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  • ESRC

South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (ESRC)

This University of Brighton open call for ESRC-funded South Coast DTP studentships for October 2023 is accepting applications until 04 January 2023. 

We are one of the partners in the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The South Coast DTP is a beacon of excellence, innovation and imagination in postgraduate training for the next generation of social scientists.

The South Coast DTP will be awarding studentships to social scientists carrying out PhD studies, or Masters + PhD studies at its three partner institutions, start date October 2023. The studentships are for 'open call' projects for which applicants devise their own project proposal and identify a potential supervisor.

For details of the application process, including how to find a potential supervisor, see How to Apply below.

Through this exciting collaboration between the Universities of Brighton, Southampton and Portsmouth, the South Coast DTP aims to deliver the latest developments in training in research methods and skills to produce highly qualified and rounded social scientists, equipped to meet contemporary economic and social challenges.

  

scdtp_logo 2

Key facts

Themes Social policy; social work; criminology; management; business; sport, leisure and tourism

Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence

Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender

Centre of Resilience for Social Justice

Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics

Centre for Change, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management (CENTRIM)

Centre for Digital Cultures and Innovation

See also Research and Enterprise Groups

Deadline Wednesday 04 January 2023, 16.00hr

Interviews 24 January-08 February 2023

Find out how to apply

Entry requirements

Academic entry requirements

We fund students undertaking Masters+PhD programmes (1+3 funding) and stand-alone PhD programmes (+3 funding).

1+3 funding

Applicants must have or expect to gain:

  • a good honours degree at first or upper second-class level, from a UK academic higher education institution, or a combination of qualifications and/or experience that is equivalent to a relevant UK degree.

Applicants are also required to submit a research proposal of 750 words.

+3 PhD funding

Applicants must have:

  • a good honours degree at first or upper second-class level, from a UK academic higher education institution, or a combination of qualifications and/or experience that is equivalent to a relevant UK degree.

And have or expect to gain:

  • a level of research training that would allow them to proceed directly to PhD. This is usually through the attainment of a previous masters qualification in the social sciences with a Merit grade.

Applicants are also required to submit a research proposal of 1500 words.

English language entry requirements

Applicants whose first language is not English and/or who are not resident in exempt countries must have successfully completed a Secure English language Test (SELT) in the last two years. Applicants who have obtained a UK degree in the last three years or who are currently studying for a UK degree may apply without a SELT. However, the university may request a SELT is taken as part of any award made. See UK Government guidance for full details.

 

English language IELTS requirements should be 7.0 overall, 7 for writing, and none below 6.0. 

Residential eligibility

Applications from Home and non-UK resident students can be accepted. There will be a recruitment cap of 30% on non-UK resident studentships awarded across the consortium. The management of this cap will be through the selection process. Successful candidates will receive a full stipend and fees at the UKRI rate.

The ESRC guidelines for funding stipulate that if successful, students must live in the UK and within reasonable access to the Institution they are registered at.

Further information on residential eligibility is here.

Funding

UK residents

ESRC through the South Coast DTP provides a tax-free stipend at UKRI rates (£17,668 per year in 2022-23) and covers fees for the duration of the studentship (four years for 1+3 and three years for +3) for home (UK) residents.

South Coast DTP PhD students will also have access to a Research Training Support Grant for activities such as carrying out fieldwork within the UK, purchasing essential equipment and attending relevant conferences.

There are also funds available for students to carry out overseas institutional visits and internships. Further details of these can be found on the South Coast DTP website.

EU and International applicants

See residential eligibility above.

Potential supervisors for open call

Profile photo for Dr Kay Aranda

Dr Kay Aranda

I am interested in supervising students in the areas of health and social inequalities, gender, sexuality and age, and/or using feminist and material feminist theories or  socio-materialist and practice related theories for revitalising approaches to health inequalities and social justice.

I have supervised in the areas of community nurses and weight, midwives roles, domestic violence, women's experiences of birth, living with back pain and supporting children with disabilities, as well as coproducing participatory research in mental health and mental health, identiy and gender.

