PhD Studentship - Humanities Research Programme: Historical geographies of confessionalism in the M

Religion is key to shape political and geopolitical imaginations. The territorial implications of confessionalism are a fundamental faultline for violence in the contemporary Middle East.

Applications are invited to submit PhD proposals seeking to research the historical relationship between governmentality and religion in the Middle East. Applications will focus on the historical geographies of confessionalism and their impact and legacy on the possibilities for coexistence, conflict and peace in one or more case studies.
Using historical geographical research, the study will help making sense of contemporary territorial issues linked historically to the governmentality and territorialisation of religion and confessionalism. Due to its historical nature, research will rely on archive-based research methods, but ethnographic approaches, where feasible, will be considered.

The applicants will have a background in Geography or cognate disciplines, strong political geography research interests and preferably training in social sciences methods . The student will actively contribute to the School's political geography element and will join the Human Geography Research Group at Birmingham, which has a large and vibrant cohort of doctoral students, as a member of the Geopolitics and the Carceral subtheme, led by Dr Sara Fregonese (http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/activity/hg/index.aspx#ResearchAreas). The student will work under Sara Fregonese's supervision. Sara's research lies in political and urban geography and studies the interplay between geopolitics, conflict and cities. Her expertise focus is on historical and contemporary conflict and urban life in Lebanon, as well as the effects of radicalisation in cities. She is co-author of The radical's city. Urban environment, polarisation, cohesion (Ashgate 2013). She is currently the PI of CBRL-funded pilot study award How a sectarian territory was made: (re)mapping the Dual Qaimaqamiyya of Mount Lebanon (1842-1860).
 

Funding Notes
UK and EU applicants may enter the competition for ESRC and / or AHRC scholarships at the University of Birmingham, depending on the specific research topic. A separate application is required for the funding competitions. Deadlines for these are available on the Midlands3Cities site and from the University of Birmingham ESRC DTC.