Applications are now open for a fully-funded Tizard PhD Studentship at the Tizard Centre, one of the leading academic groups concerned with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Scholarship value
The award will cover UK tuition fees and an annual stipend based on the current ESRC studentship maintenance (TBC; 2020/21 rate £15,285). The Tizard Studentship is offered as a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. So, in return for the award, you will be expected to do a limited amount of teaching within the department on a regular basis.
Deadline
- The deadline for applications to this scholarship is Friday 17 December 2021.
- Interviews will be held on Wednesday 26 January 2022.
Criteria
Candidates will have obtained a First or good 2.1 undergraduate degree in a relevant subject and normally an MA/MSc at Merit or Distinction.
Further details
The Tizard Centre is one of the leading academic groups concerned with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to work alongside academics renowned nationally and internationally for their contributions to the field. The Tizard Centre offers the following research programmes on a full or part-time basis:
- Community Care
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
- Applied Psychology
- Mental Health of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
For further information about the Tizard Centre, the academic staff and the research we undertake, please see our website.
We welcome applications concerning all aspects of the lives of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but the academic staff named below are particularly interested in supervising research in the following specialist areas:
- Dr Magali Barnoux on people with IDD in the criminal justice system, in terms of offending behaviour, victims, and/or witnesses.
- Dr Jill Bradshaw on communication and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, person-centred approaches, people with profound and multiple learning disabilities, early positive approaches to support, communication and behaviours that challenge, implementation issues.
- Professor Michelle McCarthy on the broad areas of relationships and sexuality; abuse; sexual and reproductive health, especially for women with learning disabilities, reproductive rights for women with learning disabilities (inc. abortion, sterilization), parents with learning disabilities, media representations of people with learning disabilities.
- Dr Damian Milton on autism in a social and cultural context, ‘critical autism studies’, participatory research and the autistic ‘voice’, qualitative research in the field of autism, autism and empathy, educational approaches, and mentoring practices.
- Professor Chrissie Rogers on the broad areas of education, inclusion, criminal justice, mothering, care ethics, qualitative and creative research methods including photo-elicitation and auto/biographical sociology.
- Dr Ciara Padden on behavioural approaches to supporting people with IDD, particularly: approaches to supporting adolescents and adults; skills teaching; organisational context of behaviour change; and staff/carer training and wellbeing.
- Dr Serena Tomlinson on support for children with IDD who display challenging behaviour, including positive behaviour support; support and / or training for family carers of people with IDD; co-production; early intervention; behavioural interventions for children with IDD; behavioural approaches in educational settings for children with IDD.
- Dr Paraskevi Triantafyllopoulou on health-related issues and psychological interventions for both children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (eg, large scale GP health related data, sleep, cancer, eating disorders, obesity, A&E, vaccination etc.); educational settings/ approaches for autistic individuals; bullying; internet use and online safety; older adults and dementia; autism diagnosis.
How to apply
To be considered for the scholarship, apply online for a place to study one of the following:
- Applied Psychology
- Community Care
- Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
- Mental Health of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Important
Please note that one of the documents you upload should be a covering letter. The aim of the Tizard PhD studentship is to enable the successful candidate to have research impact in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities. This could be kickstarting a new research career or accelerating a research career for an established practitioner.
Therefore, as part of the application process, we ask that you upload a covering letter indicating how being awarded the Tizard PhD studentship fits into your medium/long term career aspirations. If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to speak about this at interview stage.
If you would like to have an informal discussion about possible research topics within the intellectual and developmental disabilities field and/or the required teaching contribution, please contact: Professor Michelle McCarthy at M.McCarthy@kent.ac.uk