I am currently supervising postgraduate researchers in the areas of feminist phenomenology, embodiment and sea swimming;  involvement and engagement in GP Commissioning using social material approaches; in occupational therapy and exploring narratives and the socio-material practices of embroidery; exploring coproduction of care for frail older people with district nurses; and revising supervision in a community trust using communities of practice and social learning theories

Profile photo for Dr Carl Bonner-Thompson

Dr Carl Bonner-Thompson

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research students who wish to explore; 1) embodied relationships with everyday digital technologies and spaces; 2) everyday and embodied LGBTQ+ experiences of inclusion politics, urban spaces and institutions; and 3) the relationship between masculinity and emotion, vulnerability and violence. I am interested in students who wish to use a variety of qualitative and/or creative methods to explore these issues. 

Profile photo for Dr Daniel Burdsey

Dr Daniel Burdsey

I am interested in supervising doctoral students in all areas related to my research interests in sociological, cultural and geographical analyses of race, ethnicity and popular culture. In particular, my work addresses: the experiences of British Asians in sport and leisure; social and cultural aspects of the contemporary English seaside and coast, especially the connections between race, whiteness, migration and ‘new’ spaces of multiculture; theorising race and racism in football, with particular focus on connecting ideas around Empire, de/coloniality, racialised identities and anti-racist resistance; and Black British leisure and musical cultures and spaces.

My current PhD students are undertaking research on the experiences of bisexual women in sport, the use of trauma-sensitive yoga with refugee women, Islam and the 2022 men's FIFA World Cup in Qatar, gentrification at the English seaside, and tourism in post-Communist Romania. 

Profile photo for Dr Roxana Cavalcanti

Dr Roxana Cavalcanti

I am interested in supervising students working on the following topics:

  • Urban violence, state violence and political violence
  • Feminist theory and intersectional perspectives
  • Firearms and gun control
  • Post-colonial theory, decolonial frameworks and Southern criminology
  • Crime and deviance in Latin America
  • Social movements and academic activism
  • Theorising the persecution and criminalisation of resistance and dissent
Profile photo for Dr Alex Channon

Dr Alex Channon

I am able to supervise doctoral research across the fields of sociology, cultural studies, and politics as they pertain to sport, physical education, fitness, and related fields. However, I am particularly interested in sociological studies of the following specialist topics:

  • Martial arts and combat sports
  • Sport-related violence
  • Risk, injury and medical care in sport
  • Consent in sport
Profile photo for Dr Apurv Chauhan

Dr Apurv Chauhan

I welcome doctoral research ideas related to:

  • poverty, homelessness, deprivation, and social inequalities
  • social representations; risk and trust in social world and healthcare; perspectives on vaccines (including hesitancy and refusal); public understanding of science
  • Using big-data for psychological research

Interested students are encouraged to send a short email to me with their initial ideas.

Profile photo for Dr Chris Cocking

Dr Chris Cocking

I am interested in supervising people with an interest in social psychology, crowd behaviour, or collective action. I am currently interested in public intervention in emergencies/mass casualty incidents (a concept known as 'zero-responders') and public behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its implications for emergency planning and response. Therefore, I would be especially interested in supervising emergency responders and other public health professionals who wish to do PG research. 

I am also interested in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the broader area of collective resilience in response to general adversity. I would be keen to work with health professionals interested in postgraduate research in any of these areas.  

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Dr Mandy Curtis

I am interested in supervising Post Graduate Researchers in events, public space, and identities. I am also keen to support students researching diversity in all its forms, as well as those looking at accessible and sustainable events.

The doctoral project I am currently supervising is examining the value of social entrepreneurship and volunteer support within community sports events.  

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Dr Anne Daguerre

An experienced PhD supervisor, Anne welcomes PhD applications in the field of Human Resource Management, welfare reform and active labour market policies, social security, social rights, decent work and economic growth (Sustainable Development Goal 8). She is particularly interested in interdisciplinary approaches that combine public policy analysis with a socio-legal perspective. She is also keen to supervise PhDs that analyse policy reforms in the Global South (especially Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa). 

