Dementia, Sexuality and the Brain: how people with dementia and their carers make sense of changes in their sexual lives by reference to the brain

The University of Manchester’s Morgan Centre for the Study of Everyday Lives is a world-leading institute for the study of personal life and for the development of creative qualitative methods. The centre is offering a fully-funded ESRC CASE 1+3 MSc. & PhD studentship in partnership with Manchester Carers Forum. The studentship is available to outstanding candidates wishing to commence their MSc. in September 2017 before moving onto the PhD studentship in September 2018.

Project description: In recent decades dementia has grown in significance as a health condition, brought about by an ageing population, and presents challenges for understanding the complex changes which occur in the lives of people with dementia. Some people with dementia experience changes in sexuality and sexual activity, which are often explained in medical contexts or in the support literature provided by charities as having been caused by changes in the brain. In recent decades we have also witnessed a rise of various neurological explanations for traditionally social phenomena, such as love, sexuality and even political persuasion. This project explores how people with dementia and their carers make sense of changes in their sexual lives by reference to the brain. It will take seriously the relational perspective in sociology by understanding changes in the lives of carers and people with dementia as being fundamentally entangled. The project will use creative qualitative methods to examine these issues.

As an ESRC CASE studentship, this project will also involve close work with Manchester Carers Forum. The successful candidate will volunteer at Manchester Carers Forum as a member of their team, working directly with carers and peer mentors to support people living with dementia. The PhD student will work for 3 months of the year at the Carers Forum, broken down into a certain number of hours per week.

Studentship Details: The successful candidate will be supervised by Dr Andrew Balmer and Prof. Brian Heaphy in the department of Sociology. This ESRC CASE 1+3 studentship will cover tuition fees for the 1-year MSc. Sociology and the 3-year PhD Sociology courses at the University of Manchester. It will also pay a stipend during these four years of approximately £14,057 per annum. Continuation of the award is subject to satisfactory performance.

Entry Requirements: Applicants must hold a Bachelors First Class (or in exceptional cases an Upper Second Class Honours) UK degree in Sociology (or a closely allied discipline such as Anthropology). Degrees in Psychology and Health Sciences will not be considered acceptable. The successful student will register first for the ESRC-recognised MSc. Sociology course before proceeding on to the PhD course. You must satisfy ESRC UK residential criteria to qualify for this studentship (see page 4 of the document here.)

Candidates meeting the following criteria will generally be given preference: above 70% in their Bachelors; some demonstrable knowledge of the sociological literature on sexuality; demonstrable interest in qualitative research methods, and the ‘relational’ approach to sociology.

Enquiries should be directed to [Email Address Removed].

Further information about the plans for the project can be found on Andy’s blog, here: https://andybalmer.wordpress.com/

Deadline: 7th April 2017
How to applyApplicants should email Dr Andrew Balmer, [Email Address Removed] with:

1) a full CV, (including most up-to-date grade transcripts) and;

2) a covering letter explaining why you think the project is interesting and how you are qualified to conduct it.

Please note that applying for this PhD studentship funding is a separate process to applying for entry to the Manchester PhD programme. The successful candidate will therefore also be required to fulfil the normal admissions criteria for the School of Social Sciences once they have been offered the NWSSDTP studentship.