Category Archives: Funding Opportunities

Funding Opportunities, Training/Education

Doctoral studentship, Colonial Childhoods, University of Hull

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Funded PhD Studentship: Producing the Geographies of Childhood in Colonial Africa: Children’s Lives in Twentieth-Century Nyasaland

University of Hull , U. K.

Orthodox histories of European imperialism in Africa often celebrate formal institutions, high politics and the roles of ‘Great White Men’ in the constitution of colonial territory and society. Key figures such as Rhodes and Livingstone were significant, but they are not the whole story and these approaches neglect other marginalised social groups who also constituted the European presence in Africa. Feminist critiques have retrieved some women’s experiences in Africa as explorers, travel writers, colonial officer’s wives, teachers, nurses and missionaries.

These accounts have enriched understandings of everyday life in the colonies and offer alternative perspectives on issues of race, gender and authority. However, European colonial children remain a group routinely, and almost entirely, overlooked. This doctoral studentship will uncover and retell the stories of European children in Nyasaland whose colonial childhoods were distinct and deserve academic attention.

Children were a highly significant and distinctive presence within European colonial society. Their lives were framed by the racial hierarchies that striated colonial society: being white meant they were instantly privileged, although gender and class also inflected their status and opportunities. Likewise, illness and stark levels of child mortality also marked their lives. Many died in the colonies which shaped how families understood their ‘colonial service’ abroad. Distance also shaped these lives – with many children leading dislocated lives: being born and raised abroad and always distant from ‘home’.

This study is informed by historical children’s geographies and will develop work on the geographies of European colonial children by retrieving and retelling the stories of European children in Nyasaland 1889-1964. The studentship will examine colonial children’s life worlds and uncover their voices through autobiographies and memoirs, diaries, letters and photographs. Through archival work (in Britain and Malawi – funds available) and interviews with former colonial children this study will address research questions such as: How were the historical geographies of European settlement in Africa experienced differently by generational groups (parents and children)? How did colonial hierarchies of age and generation intersect with gender, class and racial hierarchies? What do the micro-historical geographies of families from the period of Empire look like?

In order to qualify for this scholarship you will require at least a 2.1, but preferably a Masters degree, in a relevant subject.

Full-time UK/EU PhD Scholarship will include fees at the‘home/EU’ student rate and maintenance (£13,726 in 2014/15) for three years, depending on satisfactory progress. Full-time International Fee PhD Studentships will include full fees at the International student rate for three years, dependent on satisfactory progress.

PhD students at the University of Hull follow modules for research and transferable skills development and gain a Masters level Certificate, or Diploma, in Research Training, in addition to their research degree.

Closing date: 3rd February 2014.

Application Form and details at http://www2.hull.ac.uk/student/graduateschool/phdscholarships/fosaengineering-10.aspx

Interested applicants are encouraged to direct informal enquiries to: Dr Elsbeth Robson E.Robson@hull.ac.uk , Dr Rosemary Wall R.Wall@hull.ac.uk , Prof David Atkinson David.Atkinson@hull.ac.uk

Funding Opportunities

Society for the History of Children and Youth – OUTREACH GRANTS 2014

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The SHCY will award two $500 grants and one $1500 grant for events that take place in 2014 to projects related to the history of children and youth deemed worthy by the Outreach and Executive Committees of the SHCY.

1. The $500 grants will help defray expenses for speakers, workshops, and other scholarly events fully or partially devoted to the history of children and youth.
Possible uses: •Keynote speakers or panelists •Receptions •Printed materials •Publicity •Support for students attending the event

2. The $1500 grant will help offset the costs of a regional conference dedicated to the history of children and youth and held in 2014.  The Society is particularly interested in supporting programs that address the the histories of children and youth in interdisciplinary and transnational ways.

Application deadline for both grants: November 15, 2013.
Terms of the grants:
•Applicants must be members of SHCY. (See http://shcyhome.org/membership/ for membership information.)
•Recipients of 2013 Outreach Grants cannot receive 2014 grants, and no one may apply for more than one 2014 grant.
•Funds will be distributed directly to host departments or institutions prior to the event.
•SHCY must be acknowledged as co-sponsor on all print and web-based materials and announcements, and, when appropriate, in speaker introductions. When possible, use the SHCY logo and link to the SHCY website.
•SHCY must be sent PDF’s or links to announcements and promotional materials before the event.
•A report must be submitted to the chairs of the Outreach Committee no later than thirty days after the funded event. It should consist of the following:
—Blog post describing the event for use on the SHCY website
—Summary of the attendance (size, makeup)
—Copy of appropriate printed materials or screenshots of websites
—Description of the actual expenses covered by the grant
Note: If the event funded by the grant is part of a larger conference or other function, the funded portion of the conference must be identified as discrete portions of the program and labeled as co-sponsored by SHCY.

One-page applications should be submitted as PDF files via email to the Outreach Committee co-chairs Rebecca de Schweinitz (rld at byu dot edu) and Luke Springman (lspringm at bloomu dot edu). They should include:
—Date, location, and primary sponsor of event
—Description of audience (size, makeup)
—Total cost of event and other confirmed or potential funding sources
—Description of event that articulates how it contributes to all or part of SHCY’s mission: promoting the history of children and youth by supporting research about childhood, youth cultures, and the experience of young people across diverse times and places; fostering study across disciplinary and methodological boundaries; providing venues for scholars to communicate with one another; and promoting excellence in scholarship.

–Note: The Committee may request additional information from applicants about their event and about the participants and intended audience.

The Outreach Committee will recommend awardees to the SHCY Executive Committee, which will make final decisions. Recipients of grants will be announced by December 16, 2013.