Savoy Educational Trust and Brighton Hospitality Research Group

• Based in the School of Sport and Service Management.
• Closing date for applications is 15 October 2012. Apply now.

We are pleased to offer a PhD bursary in Hospitality Management at the School of Sport and Service Management, University of Brighton (Eastbourne campus).  The award consists of tuition fees for a research degree programme for three years beginning January 2013.

The successful candidate will conduct a programme of research for the degree of PhD. The Candidate should have a first or upper second class Honours degree in a discipline related to their proposed research and should also hold (or be working towards) a Masters degree in a related subject. In exceptional cases, an MBA or similar generalist Masters in Management may be considered.

We welcome applications in any of the following areas
1. Consumer perceptions of sustainable food and beverage technologies.
2. Constructing and consuming culture through hospitality

1. Consumer perceptions of Sustainable Food and Beverage Technologies

Our Brighton Hospitality Research team has  been investigating consumer perceptions and sustainable food technologies for  a number of years and are now in a position to offer a place to one candidate that wishes to explore this exciting topic.

Our research team engages in Social Science projects that investigate consumer perceptions and management applications of microwave and solar food production technologies.  We utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods and we plan to expand our research towards measuring perceptions utilising alternative technologies in food production. We have allowed enough scope in this research area to showcase your particular interests but proposals that show an insight of consumer perceptions measurement techniques, and an understanding of alternative sustainable food production technologies will be particularly welcomed.

The focus of this topic aligns with the established research expertise of the supervisory team: Professor Peter Burns  and Dr Ioannis S. Pantelidis.

Candidates will benefit from the use of our excellent food and beverage research lab and a great team that is passionate about exploring consumer perceptions of sustainable food technologies in  hospitality management.

The Supervisory team for Consumer perceptions of Sustainable Food and Beverage Technologies  is comprised off: Professor  Peter Burns and Dr Ioannis S Pantelidis.

2. Constructing and Consuming Culture through Hospitality

We are seeking a highly motivated candidate who is interested in pursuing PhD research into the construction and consumption of culture through hospitality.

As humans we transform the world into spaces and places in which meaningful activities occur; activities that define and communicate who we are and what we believe. Societies and groups transform and use space in a myriad of different ways reflective of their particular cultural dynamics.  One of the ways in which we organise, use and experience space is through the creation of places that provide opportunities for culture to be expressed and experienced through hospitality.

Hospitality is associated with a diverse range of places and environments for example, the domestic and the professional kitchen, hospitality at events and festivals, the hotel lobby, cafes, tea shops and restaurants.  How hospitality space is imagined, constructed and experienced; how it is brought to life in the way it is designed, organised and furnished has the potential to reveal much about the social and cultural particularities of the society in which it takes place. This project will explore the construction and consumption of culture by focusing on one or more examples of hospitality related settings.  In so doing it will contribute to our understanding of the relationship between hospitality, society and culture.

Within this overall context there is scope for you to choose the hospitality setting/s that fit in with your own particular interests and to develop a focus drawing upon the ideas outlined above.  We are, however, seeking candidates with an awareness and understanding of the general and specific literature relevant to the issues outlined above for example, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies and hospitality studies. We anticipate that the research will adopt a qualitative approach but we do not exclude the inclusion of quantitative methods if appropriate.  

The focus of this topic aligns with the established research expertise of the supervisory team Dr Catherine Palmer, Dr Jo-Anne Lester and Dr Ioannis S. Pantelidis.