DPhil Studentship on ‘Child abuse and neglect in mid-twentieth-century Britain’
Funded through TORCH | The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
For more information on this project:
These studentships are part of the Humanities and Science programme, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, designed to create new interest in, and opportunities for, research that reaches between the humanities and sciences.
Applicants are sought for two DPhil studentships as part of an interdisciplinary project on ‘Childhood maltreatment and lifetime resilience’ at the University of Oxford. One student will work in the Faculty of History on ‘Child abuse and neglect in mid-twentieth-century Britain’. The other student will work in Department of Experimental Psychology on ‘Child maltreatment and psychopathology: an investigation of risk and resilience’.
This project asks how people, variously, find ways to make live-able lives following abuse and neglect in childhood. The strengths of historical and psychological approaches are combined innovatively to enable the contextualised, multi-level study of processes that develop resilience across the life-course. Students will benefit from co-supervision in the humanities (Dr Siân Pooley) and medical sciences (Dr Lucy Bowes). Students’ interests will shape the project’s foci, but will examine these broad areas.
The history student will use archival and published sources to explore changing understandings and provision for abused and neglected children in mid-twentieth-century Britain. They will focus on children’s diverse experiences and their attitudes to the lives they made following maltreatment. Their work will be complemented by the examination by thepsychology studentof the long-term psychological impacts of exposure to child maltreatment.
Award value
The studentship will cover University and College fees and provide a stipend (tax-free maintenance grant) of at least £14,000 for the three years. There will also be a generous annual allowance for research expenses.
Application process
You will need to apply for both the programme and this studentship via the main University online graduate application form, and pay an application fee of £50. To access the application form and application guide please visit our online prospectus at
Applications should be made through the Faculty ofHistory by inserting the reference code 15HS-HIST in the Departmental Studentship Applications section of the standard University graduate application, and ensuring that the application is completed by13 March 2015 (the programme 003950 - DPhil in History (HSM & ESH) is still open for applications until then).Applicants who have already applied for a History DPhil programme by the January deadline and who wish to be considered for this studentship are invited to submit a new research proposal relating to the theme of the studentship to , quoting the reference code 15HS-HIST in the subject line.