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Dr Mary Darking

I have supervisory interests in digital health, coproduction of health and social care services, community and social innovation, complex evaluation and social value, fuel poverty and energy justice. 

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Dr Mark Doidge

I'm interested in supervising anyone with a passion for critically examining sport or fandom. With my expertise and networks across Europe, I would love to supervise projects on range of topics around political mobilisation, collective behaviour and community engagement in the world of sport (and football in particular). Topics could include: 

Sport's impact on climate change

Sport and Leisure in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers

Mental health and fandom

Football fandom across Europe – including ultras, away fan experiences, political movements

Political activism amongst football fans, including anti-racism and anti-discrimination, environmentalism or community engagement.

Sport and Hate Crime

Profile photo for Prof Julie Doyle

Prof Julie Doyle

Professor Doyle has supervised doctoral work on creative and visual climate change communication and engagement, media discourses of environment, gender and popular culture, branding and consumption. She would be happy to supervise work on any aspect of:

* climate and environmental communication

* media, popular culture and environment

* creative approaches to climate engagement and systems change

* climate activism and social movements

* visual climate and environmental communication

* veganism, popular culture/media and ethics

* feminist ecological ethics

Profile photo for Prof Rebecca Elmhirst

Prof Rebecca Elmhirst

I am currently supervising four PhD students, two of whom are part of a H2020 Marie Curie Sklodowska Innovative Training Network. I am interested in supervising MRes and doctoral projects relating to (feminist) political ecology, and in particular, projects that relate to social and environmental justice, climate and agrarian resource extractivism, decolonial thinking and critical approaches to sustainable development. 

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Dr Mark Erickson

I supervise students across a range of social science disciplines, although my main discipline is sociology.  I am interested in supervising projects in sociology of science and technology / science and technology studies, sociology of work and employment, social theory. Projects I currently supervise are researching science and technology, work and employment, climate change / emergency, communing / the commons, trade union studies, gender and design, children and migration, and mental health.

Applications to the following proposal are very welcome: Managing science: workers and management in the replication and reproduction of scientific knowledge

Despite Wajcman’s exhortation for management studies and science studies to combine to understand science and technology better (1) there has been very little collaboration or cross fertilization between these two areas of social science in the past two decades. Studies of the working practices of professional, academic scientists are rare, despite the importance of these workers in the knowledge economy, and there is little understanding of the relationship between HR practices, labour process and scientific knowledge production and reproduction.

This project will use a management studies perspective to consider a contemporary ‘crisis’ in formal science. The crisis of reproducibility – the inability for one research team to replicate the results obtained by another research team – has received considerable attention in the scientific press in recent years (2, 3). A recent survey in Nature found that 50% of scientists have failed to reproduce one of their own experiments (4).

This problem threatens to undermine public confidence in scientific expertise and opinion, a very major problem given the legitimised discourse of climate change denial (5). The project will investigate the management of scientists involved in knowledge production work, and will examine the labour process surrounding knowledge production (6, 7). It will consider whether it is constraints of work, managerial and institutional imperatives (8), an instrumental orientation to career (9), and a ‘publish or perish’ culture (10) that are barriers to replication and factors in low reproducibility rates.

This research will address these issues from a combined management studies and sociology of work perspective. In particular the research will consider the relationship between the construction of occupational identities, managerial control of work time and the decision making processes that take place inside work teams regarding identification of experiments to replicated and / or reproduced (10). The project will adopt a qualitative approach, including semi-structured interviews and an ethnography, and documentary analysis deployed across a range of disciplines and trans-disciplines.

