UK; PhD Studentship in Education and Educational Technology (Scholarship)

PhD studentship: The Poetics of Empathy

Based in Milton Keynes

Applications are invited from UK/EU fee status students with an excellent Masters degree for a three-year PhD studentship linked to an ESRC Global Uncertainties Research Fellowship awarded to Professor Lynne Cameron. The PhD project will connect empathy, metaphor and contemporary fiction, under the title “The Poetics of Empathy: How does popular fiction influence attitudes across social group differences?” The study will investigate how the writing of novels might be intended to change attitudes or evoke empathy, and readers’ responses to the experience of reading them.

Applicants must have successfully completed ESRC/AHRC recognised research methods training, preferably in metaphor and discourse analysis, and be committed to making connections across literature and the social sciences. The studentship is fully funded. It offers a unique opportunity to be involved with collaborating researchers on the larger project: “Living with Uncertainty: Empathy and the dynamics of metaphor in discourse”, and to join a group of postgraduate metaphor researchers at the Open University.

EU citizens are eligible only if they have spent a minimum of three years studying or working in the UK directly before taking up the studentship.

For information on how to apply for the studentship go to http://www3.open.ac.uk/employment, call Anne Foward, Research Student Coordinator, on 01908 655364 or e-mail CREET-student-enquiries@open.ac.ukInformal enquiries may be made to Lynne Cameron, l.j.cameron@open.ac.uk.

Closing date: 10 July 2009. Interviews will commence in week beginning 27 July 2009.

Equal Opportunity is University Policy.