Doctoral studentship: Conceptualising 'Nature' in China and Europe from 1500-1800

The College of Humanities at the University of Exeter is offering a PhD studentship beginning in September 2015, working for the EU Marie Curie-funded project 'Nature Entangled' led by Dr Yue Zhuang (Chinese Studies) at the University of Exeter:

One Doctoral Studentship (open to UK/EU and International students): all tuition fees paid and annual maintenance grant for three years. The maintenance grant will be £13,863 per year. Application deadline is 15 February 2015.

The subject of your studentship will be the history of conceptualising 'Nature' in China and Europe from 1500-1800. Working across disciplines - art (architectural) history, cultural history and China-Europe relations - you will examine the historical legacy shared between China and Europe in envisioning the 'natural' living environment in relation to the well-being of citizens and the state.

The studentship will also offer joint supervision by an eminent professor, Prof. Shaoxin Dong at the National Institute of Advanced Humanistic Studies in Fudan University, Shanghai, China. The student will spend one/half year in China for research and fieldwork. The student will benefit from library and archival resources from across the consortium as well as activities such as student events, conferences and the fostering of peer support networks.

Entry criteria

Successful applicants normally have a good first degree (at least 2.1, or international equivalent) in a relevant field of humanities, and have obtained, or are currently working towards, a master’s degree at Merit level, or international equivalent. If English is not your native language then you will also need to satisfy our English language entry requirements.

Language skills: English (fluent) and Chinese (advanced level) are essential whilst other languages such as Italian, Latin, French, or Dutch are desirable.

You will be an active member of a research team of four and will contribute to the project's publications as well as produce an outstanding PhD thesis.

To apply

To be considered for this Doctoral award, you must complete an online web form where you must submit some personal details and upload a covering letter setting out your suitability for this project, a full CV, research proposal, transcripts, details of two referees and, if relevant, proof of your English language proficiency, by 15 February 2015.

Your research proposal should be no more than 4 sides of A4 in length, and should be related to the history of ideas of 'Nature' in the landscape discourses of China and Europe in 1500-1800.

In addition you must also ensure that your referees email their references to the Postgraduate Administrator at humanities-pgadmissionsexeter.ac.uk by 15 February 2015. Please note that we will not be contacting referees to request references, you must arrange for them to be submitted to us by the deadline.

References should be submitted by your referees to us directly in the form of a letter. Referees must email their references to us from their institutional email accounts. We cannot accept references from personal/private email accounts, unless it is a scanned document on institutional headed paper and signed by the referee.

All application documents must be submitted in English. Certified translated copies of academic qualifications must also be provided.

Guidelines on submitting references to us can be found on our dedicated page, where you can also download a copy of our institutional reference form for your referees to complete and return to us, or for them to use as a guide.

View http://www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=1682 for more information.