We are delighted to advertise a range of fully funded doctoral studentships available at Cardiff University. Full details are below for both traditional (1) and collaborative opportunities (2). Awards are also available through the same scheme, as you will see, at Swansea University. The traditional scholarship is available as a 1+3 or +3 (without or with an MA qualification).
The deadline for receipt of completed applications is 1st February 2018.
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(1) “TRADITIONAL DOCTORAL AWARDS” IN THE OPEN COMPETITION
ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership for Wales PhDs in the Linguistics Pathway
The Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR) at Cardiff University, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, and the Language Research Centre (LRC) at Swansea University, supported by the ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership for Wales (Wales DTP), invites applications for PhD study in Linguistics, with the possibility of being awarded a fully-funded ESRC DTP Studentship, available to start in October 2018.
The partnership between CLCR and LRC provides a focussed body of expertise in the core sub-areas of linguistics listed below, from which we expect to make doctoral studentship awards:
- Socio-cultural approaches to language and communication
- Language description
- Sociolinguistics
- Discourse analysis
- Critical discourse analysis
- Systemic functional linguistics/Systemic functional grammar
- Forensic Linguistics, language and the law
- Second language acquisition
- Lexis/lexical studies
- Corpus Linguistics, Corpus-informed discourse analysis
- Metaphor
- Linguistic ethnography, social practices approaches to literacies
- Intercultural communication
- Intonation and information structure
- Healthcare communication, dementia communication, lifespan communication
- Media discourse, new media discourse
- Visual and multimodal communication, non-verbal communication
- Comic and graphic novels
- Language as professional practice
- Institutional and workplace discourse
- Phonetics and Phonology
We invite you to propose a research topic for doctoral study in any of these areas.
Successful PhD researchers will become part of a dynamic hub for the development of new theory at the interface of language form, function, use and processing. They will benefit from a long history of research and postgraduate teaching collaboration between CLCR and LRC, including access to all research seminars and social events (e.g. summer PGR conference).
Applications are invited from exceptional candidates with a first class or strong upper second class honours degree, or appropriate Master’s degree. The University values diversity and equality at all levels and encourages applications from all sections of the community. We welcome applications for both full and part-time study, and studentships are available as either ‘1+3’ (i.e. one full time year of research training Masters followed by three years of full-time Doctoral study, or the part-time equivalent), or ‘+3’ (i.e. three years of full-time doctoral study or its part-time equivalent), depending on the needs of the applicant.
For initial enquiries and before submitting a formal application please contact:
Deadline for ESRC studentship applications 1 February 2018 (1600 hours).
Further details for ESRC Wales DTP General studentships
SUPERVISION
These studentships are ‘open’ awards. Applicants should consider approaching a potential supervisor before submitting their application to confirm that there is appropriate supervisory capacity within the University and to discuss their draft application. Information on the research interests of our staff can be found here:
CLCR: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/research/explore/research-units/centre-for-language-and-communication-research
LRC: http://www.swansea.ac.uk/riah/researchgroups/lrc/membership/
Short descriptions of the ESRC Wales DTP linguistics pathway can be found here:
http://www.walesdtc.ac.uk/pathway/linguistics/
Please note that in the first instance applicants should apply to the institution that they wish to study at.
WHAT THE STUDENTSHIP WILL COVER
Studentship Awards commence in October 2018 and will cover your tuition fees as well as a maintenance grant (currently £14,553 p.a. for 2017/18 for full-time students, updated each year); and includes access to an additional Research Training Support Grant. There are other opportunities and benefits available to studentship holders, including an overseas fieldwork allowance (if applicable), internship opportunities, overseas institutional visits and other small grants.
ELIGIBILITY
ESRC studentships are highly competitive, candidates should have an excellent academic background in the social sciences, holding a 1st or strong upper 2nd class degree; applications from those also holding a relevant research training Masters degree (or an equivalent background in research training) will be considered for a +3 award. Full awards (fees plus maintenance stipend) are open to UK Nationals and EU students who can satisfy UK residency requirements.
1+3 OR +3?
The awards are available on either a 1+3 or +3 basis. A 1+3 studentship provides funding for four years (or part-time equivalent), completing a research training Masters in the 1st year, followed by 3 years research funding for a PhD. A +3 studentship provides funding for the three years PhD research study only (or part-time equivalent).
