Gender, Sexuality and Law: Future Directions (RDF16/LAW/ASHFORD)

Applications are invited for a full-time PhD student at Northumbria School of Law, to explore future directions for gender, sexuality and law.

Recent years have arguably seen transformational change in the regulation of gender and sexuality in society. From issues as diverse as recent and ongoing legal attempts to regulate bareback pornography (Ashford 2015, Schachner 2014) through to same-sex relationship recognition (Barker 2013, Becker 2014), sex work (Minichiello and Scott 2014), the continued criminalization of LGBT people (Mogul et al 2011), trans legal recognition (Spade 2011) and new legal interventions in response to attacks on ‘the gaybourhood’ in both the United States and UK (Ghaziani 2014).

A growing body of literature has sought to document and (de)construct these growing tensions between identity politics and a growing queer domesticity (see for example Cook 2014), characterized as the legal homonormative (Ashford 2011) and often drawing upon Rubin’s model of good/bad sex. This work has sought to document and understand contemporary queer lives and how those life-stories and associated legal frameworks are developing.

Your project will explore a topic such as (but not limited to) those transformational changes listed above and will seek to make an impact-focused contribution to the field, challenging assumptions about future directions and providing guidance for policy-makers, activists and law- makers for how the law can develop in your selected project area. Interdisciplinary scholarship is particularly welcome, for example engaging with human geography, sociology, politics or criminology.

Applicants should clearly indicate where they would wish to focus the project. Your project will provide a synthesis of theory, socio-legal analysis, and empirical work. Projects that seek to engage with queer theory are particularly welcome.

The research will be conducted within the Gender, Sexuality and Law Research Interest Group, based within the Northumbria School of Law and our Law and Society Research Group. You will join a thriving group of students and academic colleagues exploring gender, sexuality and law.

Please note eligibility requirement:

* Academic excellence of the proposed student i.e. normally an Honours Degree: 1st or 2:1 (or equivalent) or possession of a Masters degree, with merit (or equivalent study at postgraduate level). Applicants may also be accepted on the basis of relevant and substantial practitioner/professional experience.

* Appropriate IELTS score, if required (evidence required by 1 August).

For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/

Please ensure you quote the advert reference above on your application form.