PhD studentships in Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law

Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law

University of Aberdeen

The Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law (CISRUL) at the University of Aberdeen will offer a number of inter-disciplinary 3-year PhD studentships starting 2011-12. The studentships will include full fees (UK/Europe or overseas) and may include partial maintenance. We welcome applicants from anthropology, cultural and literary studies, history, legal theory and socio-legal studies, philosophy, politics, religious studies, sociology and theology.

Founded in 2009, CISRUL aims to produce conversation across the social sciences and humanities on key concepts of the modern polity. Citizenship, civil society and rule of law are three such key concepts, all three of some pedigree but enjoying a new lease of life, prescribed by bodies such as IMF and United Nations, championed by social movements, and debated in the media and in academic research, although we are also interested in related notions such as democracy, human rights, multiculturalism and pluralism.

What makes CISRUL unique is:

* our conceptual approach, which contrasts with the often uncritical adoption of citizenship, civil society and rule of law as catch-all slogans or as fix-all solutions; instead we ask searching questions about the concepts themselves, less to define them more clearly than to consider how they get deployed in practice (sometimes with the opposite effect to what is intended)

* our serious inter-disciplinary commitment, which goes beyond occasional encounters to aim at full engagement between a large number of disciplines, in which we take time to learn the premises of each other's disciplines in order to understand each other. Currently we have CISRUL members in anthropology, history, law, politics, divinity, sociology and philosophy

* our global and historical reach that includes but goes beyond the usual focus on contemporary Europe and North America, looking at medieval and early modern Europe but also a range of contexts across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Note that applicants must hold or be close to completing a postgraduate Masters degree in a relevant field.

Deadline for full consideration of applications for the 2012-13 studentships is 30 March 2012.

Please visit www.abdn.ac.uk/cisrul for further information.