentship please provide:

1. CV
2. Transcripts
3. 1000-word research proposal, inlcuding poropsed supervisors
4. 500-word statement outlining:
1. Your reasons for choosing the programme
2. How the programme will help you achieve future career plans
3. Why you should be considered for funding support
5. Indicate if you are applying for any other UoL bursary, awards or scholarships. The School of Histories, Languages and Cultures is committed to delivering reparative actions to address barriers to representation across all academia. We have a number of funding opportunities available as part of this action. Please indicate on your application if you wish to be considered for any of these opportunities.

For consideration, applications must be submitted to hlcscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk. Please give the subject line of your email as ‘Rankin Studentship in Egyptology Application’.

Application deadline: 13th May 2024 

Terms and conditions:

These scholarships are intended to fund a student who is undertaking full-time doctoral study in Egyptology.

Students may not be in possession of any other bursary, award or scholarship awarded by the University of Liverpool, or of external doctoral funding such as the AHRC NWCDTP studentships.

The Department of History at the University of Liverpool is pleased to invite applications for two fully-funded (fees and maintenance) PhD studentships to start on 1 October 2024. One studentship will be ring-fenced for Black applicants and may focus on any field of historical study and any period in which the department has supervisory expertise. The other studentship (in collaboration with the Institute of Population Health at the University of Liverpool) will focus specifically on the History of Race, Health and Medicine in any period between 1700 and the present. These studentships provide three years of full-time funding, including tuition fees at the home-student rate and an annual maintenance stipend equal to the standard UKRI rate (£18,622 p.a. for 2023-24).

Lifting Barriers to Black Academia PhD Studentship

This studentship is funded through Departmental endowments to signal our support for the findings of the Lifting Barriers to Black Academia Through Decolonisation and Positive Action Report, which follows on from an online series of symposia hosted by the Department’s Centre for the Study of International Slavery in 2021. The report documents the racial disparities and barriers Black scholars face in progressing at higher education institutions and recommends positive action to address the awards gap for Black academic staff and research students. This studentship will be ring-fenced for applicants of Black ethnicity (including Black British, Black African, Black Caribbean or dual heritage backgrounds), since this group has been disproportionately under-represented in doctoral study and research funding in History.

This studentship will focus on any field of historical study and any period in which the department has supervisory expertise. The Department of History is part of the School of Histories, Languages & Cultures, one of the largest Schools in the University, exploring culture and society from the origins of humanity and ancient history to modern day politics. We are an interdisciplinary group of historians committed to an engaged approach to the global past. In the 2021 REF exercise 100% of our research was classified as 4* and 3* for Research Environment. We had a 24% increase in 4* research across our outputs, impact, and environment since the last REF. We place particular emphasis on addressing historical injustices through our work on the Holocaust, medical racism, slavery, and colonial and postcolonial violence. From the rise of the far right to climate change, health care, library provision, abortion, religious intolerance and knife crime, we pride ourselves on using historical research to inform key contemporary debates.

As a PhD student, you will form part of an active postgraduate research community within the History Department, who hold Work-in-Progress seminars and organise an annual History postgraduate conference, which invites speakers from within and outside the University. You will have dedicated career development training from history staff, giving you guidance on subjects such as academic publishing and post-doctoral fellowships, as well as opportunities to apply for paid teaching experience on certain undergraduate modules.

 PhD students are a central part of the department’s vibrant research culture. You will have access to a dedicated study space within the School of Histories, Languages & Cultures, enabling you to meet, and form interdisciplinary collaborations with other early career scholars during your time at Liverpool. The Department contributes to several highly active interdisciplinary research centres which offer further opportunities for collaboration, enrichment and career development, including the Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Eighteenth-Century Worlds, the Centre for the Study of International Slavery, the Centre for Digital Humanities & Social Sciences, the Centre for Health, Arts, Science & Environment, and the Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies. The Department also has excellent links with a wide range of museums and other institutions on Merseyside and beyond, including National Museums Liverpool, the International Slavery Museum, the Bluecoat contemporary arts centre, the Athenaeum and Unilever Archives.

PhD Studentship on the History of Race, Health and Medicine

This studentship will focus specifically on any aspect of the history of race, health and medicine from the 18^th through to the 21^st century, and is part-funded by the Cohen bequest, established by Henry Cohen, 1st Baron Cohen of Birkenhead, who was elected to the chair of medicine at the University of Liverpool in 1934. The relationship between medicine and race – including medical racism – has recently attracted sustained attention and significant responses from national medical and public health associations, including the American Medical Association, the British Medical Association and the American Public Health Association, with major medical publications connected to these leading organizations publishing special issues on the subject (see: BMJ, AJPH, JAMA). Potential projects might, for example, consider the global circulation of medical knowledge produced in the context of the ‘plantation system’; health care practices and health care experiences of Global Majority groups in a specific historical period or geographic setting; the racialization of bodies, diseases and illnesses; issues around the training and career development of Global Majority staff within medical systems such as the British NHS. There are a wealth of opportunities and archival resources relevant to this topic within the Liverpool city region, including those relating to the first Liverpool Infirmary (opened in 1748), the Liverpool Medical Institution (founded as a medical subscription library in 1779) and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (established in 1898). The University of Liverpool Library system has extensive holdings related to the global history of slavery and the history of medicine, including key print and online resources such as the full series of The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography and Gale Nineteenth-Century Collections Online: Science, Technology, and Medicine, 1780-1925. Other relevant initiatives at the University of Liverpool include the interdisciplinary Centre for Health, Arts, Science & Environment and the University’s flagship partnership with Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum, the Centre for the Study of International Slavery.