ASSESSMENT
The closing deadline for applications is 4pm on Thursday 1 February 2018. Short-listed applicants will be invited to interview, which are expected to take place in March 2018. After interview, a final short-list of applicants will be put forward to a Panel convened by the ESRC Wales DTP Management Group at which final decisions with regard to studentship awards will be made. In most cases successful applicants can expect to hear by mid-April 2018.
For more information, see: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BGH526/esrc-wales-dtp-phd-language-and-communication-research
HOW TO APPLY
A completed application form for admission to doctoral study should be submitted to Cardiff University or to Swansea University.
Applicants to Cardiff University need to apply via the direct application service at http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/applying/how-to-apply for the Cardiff University application by the ESRC deadline of 4pm, 1 February 2018. Supporting documents should be sent to encap-pg@cardiff.ac.uk. Applicants should indicate in the funding section of the PhD application form that they are applying for ESRC funding. Please email encap-pg@cardiff.ac.uk with any queries.
Applicants to Swansea should send a completed application form to esrcdtp@swansea.ac.uk by the deadline of 4pm, 1 February 2018.
Incomplete Applications or applications received after this specified time will not be accepted.
The application must contain the following documents:
1. Covering letter: Please address to Dr Frances Rock (Cardiff) or Professor Nuria Lorenzo-Dus (Swansea). The covering letter must set out your reasons and motivation for applying to study at Cardiff or Swansea University, and the Linguistics pathway; your understanding, and expectations of doctoral study; and your academic interests generally, and particularly of those relating to your proposed research. The covering letter should be no longer than two pages. Please also specify which pathway you will be applying to (Linguistics) and whether you wish to apply on a +3 or 1+3 basis.
2. Evidence of your Academic / Professional Qualifications: Where appropriate, this should also include proof of English Language Competency (7.0 IELTS minimum).
3. References: All applications require two academic references to be submitted in support.
Candidates must approach referees themselves and include references with their application.
4. Curriculum Vitae: This should be no longer than two pages.
5. Research Proposal: The proposal should be up to a maximum of 1000 words, not including bibliographic references. We suggest that you use the following five headings in your research proposal:
- Title, aims and purpose of the research;
- Brief overview of the academic literature relevant to your field;
- Proposed design/methods;
- Academic contributions of your research;
- A list of references
(2) COLLABORATIVE DOCTORAL AWARDS
ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership for Wales Collaborative PhDs in the Linguistics Pathway
The Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR) at Cardiff University, School of English, Communication and Philosophy, and the Language Research Centre (LRC) at Swansea University, supported by the ESRC Doctoral Training Partnership for Wales (Wales DTP), invite applications for PhD study in two collaborative doctoral awards. These are PhDs which are to be undertaken with the collaboration of a non-academic partner (an organisation which is outside the University) as well as academic supervision within the University. The PhDs are already at least partially defined in terms of data source, methods and broad theoretical orientation. They have an in-principle approved ESRC Wales DTP studentship award attached. The titles for these awards are:
· The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a Welsh immersion context (to be co-supervised with the School of Welsh) [Co-funded by the Welsh Government]
· Under-the-radar dynamics of on-ward management and inter-team communication in a Welsh Hospital [Co-funded by Cardiff University College of Arts, Humanities and Social Science and supported by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board]
For initial enquiries and before submitting a formal application please contact one of the supervisors for each project. These are:
· Sociolinguistic Competence in Welsh: Mercedes Durham DurhamM@cardiff.ac.uk; Jonathan Morris MorrisJ17@cardiff.ac.uk
· On-ward Management and Communication: Tereza Spilioti SpiliotiT1@cardiff.ac.uk; Virpi Ylänne Ylanne@cardiff.ac.uk
The deadline for completed applications is 1 February 2018 (1600 hours).
Outline of each project
The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a Welsh immersion context
Previous research has shown that students in French immersion classrooms often struggle to acquire the range of registers available to L1 speakers and so do not reach full sociolinguistic competence. The situation in Wales differs insofar as pupils from Welsh-speaking and non-Welsh-speaking homes are taught together. There has, however, been no work which compares the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence among pupils from these two backgrounds.
