Fully funded PhD studentship within the Records of Early English Drama North-East Project (located within the Department of English Studies, Durham University

A fully funded three-year doctoral studentship commencing on 1 October 2013 or as soon as possible thereafter is available to work with Dr. Barbara Ravelhofer and Professor John McKinnell and other members of the REED North-East project team.  It will provide an annual tax-free stipend at the Research Councils UK rate (£13,726 for the academic year 2013-14), plus payment of full-time tuition fees at the home/EU rate (£3900 for 2013-14).

Proposals are invited for a doctoral studentship within the subject-area ‘Drama and Religion in England’s North-East to 1642’. The studentship is associated with a five-year research project, supported by an award from the Arts and Humanities Research Board, which will find, edit and publish all surviving records of performance in North-East England (County Durham, Northumberland, the three ridings of Yorkshire and the Percy papers) from the earliest records to the outbreak of the Civil War. The successful candidate will have access as appropriate to new material discovered by members of the project, including paradramatic ceremonies in liturgical sources, plays on biblical subjects, financial, legal and family records, chronicle entries, inventories and catholic and protestant polemic. (S)he will attend an annual two-day meeting of the REED N-E project in Durham each summer, and will be a member of the inter-disciplinary and cross-faculty Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies – http://www.dur.ac.uk/imems/. (S)he will also participate in a conference and festival associated with the project in the summer of 2016.

The research training and PhD registration will be through the Department of English Studies, which is one of the top UK research departments in English and has a national and international profile. All eligible members of staff were submitted to the 2008 RAE, which classed 90% of the Department’s research as of international standard in originality, significance and rigour, and judged the research environment as ‘world-leading’.

Applications

Applications are welcome from candidates with a minimum 2.1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) and preferably a relevant postgraduate MA (please check the application procedure for doctoral study in the Department of English Studies, https://www.dur.ac.uk/english.studies/postgrad/apply/). Applications will be assessed according to the coherence, importance, and viability of the proposal and the feasibility of completion within 3 years. Only EU and UK citizens are eligible; to receive the stipend, EU citizens must have been resident in the UK or members of a UK university for the three years preceding 1st October, 2013 (for further details of AHRC rules on eligibility, see http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Student-Funding-Guide.pdf – see Annex A).  

How to apply

You must submit all the following documents to the e-mail address below by the due date:

• CV
• Letter outlining your interest in this topic
• Details of the proposed topic of research proposal – up to 1000 words, excluding footnotes and references.
• Two references from academic referees
• Certificates of qualification
• Academic transcripts

Fully completed applications should be submitted on-line to Mrs. Marie Caygill, Department of English Studies (m.a.caygill@durham.ac.uk) by 15^th September 2013 at the latest’; please specify that you are applying for the REED North-East Doctoral Studentship. The application form can be found at https://www.dur.ac.uk/academic.office/ugadmissions/pgadmissions/;   

Informal enquiries are welcome –please contact: Dr. Barbara Ravelhofer (barbara.ravelhofer@durham.ac.uk) or Professor John McKinnell (john.mckinnell@durham.ac.uk).