Undergraduate Research & Leadership Scholarships 2015
Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (ESSL)
We are delighted to announce the continuation of the extremely successful and prestigious
Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholarship (UGRLS) Scheme, with three Laidlaw Scholarships available for current first year students studying in the Faculty of ESSL[1].
This has been made possible through the very generous support of our Alumni.
The scheme has arisen out of the University’s commitment to teaching in a research-intensive environment and recognises the quality of research opportunities available in the subjects covered by the arts and social sciences faculties. It aims to offer funded opportunities for students to become closely involved in the research culture of the Faculty and will be of particular interest to students who are considering postgraduate study. Selection for, and successful completion of, a scholarship is likely to significantly enhance scholars’ CVs and their employability subsequent to graduation.
Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholars will receive a total of £4000 for working with researchers in the Faculty, on specific projects, for six-weeks full time (or equivalent) through the summer period in both 2015 and 2016; in addition a small amount of activity, including an ambassadorial role, will be expected during term time (the volume of which will be compatible with full-time study). Scholars will receive £2000 for each of the summer periods of research and additionally be able to earn up to £1000 in each of their second and third years of study for ambassadorial and other duties.
Scholarships will be awarded on a competitive basis. The criteria for award, application details and selection process are set out below. There is a particular emphasis on evidence of academic potential, suitability for the chosen project and capacity to work in a reliable and professional manner.
This round of scholarships and projects will commence in June 2015 and run over a period of 2 years incorporating both summers and with ambassadorial duties ending in June 2017. Special arrangements will be arranged for students on four-year programmes.
Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholars will work under the supervision of an academic mentor. Scholars will also function as student ambassadors for the Faculty and the University, helping throughout their degree to communicate the distinctive benefits of our research-dependent academic mission (for instance at selected Open Days or events with cultural partners and organisations: these in themselves will present valuable personal development opportunities).
Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholars will
• Develop their academic potential through their research activities
• Receive individual mentoring from an academic specialist/research team
• Gain valuable skills in enterprise, research and leadership
• Enhance their employability through undertaking project work and participating in workshops designed to promote leadership, innovation, self-confidence, initiative and creativity
• Represent their School, Faculty and University as a Student Ambassador
• Receive a total honorarium of up to £6000
o £2,000 for research work during each summer of the project (Scholars should expect to work flexibly around project activity, but as a guide not less than the equivalent of 6 weeks full-time work on the project based in Leeds)
o Up to £1000 x2 to recognise ad hoc work through the rest of the academic year
Applications
The Scholarships are only open to current level one students in the Faculty of ESSL. Joint Honours students are eligible and may apply for an ESSL scholarship if one of their two main subjects is studied in a School in ESSL. You may apply for more than one project.
1. The application form asks for a personal statement in two sections. In completing these sections you should aim to evidence:
• grasp of related academic areas, the focus of your academic enthusiasms and interests
• prior experience or independent work particularly relevant to the project
• how the development opportunities are personally relevant
• strengths in responsibility roles, professional conduct, reliability
2. Additional supporting information must be provided. This will include:
a) An up-to-date CV (not more than 2 sides). This should include a section outlining your co-curricular achievement and personal development planning.
b) A supporting statement from your personal tutor.
The deadline for applications is Monday 23rd March, 12pm.
Applications and CVs should be saved as a single file with your name as the file name. They should be submitted electronically by E-MAIL to with the subject line ‘UGRLS Application’. Please send all documents in .doc/.docx format.
Short-listing and Interviews
The shortlisted candidates will be interviewed the week of 14th April, we will give the shortlisted candidates at least one weeks’ notice for the interview. As part of the interview process, short-listed applicants may be asked to give a short presentation or undertake an exercise on a topic related to the application (this will be advised to short-listed applicants). The selection panel will comprise of academic staff from across the Faculty.
Successful applicants
Successful applicants will meet their supervisor before the end of Semester Two to discuss the practical details of starting their scholarship in summer 2014. As part of the Scholarship, successful applicants must attend a compulsory residential induction programme on 10-11 June, as well as attend the launch party on Tuesday 28 April, 2-4pm.
ESSL Contact point for UGRLS:
Martin Pelan
Undergraduate Research & Leadership Scholarship Projects 2015
All first year undergraduates in the Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law are eligible to apply to any of these projects. You can apply to more than one project.
Project Title: Motivational dynamics of Indonesian school pupils learning English
Project Lead: Martin Lamb, School of Education
We have a good understanding now of why some young people are more motivated than others to learn a foreign language. Important factors include how easily they can envisage themselves as speakers of the second language in the future, whether they enjoy studying language, and more short-term extrinsic motivators such as getting good marks and pleasing parents. Our knowledge however mainly comes from survey-based quantitative studies, conducted at one point in time, which are good at identifying the broad characteristics of large populations but do not tell us very much about how these factors play out in the day-to-day learning process of individuals and affect the effort that they put into learning over the long-term.
In particular there is a lack of qualitative studies of individual learners in more challenging school environments, for example in developing countries where teaching methods remain quite traditional and institutional learning resources are limited, yet where proficiency in English can greatly enhance young people’s life prospects. A basic reason for this lack is that researchers tend to be distant from the context, making longitudinal studies impractical (by contrast there is a glut of research based in western university language centres).