Research questions

1. How is the academic science labour process organised, managed and resisted?

2. How do teams of scientists in different disciplines decide on replication experiments and how is this work allocated?

3. What is the role of reproducibility/ replication in the formation of occupational identities by academic scientists?

References

1. Wajcman, J. (2006) 'New connections: social studies of science and technology and studies of work', Work, Employment and Society, 20, 4, 773-786. 2. Harris, R. (2017) Rigor Mortis. How sloppy science, worthless cures, crushes hope and wastes billions, New York: Basic Books. 3. Freedman, L.P., et al (2015) 'The Economics of Reproducibility in Preclinical Research', PLoS Biol, 13, 6. 4. Baker, M. (2016) ‘Is there a reproducibility crisis? Nature 533, 452–454 (26 May 2016)  5. Makri, A. (2017) ‘Give the public the tools to trust scientists’ Nature 541, 261 (19 January 2017)  6. Thompson, P. (1983) The Nature of Work.  An introduction to debates on the labour process, London: Macmillan. 7. Thompson, P. and Ackroyd, P. (1995) 'All quiet on the workplace front?', Sociology, 29, 4, 615-633. 8. Bradley, H., Erickson, M., Stephenson, C. and Williams, S. (2000) Myths at work, Cambridge: Polity.  9. Erickson, M., Bradley, H., Stephenson, C. and Williams, S. (2009) Business in society: people, work and organizations, Cambridge: Polity 10. Erickson, M. (2015) Science, culture and society: understanding science in the twenty-first century. 2nd edition, Cambridge: Polity.

Profile photo for Dr Zoe Flack

Dr Zoe Flack

I love to supervise projects, and would be interested in supervising projects relating to learning and the development of communication skills (e.g., early gesture/language development/pre-literacy and literacy acquisition), shared reading, particularly including technology related. I am akso interested in learning in the home or other non-school contexts, and alternative education (home education/flexischooling/alternative settings)

I am an expert in, and keen to help students adopt Open Scholarship/Research practices wherever possible (code/data sharing, pre-registering research plans etc). Very happy to discuss project ideas informally.

Profile photo for Dr Mary Gearey

Dr Mary Gearey

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research students (PhDs and MRes) in the following areas: community led water resource governance; sustainable water futures; elder environmental activism; nature-based solutions for climate change adaptation, degrowth theory in relation to environmental citizenship.

Profile photo for Dr Paul Gilchrist

Dr Paul Gilchrist

I would be interested in supervising postgraduate students in the following areas:

- Geographies of sport and leisure- Playful cities and urban everyday life- Community-supported agriculture / community gardening

I also welcome discussions on other potential topics.

Profile photo for Dr Rebecca Graber

Dr Rebecca Graber

I am interested in supervising students in any of the following areas:

  • peer relationships, peer support and/or friendships
  • resilience to complex risks
  • social/community approaches to health and well-being

Projects might use creative visual methods, qualitative methods, non-experimental quantitative methods, or mixed/multiple methods. I particularly welcome students who are curious about expanding mainstream psychology by, for example, taking a resilience-based approach; working with marginalised, underrepresented and/or vulnerable persons; taking an intercultural or international perspective; and/or working in a participatory manner.

Profile photo for Prof Andros Gregoriou

Prof Andros Gregoriou

I am very interested in supervising students in the fields of liquidity, financial modelling, SMEs and cryptocurrencies. In particular, I am keen on developing new measures of financial stability that can be applied to the impacts of Brexit and the Coronavirus on financial markets. Panel econometrics and computational finance including bootstraping and monte carlo simulations are also of interest. 

Profile photo for Prof Angie Hart

Prof Angie Hart

Students drawn to studying with me are generally people with a commitment to social change. All of them share my passion for researching resilience-related topics and most of their studies involve some form of co-production with communities, policymakers or practitioners. Many of them also volunteer for our social enterprise Boingboing and there are loads of opportunities in our CRSJ for students to get involved in some fabulous personal development activities, for example attending conferences on behalf of our Centre, being on the Management Group, staffing a stand at international events, etc.

Prospective supervisory topics I get excited about include:Co-productive and resilience-based approaches to tackling social and environmental issues including:Child, family and adult mental healthPractitioner stress and burnoutSchools practicesHigher Education community-university partnership practices.

