PhD studentship on urban inequality, health and transit

The challenge of urban inequality to promote health, wellbeing and sustainable travel behaviour

Eligibility: Home/EU and International Students

Bursary: £15,000 per annum for three years + £4,500 for research support, including travel and subsistence for visits to partner institutions

Fees: Tuition fees will be paid by the University.

Deadline: Friday 27 July 2018

Interview date: Monday 3 September 2018

Start date: 1 October 2018 or 21 January 2019

The School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University has recently been awarded a Global Challenges Research Studentship under the theme Sustainable Cities and Communities in partnership with the Federal Universities of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina and the University of Brasilia in Brazil. The universities are currently involved in the Newton Funded ESRC Healthy Urban Mobility (HUM) project (www.hum-mus.org).

The project aims to understand the impact of everyday (im)mobility on health and wellbeing with a variety of social groups living in different neighbourhoods in Brazil and the UK, and also to explore the potential for participatory mobilities planning with local communities to support and develop solutions for healthy urban mobility.

The School is seeking to recruit a PhD student to contribute to the aims of the overall HUM project with a particular focus on low-income communities in the UK and Brazil.  The PhD student would be expected to spend some time in Brazil undertaking fieldwork, and collaborating with the project partners. It is likely that the project will focus on mixed methods with emphasis on qualitative methods (including mobile methods) in order to fully explore the relevant issues.

Possible topics that would be of interest include (not exclusive):

  • Rights to the city and urban social movements towards healthy and sustainable mobility.

  • Distributional effects of mobility policy and planning.

  • Mobile stigmatization and identity.

  • Creative production of healthy and sustainable mobility in the city.

  • Digital ethnography and other qualitative methods.

Requirements:

We are looking to recruit a candidate of the highest quality who is capable of submitting a PhD thesis within 3 years. Candidates would be expected to have a good first degree or Masters in a related subject (e.g. geography, sociology, planning, anthropology, political science etc).  They should be able to demonstrate strong research capabilities, be fluent in spoken and written English, as well as show proficiency in Portuguese.

The selection criteria will focus on academic excellence, suitability of research experience and skills, subject knowledge and references.

The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Dr Tim Jones in the School of the Built Environment.

Enquiries: Please email Dr Tim Jones tjones@brookes.ac.uk.

As part of the application, you must submit a detailed research proposal (maximum 1000 words), a CV, and a supporting statement (maximum 300 words).

How to apply: For further information on how to apply, please email tdestudentships@brookes.ac.uk for an application pack, quoting “Healthy Urban Mobility” in the subject line.