This studentship is open to all applicants. We strongly encourage applications from communities underrepresented in UK academic History, including people from Global Majority communities who are currently underrepresented in the department’s teaching and research.

Eligibility and Application Process

To apply, please send a CV (including degree results and the names of 2 referees), a PhD proposal of between 500 and 1000 words, and a sample of academic work (3,000-5,000 words in length) to hlcscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk by 5pm GMT on Monday 13^th May 2024. In their application, candidates should make clear to which studentship they are applying.

In developing your proposal, it is essential that you identify a potential supervisor/supervisors within the Department of History and that you make contact with those members of staff prior to submitting your application. You can find a list of staff in the Department of History here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/staff/. Applicants for the studentship in the History of Race, Health and Medicine should also consider potential co-supervision opportunities in the Institute of Population Health. General queries should be addressed to the Head of History Professor Mark Towsey (towsey@liverpool.ac.uk) and Departmental Director of Postgraduate Research Dr Sam Caslin (scaslin@liverpool.ac.uk).

In order to be eligible for these studentships, you will need first to have applied for a PhD place at the University of Liverpool prior to the deadline for this competition and be a Home fee status student. You do not need to wait for the outcome of your application before applying for funding.

The award will be made on the basis of the academic merit of your application, including the fit between the proposed project, the supervisory team and wider research priorities within the Department. The successful candidate will ordinarily have either a first class or a 2:1 undergraduate degree in a relevant subject, and will have completed or be close to completing a Masters degree by September 2024.

Other Funding Opportunities

Applicants to these studentships are also permitted (and strongly encouraged) to apply for PhD funding in this Department through other routes, including externally-funded studentships offered by the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (History pathway; deadline: 2^nd February 2024) and North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (Economic and Social History pathway; deadline: 26^th February 2024). Both consortia offer Directed Studentships for students from backgrounds that are currently under-represented within postgraduate research in History including those from Global Majority, Disabled and Socioeconomically Unequal communities. Please follow the hyperlinks above for further information and guidance on how to apply.

Applications are invited for one E. Allison Peers Doctoral Studentship in Iberian and Latin American Studies, to begin in October 2024. The Scholarship provides full fees at the Home student rate (approx. £5,000) for students undertaking the PhD in Modern Languages and Cultures (Hispanic and Latin American Studies pathway), plus a £6,000 yearly stipend.

Subject Areas

Teaching and research in Iberian and Latin American Studies at Liverpool is informed by a plurilingual, pluricultural understanding of the Luso-Hispanic world. We welcome applications from students wishing to undertake research in any one or more of Basque Studies, Catalan Studies, Galician Studies, Portuguese Studies (Brazilian and European), Spanish Studies and Latin American Studies. We especially encourage applications that are comparative or relational, and which cross languages and national borders. Possible focuses for study include: cultural politics and the politics of culture; popular culture; film and visual culture; literary studies; digital culture; gender and sexuality; transnational, postnational and postcolonial studies; migration and diaspora; memory and representation.

Application and Selection Process

Scholarships will be awarded on the basis of demonstrated academic excellence. Applicants are required to make contact with a potential supervisor for assistance in formulating a research proposal; for a list of potential supervisors and their specialist areas, please see below. Completed expressions of interest should reach the department through the contact below by Monday 13th May. Applicants for an E. Allison Peers Scholarship must also make a formal application for admittance to the PhD in Modern Languages (Hispanic and Latin American Studies pathways) at the University of Liverpool by that same date, via the following link:https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/how-to-apply/

Applicants must submit: 

1. CV
2. Transcripts
3. 1000-word research proposal, including proposed supervisors
4. 500-word statement outlining:
1. Your reasons for choosing the programme
2. How the programme will help you achieve future career plans
3. Why you should be considered for funding support

Please indicate if you are applying for any other UoL bursary, awards or scholarships. 

Applications should be submitted to hlcscholarships@liverpool.ac.uk. 

More information

For more information about the scheme or an informal discussion, please contact Professor Claire Taylor: c.l.taylor@liverpool.ac.uk

For more information about the PhD in the Department of Languages, Cultures and Film, please visit: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/degrees/hispanic-studies/.

For more information about the Department of Languages, Cultures and Film, please visit: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/modern-languages-and-cultures/.

For more information about Postgraduate study at the University of Liverpool, please visit:   https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-research/

Potential Supervisors and their Interests

We welcome applications from students wishing to undertake research in any one or more of Basque Studies, Catalan Studies, Galician Studies, Portuguese Studies (Brazilian and European), Spanish Studies and Latin American Studies. We especially encourage applications that are comparative or relational, and which cross languages and national borders. Possible focuses for study include: cultural politics and the politics of culture; popular culture; visual culture; literary studies; digital culture; gender and sexuality; transnational, postnational and postcolonial studies; migration and diaspora; memory and representation.