Profile photo for Dr Laura Harvey

Dr Laura Harvey

I have supervised two PhDs to completion and regularly supervise undergraduate dissertation projects. I welcome applications for PhD research from students interested in gender, sexuality, youth cultures, media representations, the place of media in everyday life, discourse analysis, diary research and creative methodologies. 

Profile photo for Prof Jorg Huber

Prof Jorg Huber

I am happy to supervise projects within my range of expertise which includes health psychology and applied health, medical and health care research in the widest sense. Given my background I tend to focus on quantitative and experimental or interventionist methods. Increasingly i am involved in mixed methods projects with a strong qualitative method. In the past i have supervised projects in the field of diabetes and also forensic mental health. 

My current interests are very much about applying a relationship approach to e.g. long term conditions and the way people live with and adjust to long term conditions or other health challenges. Resilience and stigma in long term coniditons is of interest to me, extending my current work on diabetes and HIV/AIDS. Exploring links around adjustment, stigma and the additional challenges due to social and health inequalities is a priority to me. Finally, development of interventions in these fields would be of considerable interest to me. 

Profile photo for Dr Nigel Jarvis

Dr Nigel Jarvis

I have successfully supervised a number of PhDs to completion, with candidates getting academic publications as part of their journey even before they defend their thesis.  I am interested in supervising research projects on gender and sexuality, the cruise sector, sport tourism, sport and event sponsorship, sport event legacies, the socio-cultural impacts of tourism and events, and leisure management.

Profile photo for Dr Helen Johnson

Dr Helen Johnson

Helen supervises PhD and MD students with an interest in arts-based interventions in healthcare, education and wellbeing, and/or the use of creative, arts-based research methods.  She is interested in talking to doctoral applicants who are interested in researching creativity and the arts, with foci including: art therapy; arts interventions for health and wellbeing, including invisible chronic and contested conditions; social prescribing; creativity and the lived experience of dementia; arts education; spoken word and poetry slam; art worlds/communities; arts inclusivity; everyday creativity; and the artistic process.   She is also interested in supervising students who wish to work with creative, arts-based and/or participatory methods, including: poetic inquiry; autoethnography; photo voice; photo elicitation; collaborative poetics; and participatory action research.  Helen currently supervises four doctoral candidates, who are researching: the lived experiences of women with borderline personality disorder (including creative coping strategies); neurologic music therapy with young people with juvenille dementia; black people's experiences of intimacy and psychosis; and decolonial praxis in museum learning.  She has previously supervised and examined work covering topics that include: perceptions of frailty in the undergraduate medical curriculum; the impact of austerity policies on homeless people; spoken word with young offenders in a Macedonian prison; the performance and perception of authenticiy in contemporary UK spoken word poetry; and NHS staff experiences of work.

Profile photo for Dr Adam Jones

Dr Adam Jones

I am interested in supervising PhD students interested in sustainability related to tourism, marketing, and corporate social responsibility. I am also interested in those wanting to research behaviour change, especially related to the environmental crisis. Recently completed research and publications include those concerning behaviour change and travel demand management, destination planning and management and information overload on the internet. I specifically welcome projects that adopt innovative qualitative methodological approaches to creating new knowledge.

Profile photo for Dr Nichola Khan

Dr Nichola Khan

I am interested in supervising students in the interdisciplinary areas of migration, war, conflict, violence, refugees, transnationalism, ethnicity, mobilities, cities, migrant health and mental health, social inequalities, and environmental violence- particularly those working on Pakistan, Afghanistan, and migrant populations in Asia and Europe. My past and present students also work on very different kinds of topic, including around race and sexuality, autophenomenography and psychotherapy, childrens violence to parents, climate-induced migration as an emergent political and policy field, adolescent refugee mental health, female genital mutilation in Southern England, honour based violence and the British police, trans lives in Bolivia, refugee women and yoga in Sweden- and postdoctoral research on peacemaking in the Basque country.

Profile photo for Dr Catherine Kelly

Dr Catherine Kelly

I welcome the opportunity to supervise PhD students with an interest in the areas of tourism and wellbeing, place and wellbeing, sustainability, nature-based tourism, coastal tourism, blue spaces, water and wellbeing, rural tourism, cultural/heritage tourism, national parks and biospheres.

