Deadline: 3rd May 2017
The Project
Language Acts and Worldmaking, a flagship project funded by the AHRC Open World Research Initiative, is offering four institutionally funded, three-year full-time PhD studentships.
The overriding objective of Language Acts and Worldmaking is to respond to the challenges of the Open World Research Initiative call by demonstrating how Modern Languages research illuminates the relationship between language and worldmaking. The project aims to engage vigorously with academics, schools, civil society, cultural bodies and business to reveal the importance of Modern Languages research in the contemporary global world.
Travelling Concepts Research Strand
The Iberian Peninsula is both the originator and product of a polycentric process of global colonisation; its history constitutes a workshop for questioning how language constructs the world. In a journey that takes us from Brazil to China, and through multiple languages, we investigate the ideological work performed by the vocabularies that historically cluster around Iberia.
Translation Acts Research Strand
The focus is on the creation of dramatic narratives through theatre in translation and performance. We take up travelling concepts like ‘global' and ‘tolerance' and explore our lived experience of them. Using the creative capacity of theatre to be world-inventing — creating known and imagined worlds on stage — we question how ideas and beliefs cross cultures, time and space and how we act through the languages we use and create.
The PhDs
The successful candidates will work alongside Professor Julian Weiss and Mr AbdoolKarim Vakil, leads for Travelling Concepts, or Professor Catherine Boyle, lead for Translation Acts. Applicants are free to develop their own independent research proposal which should relate to themes within these research strands. Projects with a Digital Humanities element are also welcome.
Studentship Duration and Training
Funding covers the three years, students can have up to four years full-time study but would be expected to fund themselves for the final year.
Funding will cover Home/EU tuition fees as well as a stipend towards living expenses.
International students are welcome to apply, but are expected to cover the difference between Home/EU and Overseas tuition fees.
The stipend will be £16,553
All PhD students will be part of the training programmes of the individual institutions and will also be eligible for additional training across partner institutions.
Student Eligibility
Applicants must:
• Have obtained both an undergraduate degree and a Master's degree in:
o Modern Languages
o Linguistics
o Education
o Translation Studies
o Literary Cultural Studies
o Digital Humanities
o Anthropology
o History
o Social Sciences
o Any other related areas subject to the research strand
• Have excellent working knowledge of one or more Iberian language
Application Process
Please contact Professor Julian Weiss (Julian.weiss@kcl.ac.uk) and Mr AbdoolKarim Vakil (abdoolkarim.vakil@kcl.ac.uk) or Professor Catherine Boyle (Catherine.boyle@kcl.ac.uk) to discuss your research topic further.
If you have any questions, or would like details of any of the PhD studentships advertised as part of the Language Acts and Worldmaking project, please email: languageacts@kcl.ac.uk