Outline

Cardiff University School of Social Sciences invites applications for PhD study with the possibility of being awarded a fully-funded ESRC DTP Studentship, available to start in October 2020, which is available in the area of Digital Economy and Society.

The Wales Doctoral Training Partnership, ESRC HateLab, and Galop, the LGBT+ anti-violence charity, are offering a fully funded PhD opportunity at Cardiff University. The successful PhD candidate will conduct research into the effects of online hate speech on victims. A possible focus is transphobic hate speech and how impacts compare to those generated by other types of hate speech (e.g. homophobic, biphobic, racist). Such comparisons would allow for the creation of an online hate speech harms index. We anticipate the successful candidate will use social data science tools (e.g. R, COSMOS) to generate online data, and interview and survey methods to generate offline data on victims. The relevance of the findings from the study (e.g. the index) to practitioners will be explored.

What is funded

Studentship Awards commence in October 2020 and will cover your tuition fees as well as a maintenance grant (currently £15,009 p.a. for 2019/20 for full-time students, updated each year); and includes access to an additional Research Training Support Grant (RTSG), though an element of this latter fund may be ‘pooled’ and require separate applications from 2020 onwards. 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

Applications are invited from exceptional candidates with a first class or strong upper second class honours degree, or appropriate Masters’ degree. We welcome applications for both full and part-time study, and studentships are available as either ’1+3’ (i.e. one full year of research training Masters followed by three years 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. Further details on types of awards http://walesdtp.ac.uk/studentships/.

How to Apply

Applicants should apply to the Doctor of Philosophy in Social Sciences with a start date of October 2020 by 12 noon on 3 February 2020. In the research proposal section of your application, please specify the project title and supervisors of this project and copy the project description in the text box provided. In the funding section, please select “I will be applying for a scholarship/grant” and specify that you are applying for advertised funding from “ESRC Wales Doctoral Training Partnership”. Incomplete applications or applications received after the deadline will not be accepted: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research/programmes/progra…

Please include:

1. Covering letter Set out your reasons and motivation for applying to study at Cardiff University and the pathway; your understanding and expectations of doctoral study; your academic interests generally, and particularly of those relating to your proposed research. The letter should be no more than two pages.

2. Academic / Professional Qualifications Where appropriate, this should also include proof of English Language Competency (7.0 IELTS minimum).

3. References Two academic references. Candidates must approach referees themselves and include references with their application.

4. Curriculum Vitae It 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 headings in your 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;

• Indicative bibliographic references.

Short-listed applicants will be invited to interview, which are expected to take place between Monday 24 February – Monday 2 March 2020. 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 early April 2020.