Profile photo for Dr Tim Laing

Dr Tim Laing

I currently supervise students in the fields of renewable energy, sustainable production and technology innovation. I am interested in supervising students in the fields of environmental economics, natural resource management, the extractive industries and the material implications of low-carbon development. 

Profile photo for Dr Sarah Leaney

Dr Sarah Leaney

I am interested in supervising doctoral students in classed inequalities, urban sociology, social housing and ethnographic methodologies.

I am currently supervising the following projects:

Social and cultural exclusion through seaside gentrification on the south coast Bethan Prosser

Precarious practices and policies in the divided ‘smart city’ Matthew Smith

Profile photo for Dr Jason Lim

Dr Jason Lim

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas: critical race theory, de/post-colonial studies, feminist activism, sexualities, trans studies, political philosophy, history of ontology.

Profile photo for Dr Rodrigo Lucena De Mello

Dr Rodrigo Lucena De Mello

I welcome students' research projects in the following areas: Consumer psychology and behaviour; Customer relationship marketing; Marketing for families; Gender and sexuality in marketing

Profile photo for Dr Nicholas McGlynn

Dr Nicholas McGlynn

I'm interested in supervising postgrad projects in (but not limited to) the following areas: sexual politics outside the metropolis; social and cultural geographies of fat men; Participatory Action Research with LGBTQ communities; and Bear subcultures and spaces.

Profile photo for Dr Kirsty Mcgregor

Dr Kirsty Mcgregor

Kirsty is interested in receiving postgraduate research proposals in her areas of expertise, including:

  • domestic violence and abuse; 
  • youth victimisation; 
  • hate crime; 
  • the lived experience of crime, the criminal justice system and/or victimisation; and 
  • critical victimology and criminology.

Kirsty particularly welcomes proposals which situate their project within an intersectional, feminist or queer perspectives.

Profile photo for Prof Lesley Murray

Prof Lesley Murray

I am interested in supervising doctoral students on a range of topics including transport and mobilities, urban sociology, visual sociology and gender and generation. In addition, I welcome proposals from students seeking to adopt creative and inventive methodologies and methods. I am currently supervising projects on: lived experiences of the anthropocene; urban place-attachment across generations; sequential art in architectural practice; urban pocket parks; generation and automobility futures; and the wellbeing of refugee children.

Profile photo for Prof Marina Novelli

Prof Marina Novelli

Marina’s PhD supervisory interests are closely aligned with her research interest and experience. These include:

- Sustainable Tourism Development for Resilient Communities - i.e. the complexity of tourism development in the Golbal South; niche (tourism) product development; the impact of heath crisis on tourism communities (Ebola, COVID); healthy lifestyle tourism development and managemeent; Local, National and IDOs' interventions for sustainability and resilient communities;  travel philanthropy, serious leisure and the act of giving beyond volunteering;

- Innovation, responsible entrepreneurship and sustainability in tourism - community-based and responsible tourism approaches; circular economy, contemporary arts and community development, contemporary arts for sustainable development in Africa; rural diversification and regeneration through tourism.

- Policy, Planning and Governance - i.e. master-planning; training needs analysis and capacity building; responsible leadership; participatory and community cetred development; capacity building processes and practices; overtourism and tourismophobia; tourism and the circular economy.

Profile photo for Dr James Ormrod

Dr James Ormrod

I am interested in supervising doctoral research in the areas of outer space studies, environmental sociology, human-animal studies, and social movement studies, as well as work more broadly situated within psychosocial studies.

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Dr Avanti Pinto

I am interested to supervise projects in the area of public economics and international economics, specifically environmental policies/ externalities/ international cooperation on environment and trade issues. 

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Dr Tijana Rakic

Tijana is an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner and welcomes informal enquiries from potential PhD applicants who are interested in topics and methodological approaches related to her research interests, projects and publications.