This Scholarship scheme provides an opportunity for a student to work with a Leeds-based academic and build on his existing research in Indonesia (where he used to work). Previous studies have focussed on junior high school students learning English in a provincial town in Sumatra, on the motivation of urban and rural learners in the same area, and on inspiring language teaching. An important extension of this work would be to examine the dynamics of school pupil motivation over one school year, so we can understand how it fluctuates in response to teaching, social activities, peer pressure and other factors.
This would suit an adventurous student who envisages a career in education.
Qualities needed include:
1. Adaptability to cope with radically different living and working environment, including occasional personal discomfort (e.g. heat, insect bites, attention from strangers)
2. Cultural sensitivity to behave in an appropriate way and respect local traditions and mores.
3. Willingness to learn new skills on the job – teaching, researching.
4. Sociability to get on with teaching colleagues and, especially, the teenage research participants.
5. Care and attention to detail in carrying out research activities
Project Title: Drone Strikes and their Effect on Democratic Accountability during Military Operations
Project lead: Graeme A.M. Davies, School of Politics and International Studies
The goal of this research is to develop and implement experiments that will test public opinion about the use of new weapons technologies. We are particularly interested in learning more about people’s attitudes toward drones. This is an exciting new area of research in security studies that will become increasingly significant as more drone weapons are created and used in attacks. Our project will attempt to answer critical questions about the future of international security, such as: Will drones lower the inhibitions against going to war? How will drone attacks affect public support for the military and government? Could autonomous weapons undermine democratic accountability?
The student will be included in an international research team with members in the United Kingdom (Davies, Schulze) and United States (Walsh) and will play a key role in the team’s work throughout the project. During the first year the student will help to develop experiments that will be used for public opinion research and will help the team conduct pilot studies to test the experiments’ effectiveness. As a member of the research team, the student will gain first-hand experience with experiments that will go far beyond what they have learned in methods classes. The student will also be included in writing grant proposals to secure funding for the project. This will provide practical experience with searching for funding opportunities and writing grant proposals, which will familiarize the student with the research finance process and enable them to apply for funding opportunities to assist his/her own research.
During the second year the student will help to administer experiments to participants in the United Kingdom. These experiments will provide deeper insight into the forces that shape public opinion and people’s attitudes toward new weapons. At this point in the project, the student will lean how to supervise experiments and analyse their results. The student will be at the forefront of security studies research and help to produce data that could potentially influence government decisions about the use of military force. The student will also develop the skills need to conduct experiments independently and will be encouraged to develop his/her own research agenda.
We are searching for a student who is interested in doing research in international security, especially one who is considering postgraduate education. The student should have excellent organizational and writing skills, as he/she will be expected to take part in writing and editing grant proposals and texts that will be used in experiments. The student must be interested in learning about new research methods. No specific methods education is required, though preference will be given to any student how has taken classes on qualitative and quantitative methods.
Project Title: Military Videogames: Exploring their political and social effects
Project leads: Nicholas Robinson and Marcus Schulzke, School of Politics and International Studies
Violent conflict is pervasive in popular media, especially video games. Dozens of games have been produced about real and fictional wars, with some even being made by state security forces and violent non-state actors to promote their interests. Military videogames and their associated media are significant political artefacts. They construct images of what wars are like, how they are fought, and their consequences. Some serve as strategic communication (or some might say propaganda) tool by which developers may attract players to military service, create self-serving histories of recent conflicts, and demonize potential enemies. Other videogames present critical perspectives that challenge players to consider the costs of violence. To understand their political consequences it is important to systematically evaluate games and the media that are used to market them.
This project’s goal is to explore the militaristic themes in military videogames and their associated social media. We are interested discovering what militaristic themes are evident in videogames, how developers present their games on social media, and, most importantly of all, how videogames and other media may contribute to militarization – the process of promoting military values to civilians. Our current work involves compiling a large dataset that captures the militaristic themes in YouTube videos that are used to promote military videogames. We carefully watch the promotional videos to capture the visual information they present. Once collected, this information can be used to identify representational patterns that persist across military videogame advertisements. In the end, this will provide us with a broad overview of the military videogame industry and allow us to draw conclusions about how games promote militarism.
Your responsibility during the first year of work will be to learn how to quantify or “code” visual information, how to work with quantitative and qualitative data, how to check data for accuracy, and basic data analysis techniques. This will give you deeper insight into militaristic popular culture and provide invaluable experience working with innovative research methods.
During the second year you will advance to a higher level of competence with analysis of militarism by helping the researchers with qualitative research focused on the role of resistance activists (those who resist militaristic popular culture). At this point, you will produce and analyse data to help the research team understand the role of popular culture in promoting militarism but you will also learn how to undertake qualitative research and interviews. This will give the student the experience needed to independently develop their own research agenda in the future.
We are looking for students who are interested in military popular culture, especially militaristic social media and video games. Candidates would ideally have some experience of playing video games (although this is not essential). Candidates should also be interested in exploring new research methods.
Application Form for UG Research and Leadership ScholarshipFaculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law
If you would like to apply, please complete this application and attach a CV. Applications and CVs should be saved as a single file with your name as the file name. They should be submitted electronically by E-MAIL to with the subject line ‘UGRLS Application’. Please send all documents in either .doc/.docx format.
Submission deadline is Monday 23 March 2015, 12pm.