PhD Studentship - AIDS, Inequality and Religious Ethics of Care in 1980s and 90s Britain

Partners

Durham University
The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre

Project details

This project radically rethinks the place of religion in shaping public responses to AIDS. The project complicates narratives of secularisation in modern Britain, examines how new viruses expose and entrench inequalities, and expands a queer ethics of care. In a context where stigma and shame were so powerful, any act of recovery is important: this project highlights unique and almost unknown documents on AIDS, while creating a new AIDS archive through ethnographic interviews. The Salvation Army’s intervention in HIV/AIDS is little known. Its potential to illuminate the broadest historical and most resonant dynamics of the AIDS crisis demands its telling.

The project is run in collaboration with the Salvation Army's International Heritage Centre (archives and museum). The project's supervisors are Prof. Julie-Marie Strange , Dr. David Minto, Prof. Leanne McCormick (Ulster University) and Steven Spencer (Salvation Army International Heritage Centre).

Questions about the project can be directed to Professor Julie-Marie Strange at julie-marie.strange@durham.ac.uk.

Interested candidates should submit a two-page CV and a personal statement of no more than two pages explaining why they would be an ideal match for the project, by 31^st January 2025. These should be submitted to history.postgrad.research@durham.ac.uk.

The successful candidate will need to meet the entry requirements for Durham’s History PhD programme (How to Apply - Durham University). Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interviews in late February 2025, and the successful candidate will then be asked to submit an application through Durham University's application portal in March 2025.

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