These include but are not limited to the PhD research project ideas which propose to rely on visual and creative qualitative research methods and/or are related to the themes of heritage, tourism and national identity studies; travel, tourism and art; and representations of places, cultures and identities in promotional materials and popular media. 

Tijana is currently supervising 5 PhD research projects: 

  • Ms Marineli Codin, working title: Constructing and Projecting National Identity in Post-Communist Romania: a Longitudinal Analysis of Tourism Promotional Materials from 1990 until 2020 (research degree study on-going, Lead Supervisor) 
  • Ms Katharina Buerger, working title: Conflicts, Protest and Resistance to (Modern) Olympic Games (research degree study on-going, Lead Supervisor) 
  • Ms Lorarine Ojukwu Odumegwu Ojukwu, working title: Representation of Black Women: the Case of Tourism Promotional Materials for Namibia from 2016 to 2021 (research degree study on-going, Second Supervisor) 
  • Ms Matea Hanžek, working title: Post-Conflict Destination Branding and National Identity Construction: a Discourse Analysis of Croatia’s Official Tourism Promotional Materials (research degree study on-going, Lead Supervisor) 
  • Mr Brendan Downing, working title: Construction of Greeknes in the Travels and Artwork of Fred Boissonnas (research degree study on-going, external co-supervisor, National College of Art and Design, Ireland)
Profile photo for Prof Nigel Sherriff

Prof Nigel Sherriff

I am interested in supervising PhD candidates in a number of public health and health promotion areas. My current research (see profile) includes a global project on health services during CV-19, European research on syphilis, substance (mis)use, and LGBTI inequalities taking an international perspective. PhD candidates are welcome to contact me to develop PhD projects around these areas, but also any of the below:

  • Sexual health (including HIV and other STIs) and sexual orientation
  • Access to health and social care services for ‘vulnerable’ populations
  • Healthy public policy and health inequalities
  • Mental health
  • Parenthood (including fathers supporting breastfeeding)
  • Young people
  • LGBT lives
  • Tackling stigma and discrimination
  • Gender identities (masculinities and femininities)
  • Peer group cultures
  • Sexual assault/gender based violence/intimate partner violence

I also supervise candidates for PhD by publication and welcome applications/enquiries

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Dr Stefan Speckesser

I am interested to supervise students with research topics in welfare policies, education and the labour market, and effectiveness of policy and programmes.  Here, I have a specific interest in computationally efficient algorithms to improve econometric designs, which improve robustness of applied econometric analysis.  Related to this is the use of innovative, large data sources (“Big Data”) in econometrics, where I can support students gaining proficiency using relevant methodical and technical approaches.

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Dr George Tsekouras

George has supervised several PhD students on topics including among others: Building innovation capabilities in SMEs through learning networks; the contribution of people with learning conditions to the innovation activities of small businesses; innovation skills and behaviours of employees in high-growth SMEs in the digital technology sector; the role of innovation coaching for innovative SMEs; and the development of technology-based start-ups in a developing economy.

George has an interest to supervise PhD students that explore the development of innovation activities and innovation capabilities within SMEs. All types of SMEs (technology-based, high-growth, low-and-medium tech etc.) are of interest. Both challenges of managing the innovation activities and their support are of interest.  

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Dr Keith Turvey

Keith is an experienced doctoral supervisor and examiner. He has conducted doctoral examinations both nationally and internationally and has supervised 6 doctoral students to successful completion.

Keith is interested in supervising doctoral students in various areas relating to:

  • Professional learning
  • Teacher education and development
  • Pedagogy and innovation
  • Digital technologies in Higher Education
  • Technology supported pedagogy
  • Narrative and life history
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Dr Helen Walker

My research interests lie in the history of Town Planning, particularly the impetus for establishment of the Garden City movement, National Parks, the emergence of community engagement in the planning of places.  Other interests are the theoretical and political influences on the planning process, including regional government (and its demise).  The historical development of urban areas, their design; history of architecture and urban form.

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Dr Clare Weeden

I am an experienced PhD supervisor, and welcome enquiries from potential candidates interested in these and similar areas within the nexus of ethics, tourism, consumer behaviour, marketing and critical cruise studies.

