Shaping debate on religion in public life.

William Temple Scholarships

26 Jun 2017

Five fully-funded PhD scholarships in the areas of Religion, Belief and Public Life

The William Temple Foundation, in partnership with the Faiths and Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, are pleased to announce the creation of five full-time and fully funded Ph.D studentships to explore the role and impact of religion and belief in modern British life. William Temple was Archbishop of Canterbury in the early 1940s whose theological and political thought and national leadership were instrumental in the creation the post-war universal and comprehensive welfare state. Indeed the ‘welfare state’ was a phrase he coined.

The William Temple Foundation is committed to critical, innovative and interdisciplinary research on important trajectories in political, social and economic life, as well as policy. The new visibility of globalised religion within UK life, coupled with a steep rise of those within the UK who identify with ‘no-religion’ is a major phenomenon of 21st century life that is redefining several debates in key areas of public life including healthcare, education, our legal system, community development, social cohesion, poverty and exclusion, employment legislation and human rights, wellbeing and flourishing.

“As we move from a research partnership with the University of Chester, which has been hugely productive, we are thrilled that this new partnership with Goldsmiths, University of London, allows us to deepen our research and impact agendas into a new environment that is global, innovative and interdisciplinary. The research topics that the William Temple Scholar studentships will develop have been chosen for their ability to address key areas of concern and innovation in Britain, including dialogue, cohesion, poverty and community resilience and economic and environmental regeneration – and the potentially progressive role that both religious and non-religious beliefs and practices can play in these aspects of our common life.”
Professor Chris Baker, Director of the William Temple Foundation.

These William Temple Scholar studentships are designed to provide new research and theoretical development in some of these areas that will also generate high impact public events and quality digital and social media outputs. Successful applicants will co-design and curate one public impact event each year (at Goldsmiths, University of London or elsewhere – as appropriate) highlighting their research methodologies and or findings, as well as contributing regular blogs and social media feeds for both FCSU and WT Foundation platforms.

Each PhD scholarship is for a total of £25,170 over three years to cover fees (£4,195 per annum) and maintenance (£4,195 per annum).
This opportunity is open to home/EU applicants.

How to apply

Applications are invited from potential researchers in the following areas:

  • Faith-based social enterprise and its contribution to current debates and practices about the efficacy of the social enterprise model for economic and community/relational regeneration
  • Non-religious forms of belonging and belief as generators of social capital and community resilience
  • Progressive localism: Comparative partnerships between local authorities and faith sector and implications for both renewed democracy, inclusion and a performative apologetics
  • Christian/faith based environmental movements in the UK and emerging critical theologies of the environment
  • Women-curated spaces of Christian/Muslim dialogue and their impacts on both internal (religious) and external (social/civic/political) structures as well as methodologies of dialogue and cohesion.

We ask interested candidates to submit a 2-3000 word (max) proposal outlining how you would construct a research thesis in one of these areas, addressing issues of research questions, methodology, public impact and publications. A bibliography should be submitted as an appendix.

Enquiries to Professor Adam Dinham at a.dinham@gold.ac.uk

Proposals to be sent to Tom Greenwood at t.greenwood@gold.ac.uk

Deadline

Deadline for submission is noon on Friday 14th July. Interviews will be held on Wednesday 19th July. Successful candidates will be admitted to Goldsmiths Ph.D programme in October 2017

Share this page:

Discuss this

Discuss this

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.