Fully funded PhD Studentship An investigation of Sports’ careers as life stories |2021-2022 Scholarships Grants

The School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University invites excellent applications for the above PhD Studentship starting October 2013

The Studentship is open to home/EU and international/overseas students. It will run for 3 years and it includes:

A stipend of Â£13,726 p.a. plus fees paid at the home/EU rate for three yearsÂ Â

* Please note that due to funding restrictions international/overseas students will be required to find funding to cover the difference between home/EU fees.

About the project:

This research will be located within the broad remit of the Centre for Professional Work and Society and attends to the key areas of mobility of professional careers in a sportsâ context. The concept of âprofessionalâ as applied to sport will require reframing and the extent to which this professional identity is shaped by individual, organizational or societal factors more broadly will be of interest.

Sportsâ careers represent one example of how a working life may be characterised more by disruption than continuation. This study will investigate how people make sense of their sportsâ careers when looking back over the short and long term. There is an expectation that injury and declining performance with age will be key points at which an apparent fracture, or change in direction, will be accounted for.

There will be some quantitative analysis required to better understand the more general patterns of careers in this area. However, the research will be primarily qualitative based on life story interviews and will be suitable for a social constructionist theoretical perspective which will consider the role of discourses in constructing coherence around a meaningful life.

Supervisory team:

Professor Christine Coupland, Professor of Organisational Behaviour

Dr Donald Hislop, Reader in the Sociology of Contemporary WorkÂ

How to apply

Candidates are requested to submit:

An application form

A curriculum vitae

A cover letter explaining your interest in, and aptitude for, the topic of this research project. In particular we would like to learn about:

Why you are attracted to this particular research opportunity?

What qualities you feel they can bring to the project?

How does the studentship fit with you career aspirations?

A 2,000 word research proposal based on the topic of the research project. We ask you to specify a research question, clearly identify a gap in the academic literature and generally develop a roadmap for this research.