Ph.D. Studentship: Mapping and Classifying Global Safeguarding Models

Applications are invited for a full-time three-year Ph.D. studentship at Lancaster University starting on 1^st October 2024. The successful candidate will join the Centre for Corpus Linguistic Approaches to Safeguarding Studies, funded as part of the ESRC Large Grant ESY002709/1, and will work alongside other researchers involved in researching in various aspects of the family justice system.

Funding providers: ESRC and Lancaster University.

Subject areas: Law, linguistics, social sciences.

Project start date: 1^st October 2024 (Enrolment from mid-September)

Lead Supervisor: Professor Lauren Devine

Project title: Mapping and classifying global safeguarding and family justice system models.

Project description: Global child protection approaches differ, but little research has been conducted to draw out underpinning paradigms, or to conduct global evaluations. This Ph.D. offers the opportunity for study of a representative sample of global systems to investigate how they are chosen, constructed, applied, and operated. The project will contribute to creating a new means of classifying global systems, and to creating a new corpus of comparative documentation.

This project offers the opportunity for investigation of global legal and policy frameworks for safeguarding, child protection and family justice system. The project includes collating written data from online sources to identify global law and policy documentation, collected from a representative range of jurisdictions, and contribution to building a model and stage classification system for comparative purposes.

The project will contribute to law and policy development, and corpus linguistics in legal studies.

Eligibility: Candidates must hold an undergraduate degree at 2:1 or above in law, and an appropriate master’s degree (for example comparative law, international law, child protection, family law, linguistics) with a minimum overall grade at ‘merit’. Evidence of publishable standard project work is desirable. If you are eligible to apply for the scholarship but do not hold a UK degree, you can check our comparative entry requirements. Please note you may have to provide evidence of your English language proficiency.

Additional Funding Information: Due to funding restrictions, this scholarship is open to applicants eligible to pay tuition fees at the UK rate only. This scholarship covers the full cost of UK tuition fees and an annual stipend at the current UKRI rate.

To apply for the studentship: Please provide a CV, two academic references, and a sample of recent research writing (between 3,000 to 6,000 words), and a statement explaining your interest in this opportunity. The sample can be either an essay produced during masters-level studies or a section of a dissertation and must be sole-authored work. Please quote reference ESRC/CLASS/ESY0027091 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy. If you have any questions about this vacancy, please contact Professor Lauren Devine (l.devine@lancaster.ac.uk).

Please note that any offer of funding will be conditional on securing a place as a PhD student at Lancaster University.

Applications for admission to Lancaster’s doctoral programme must be made directly to Lancaster via Applying for postgraduate study - Lancaster University, clearly marked with the project title, reference ESRC/CLASS/ESY0027091, and for the attention of Professor Lauren Devine.

The closing date for applications is midnight (BST) on Wednesday 31^st July 2024.

The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.

Advert information