Looking at the spoken Welsh forms that pupils are exposed to inside and outside of the classroom, the project will answer the following research questions:
- To what extent is there variation in pupils’ linguistic registers?
- To what extent do other social factors (home language, use of Welsh in community, use of Welsh outside school) affect sociolinguistic competence?
Under-the-radar dynamics of on-ward management and inter-team communication in a Welsh Hospital
The PhD project on ‘On-ward Management and Health Communication’ will investigate the mechanisms by which multiple communicative goals are attained in realtime hospital management. The project builds on ongoing collaborative research demonstrating that effective communication in hospital settings is not, as suggested in previous research, simply a matter of accurate transmission of medical information and instructions. Other unrecognised or undervalued achievements are team-building, fostering empathy for staff and patients, and socialisation of new staff into institutional practices. The broad aims of this project are therefore: to observe in detail the real-time working practices of staff across a ward; to identify effective strategies in both scheduled and spontaneous aspects of information-sharing, decision-making and team-building; and to adopt these findings within training and support programmes.
Further details
SUPERVISION
These studentships are ‘collaborative’ awards. They will be supervised as follows:
- The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Welsh immersion context (to be co-supervised with the School of Welsh) – Dr Mercedes Durham (CLCR) and Dr Jonathan Morris (WELSH). For further information about the research project attached to this studentship please contact Dr Durham (DurhamM@cardiff.ac.uk) or Dr Jonathan Morris (MorrisJ17@cardiff.ac.uk).
- Under-the-radar dynamics of on-ward management and inter-team communication in a Welsh Hospital – Dr Virpi Ylänne, Dr Tereza Spilioti (CLCR). For further information about the research project attached to this studentship please contact Dr Ylänne (Ylanne@cardiff.ac.uk) or Dr Spilioti (SpiliotiT1@cardiff.ac.uk).
Information on the research interests of the supervisors are at:
Dr Durham: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/99153-durham-mercedes
Dr Morris: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/78474-morris-jonathan
Dr Spilioti: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/99198-spilioti-tereza
Dr Ylänne: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/99218-ylanne-virpi
Short descriptions of the ESRC Wales DTP linguistics pathway can be found here:
http://www.walesdtc.ac.uk/pathway/linguistics/
Applicants should apply to Cardiff University.
WHAT THE STUDENTSHIP WILL COVER
Studentship Awards commence in October 2018 and will cover your tuition fees as well as a maintenance grant (currently £14,553 p.a. for 2017/18 for full-time students, updated each year); and includes access to an additional Research Training Support Grant (RTSG). There are other opportunities and benefits available to studentship holders, including an overseas fieldwork allowance (if applicable), internship opportunities, overseas institutional visits and other small grants.
ELIGIBILITY
ESRC studentships are highly competitive. Candidates should have an excellent academic background in the social sciences, holding a first or strong upper second class degree; applications from those also holding a relevant research training Masters degree (or an equivalent background in research training) will be considered for a +3 award. Full awards (fees plus maintenance stipend) are open to UK Nationals and EU students who can satisfy UK residency requirements.
1+3 OR +3?
The awards are available on either a 1+3 or +3 basis. A 1+3 studentship provides funding for four years (or part-time equivalent), completing a research training Masters in the 1st year, followed by 3 years research funding for a PhD. A +3 studentship provides funding for the three years PhD research study only (or part-time equivalent).
ASSESSMENT
The closing deadline for applications is 4pm on Thursday 1 February 2018. Short-listed applicants will be invited to interview, which will take place in late February or early March 2018. After interview, a final short-list of applicants will be put forward to a Panel convened by the ESRC Wales DTP Management Group (and the Welsh Government, in the case of the study on sociolinguistic competence) at which final decisions with regard to studentship awards will be made. In most cases successful applicants can expect to hear by mid-April 2018.
HOW TO APPLY
A completed application form for admission to doctoral study should be submitted to Cardiff University via the direct application service at http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/applying/how-to-apply by the ESRC deadline of 4pm, 1 February 2018. Supporting documents should be sent to encap-pg@cardiff.ac.uk. Applicants should indicate in the funding section of the PhD application form that they are applying for ESRC funding. Please include the title of the collaborative award that you wish to be considered for, and in the section marked ‘Supervisor’ please include the names of the supervisors of your intended collaborative PhD. Please email encap-pg@cardiff.ac.uk with any queries.