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Dr Rachel White

Happy to supervise field, questionnaire, and desk-based projects. Passionate about avian ecology and conservation science, human-nature interactions, urban ecology, and patterns and drivers of extinction risk. 

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Dr Marcus Winter

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research students in ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction and applied machine learning in the contexts of education, cultural heritage and public engagement.

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Dr Kevin Wyche

Dr Wyche is available to supervise PhD and MRes students in multiple, interdisciplinary areas, principally Atmospheric Science, including tropospheric composition and change, air quality, air quality and human health and secondary organic aerosol. He also works at the air quality-policy interface, so is available to supervise students interested in air pollution and environmental policy and public health issues. Dr Wyche also employs remote sensing in his work, so is available to supervise projects using ground, air and space-based remote sensing instrumentation for Earth Observation and Planetary Science.

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Dr Laetitia Zeeman

Supervision support can be provided to PhD students who are interested in queer theory, poststructuralism, the application of critical social theory, new materialism, intersectionality and feminist theory in health-related research. Focus areas include LGBTQ+ health and healthcare, resilience, trans health and mental health promotion. PhD students she has supervised to completion have worked on studies employing critical social theories and qualitative creative methods. She has examined PhD/Professional Doctorate studies in the UK and further afield.  

Current PhD students 

  • H Howitt, Mike Phillips, Esther Omotola Ayoola, Amy Middleton, Aile Trumm 

Former PhD students

  • Kim Brown, Tracey Harding, Adam Kincel, Jens Schneider

How to apply

Before you apply

Applicants must submit:

  1. An institutional (University of Brighton) research degree application (deadline 04 January 2023).

  2. A consortium (South Coast DTP) funding application. (We will support you in completing your funding application after the University of Brighton's 04 January deadline prior to the South Coast DTP deadline of 23 January 2023.)

Please make sure that you meet the entry requirements before making your application, and have read all of our advice about writing your research proposal and making an application on the above tabs. 

Finding a supervisor

Applicants are required to identify potential supervisors from our social science Centres of Research and Excellence (COREs) and Research and Enterprise Groups (REGs) in the first instance (see Key Facts above for links). A number of potential supervisors are also featured on this webpage. We are particularly interested in encouraging applications which meet the brief for research using Advanced Quantitative Methods and for research using existing ESRC data sets.

Research proposal 

Open call applications 

Applicants are required to identify a potential supervisor from our social science Centres of Research and Excellence (COREs) and Research and Enterprise Groups (REGs) and to work with that supervisor on a research proposal. A number of potential supervisors are also featured on this webpage. Speculative applications will not be accepted. You should name your potential supervisor in your application and submit a full research proposal of around 1500 words which includes:

  • a description of your proposed research topic including the questions or hypotheses to be addressed

  • the methods to be used and sources to be consulted

  • a brief timetable covering the period of study (including details of field work)

  • any ethical issues related to your research project

If you have already begun your doctoral study, please remember to refer to the research you have undertaken to date.

Apply online (all applicants)

To complete the application you'll need to upload the following:

  • copies of your bachelors and masters certificates (if applicable), including transcripts

  • copy of your IELTS (or equivalent) certificate (if applicable)

  • copy of your passport

  • two references uploaded or requested – one must be an academic reference from your most recent period of study, both must have been written within the last year

  • copy of your research proposal.

To make your application, follow the following steps.

  1. Click on the ‘apply online now’ button on the right.

  2. Select 'create a new account' to register and start a new application.

  3. Once you are logged on, select 'apply to a new course'.

  4. Select the type of course 'research degree'.

  5. Select mode of study 'full-time' or 'part-time'.

  6. Select 'Doctoral College'.

  7. Select the course 'South Coast DTP (ESRC)' (full-time or part-time).

  8. Click 'apply'.

You will now be able to complete the online application form.

Apply online now

Contact us

If you have any questions about these studentships, your research proposal or application, contact the Doctoral College at DoctoralCollege@brighton.ac.uk and we will be happy to help.

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