Professor Luna Dolezal announces a Wellcome Trust fully funded PhD studentship in the Imagining Technologies for Disability Futures (itDf) Project.
Imagining Technologies for Disability Futures, Philosophy – PhD (Wellcome Trust Funded)
Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in Philosophy as part of the Wellcome-Trust funded Imagining Technologies for Disability Futures Project (itDf).
This fully funded studentship, beginning in April 2021, will be based at the University of Exeter in the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health.
The itDf project is an interdisciplinary research project involving researchers from literary studies, cultural studies, engineering, robotics, product design and philosophy.
The project spans the Universities of Leeds, Exeter, Sheffield and Dundee. itDf explores how we imagine future encounters between disability and technology. The main aims of the project are to investigate the ideas of body and personhood that are arising through contemporary developments in assistive technology design and production, for example: prosthetic limbs, care robots, telepresence robots, assistive communication devices.
Please visit the project website for more information: https://itdfproject.org
The PhD studentship will be part of Work Package 1 “Imagining/Experiencing Disability, Care and Embodiment” of the ITDF project.
The proposed PhD project should engage a phenomenological methodology (in the tradition of Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, etc.) to investigate experiences related to the use, engagement or incorporation of assistive technology/technologies in the context of disability.
The prospective student will propose a research project which fits into the overall aims of the itDf project and the “Imagining/Experiencing Disability, Care and Embodiment” theme.
The overall aim of this PhD research is to provide rich descriptive analyses of experiences of health, care, embodiment and relationality in the context of (dis)ability and technological engagement. There is a particular emphasis on considering intersectional aspects of experience not only in relation to ability and disability, but also in relation to characteristics such as race, class, ethnicity, gender, etc.
The student should have expertise in phenomenology and be familiar with, or willing to engage with, feminist, critical race, disability and posthumanist paradigms, among others. A familiarity with, or willingness to train in, feminist phenomenology or critical phenomenology approaches is desirable. As is an interest in undertaking a training to conduct ‘phenomenological interviews’ in order to engage with first-person accounts and narratives of participants from other aspects of the itDf project.
The student will be based in the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, which has a thriving postgraduate community. They will also be part of a cohort of PhD students on the itDf project (the other PhDs will be based at Leeds, Sheffield and Dundee) and will benefit from regular engagement with this cohort. Ample training and career development opportunities will be available through the University of Exeter and the Wellcome Trust.
This studentship, including full tuition fees and maintenance allowance, is available to UK/EU candidates.
International students can apply and pay the difference in tuition fees.
The studentship is for 3 years full-time and will cover University tuition fees at UK/EU rates, with a stipend of £19,919 for year 1, £21,542 for year 2 and £23,298 for year 3.
There will be funds available to cover any travel costs to attend project events and meetings.
For more information about the project and informal enquiries, please contact the primary supervisor, Professor Luna Dolezal ([email protected]).
Apply here – http://www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=4064