Incomplete Applications or applications received after this specified time will not be accepted.
For the collaborative award: Sociolinguistic Competence in Welsh:
The application must contain the following documents:
1. A Covering Letter: Please address this to Dr Mercedes Durham. The covering letter must set out your reasons and motivation for applying to study at Cardiff University, and the Linguistics pathway; your understanding, and expectations of doctoral study; and your academic interests generally, and particularly of those relating to your proposed research on sociolinguistic competence in Welsh. Please also whether you wish to apply on a +3 or 1+3 basis. The covering letter should be no longer than two pages.
2. References: All applications require two academic references to be submitted in support.
Candidates must approach referees themselves and include references with their application.
3. Evidence of your Academic / Professional Qualifications: Where appropriate, this should also include proof of English Language Competency (7.0 IELTS minimum).
4. A Curriculum Vitae: This should be no longer than 2 pages.
5. Research Proposal: The proposal should be up to a maximum of 1000 words, not including bibliographic references. It should be based on the full project description which is available from encap-pg@cardiff.ac.uk or durhamm@cardiff.ac.uk. In the proposal, we expect you to primarily discuss how you hope to build on previous methodologies and findings related to the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence and how the Welsh immersion context will allow this.
6. Proof of Welsh ability to at least GCSE standard or equivalent.
On the application form:
1. Personal Statement: You should use this section of the application form to provide any information that would support your application for admission, such as relevant skills, experience, knowledge and career goals. You should also include what your experience has been to date as a student/researcher in the area of sociolinguistics and language variation and change, and why you have chosen Cardiff as an appropriate research environment for your particular area of interest. You should also include a discussion of how you think you will be able to contribute to the PhD on sociolinguistic competence in Welsh and how it aligns with your research interests.
2. In the section marked ‘Research Project Title’ please insert “The Acquisition of Sociolinguistic Competence in a Welsh immersion context.” In the section marked ‘Supervisor’ please insert Dr Mercedes Durham and Dr Jonathan Morris.
For the collaborative award: On-ward Management and Health Communication:
The application must contain the following documents:
- Covering letter: Please address this to Dr Virpi Ylänne and Dr Tereza Spilioti. The covering letter must set out your reasons and motivation for applying to study at Cardiff University, and the Linguistics pathway; your understanding, and expectations of doctoral study; and your academic interests generally, and particularly of those relating to your proposed research on health communication. Please also specify whether you wish to apply on a +3 or 1+3 basis. The covering letter should be no longer than two pages.
- Academic / Professional Qualifications: Where appropriate, this should also include proof of English Language Competency (7.0 IELTS minimum).
- References: All applications require two academic references to be submitted in support.
Candidates must approach referees themselves and include references with their application.
1. Curriculum Vitae: This should be no longer than 2 pages.
2. Research Proposal: The proposal should be up to a maximum of 1000 words, not including bibliographic references. It should be based on the summary for the relevant topic (On-ward Management and Health Communication). These are available from encap-pg@cardiff.ac.uk The proposal should explain how you will develop and firm-up the ideas in the skeletal application. We suggest that you use the following five headings in your research proposal:
- Title, aims and purpose of the research;
- Brief overview of the academic literature relevant to your field;
- Proposed design/methods;
- Academic contributions of your research.
- Bibliographic References
On the application form:
- Personal Statement: You should use this section of the application form to provide any information that would support your application for admission, such as relevant skills, experience, knowledge and career goals. You should also include what your experience has been to date as a student/researcher in the areas of linguistic ethnography, discourse analysis and/or health communication, and why you have chosen Cardiff as an appropriate research environment for your particular area of interest. You should also include a discussion of how you think you will be able to contribute to the PhD on On-ward Management and Health Communication and how it aligns with your research interests.
- In the section marked ‘Research Project Title’ please insert “On-ward Management and Health Communication”. In the section marked ‘Supervisor’ please insert Dr Virpi Ylänne and Dr Tereza Spilioti.
