Monthly Archives: October 2019

Announcing two fully-funded PhD Scholarship Opportunities

MEMS is delighted to announce two fully-funded doctoral opportunities for those who are planning to embark on a PhD programme in the 2020-21 academic year.

University of Kent Vice Chancellor Research Scholarship
MEMS will be awarding a Vice-Chancellor’s Research Scholarship to a student embarking on a PhD in October 2020. To be considered for this scholarship, you must apply to the MEMS PhD programme via the University’s online application pages by 19th January 2020. All applications received before this date will automatically be considered for this scholarship.

How to apply:
To be eligible for the MEMS Vice Chancellor Research studentship the topic must be interdisciplinary project with a literary-historical approach, candidates must submit their application for a PhD with MEMS at the University of Kent by the specified deadline. This must be done online via the Postgraduate Admissions web form.

PhD Studentship: CHASE (AHRC)
The University of Kent is proud to be part of the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) which was awarded a £17million Doctoral Training Partnership by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in October 2013. Our partners include The Courtauld Institute of Art, Goldsmiths, the Open University, and the Universities of East Anglia, Essex, and Sussex. CHASE is one of only 11 UK AHRC-funded Doctoral Training Partnerships and the partners have committed an additional £10million in studentship funding which allow CHASE to support over 375 PhD students in the arts and humanities across the partner institutions over five years. CHASE will offer students a wide range of exciting opportunities to gain professional experience, work across institutions and disciplines, and acquire advanced research skills. Further information is available at: www.chase.ac.uk

New students wishing to be considered for these scholarships must apply for a PhD place at the University of Kent by 10th January 2020 at the latest. Applicants are advised to discuss their research project with academic members of staff in the relevant schools as soon as possible. Any current PhD students wishing to be considered for AHRC funding should contact their Centre Director of Graduate Studies (with responsibility for research programmes) to advise them of this as soon as possible or by 10th January 2020 at the very latest.

 

Process and Timetable
Stage 1: All applications for PhD study received by relevant schools by 10th January 2020 will be considered for AHRC funding. Candidates shortlisted for the CHASE competition by academic schools will be invited to complete a CHASE application form and then interviewed. Candidates will be informed of the outcome as soon as possible following the interviews. Candidates successful at school-level interviews will have their applications submitted to the Kent CHASE Studentship Selection Panel.

Stage 2: The Kent CHASE Studentship Selection Panel will decide which applications will be submitted to the consortium stage of the competition.

Stage 3: The final Kent shortlist of applications will go forward to the consortium stage of the competition at the beginning of March. Applications will be considered by CHASE selection panels comprising academic colleagues representing all seven CHASE member institutions. All candidates will be informed later in the Spring Term about the outcome of their applications.

Further Information
The University’s ‘student funding’ pages are a vital source of information about our postgraduate funding opportunities. Those interested in applying for scholarships should also consult the web pages of other schools in the Faculty of Humanities, which may offer additional sources: the Schools of Arts, English, European Cultures and Languages, and History.
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about our programmes and studentships:

Claire Taylor
Centre Administration Manager
Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Rutherford College
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent  CT2 7NX
Email:  C.L.Taylor@kent.ac.uk

 

Announcing ‘Bookscapes’ CHASE doctoral training workshops

MEMS and The Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-east England (CHASE) are delighted to announce the launch of Bookscapes – a set of four workshops designed to provide CHASE doctoral students with advanced training in palaeographical, codicological and bibliographical skills. Its aim is to help students unlock the evidential potential of manuscripts and early printed books both as single material objects and as constituents of collections. It does so by organising sessions based in the rich — and often understudied — range of libraries in the East of England.

Led by Dr David Rundle, Lecturer in Latin and Manuscript Studies (University of Kent) the first session is to be hosted by the University of Essex and by the Plume Library in Maldon. It is a residential workshop which will take place on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th December, with the first day at the University’s campus of Wivenhoe Park, where we will be have a hands-on session with the books owned by Samuel Harsnett, archbishop of York (1561-1631). The group will be taken to Maldon the next morning where we will visit the disused church which was converted into a library by the local-born archdeacon of Rochester, Thomas Plume (1630-1704). The session will, therefore, consider both printed books and manuscripts (medieval and early modern), and individual books and the nature of a library as both collection and building. Please note (1) that places are limited for this event and (2) access to the Plume Library is solely by a steep spiral staircase.

Bookscapes – workshop one
Sloman Library, University of Essex
Friday, 6 December 2019, 12:00 – Saturday, 7 December 2019, 20:00

Please note that while first refusal will be given to CHASE students, it is hoped that there will be space for others in the MEMS community.
To book a place or for more information, please contact bookscapes@kent.ac.uk

 

Thomas Becket Life, Death, and Legacy – Call for Papers

We would like to draw your attention to our call for papers for the international conference ‘Thomas Becket: Life, Death, and Legacy,’ which will take place from 11–14 November 2020 in Canterbury Cathedral, coinciding with the 850th anniversary of his martyrdom and the 800th anniversary of the translation of his relics into the Trinity Chapel. This conference is co-organised by scholars at the Cathedral, Christ Church University, and the University of Kent, and we are very grateful to the British Academy for supporting us. 

The Becket 2020 conference will be one of many cultural celebrations that commemorate and re-examine the legacy of Becket next year, so stay tuned for more news about exciting exhibitions, publications, research projects, and various public engagement events.

We would be delighted if you would please consider submitting an abstract to CanterburyBecket2020@gmail.com before the deadline on 21 October 2019. We hope that your papers offer new, interdisciplinary approaches to the study of Becket (both locally at Canterbury and within a wider European context) and we want to offer an inclusive chronology of scholarship on Becket that stretches across medieval, early modern, and modern history.