ESRC PhD Studentships - Vulnerability and Policing Future Research Centre

Are you looking for your next challenge? Do you have a research interest in policing and vulnerable groups, and the interactions between them and other service providers? Do you want to do a PhD in a dynamic research environment with access to relevant academic and non-academic partners? Do you want to conduct your post-graduate research at a new interdisciplinary centre of excellence?

Applications are open for six 1+3 or +3 ESRC funded PhD Studentships to commence in October 2022 associated with the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre. Jointly led from the Universities of York and Leeds by Professor Charlie Lloyd and Professor Adam Crawford, the ESRC Vulnerability and Policing Futures Research Centre is one of six recently announced ESRC Centres.  It aims to build new interdisciplinary knowledge from problem-based and place-based perspectives about the interactions between vulnerability and service providers’ responses and to use these finding to build new, integrated and innovative approaches to harm reduction that address the needs of vulnerable groups.

As an integral part of the new Centre, PhD Students will work alongside a team of over 25 leading researchers from diverse social science disciplines and 38 regional, national and international partners.  Each studentship will be aligned to a particular area of the Centre’s research agenda, and supervised by a multidisciplinary team and in collaboration with relevant external partners.  Three studentships will be based at the University of York and three at the University Leeds and all will be connected to the ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership.

As members of the Centre’s PhD Programme and Early Career Researcher Network, PhD researchers will have access to mentorship and support from academics across disciplines and departments, bespoke training opportunities focused on vulnerability and policing, as well as the Centre’s PhD summer school, with embedded networking opportunities to a wider international cohort of related doctoral researchers. In addition, they will benefit from diverse training opportunities made available through the White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP).

The six studentships are as follows:

·       Exploring the data linking Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to crime (Supervisors: Prof Mark Mon-Williams, Dr Sam Lewis, Dr Dan Birks, University of Leeds)

·       Adversity, trauma and resilience in childhood experiences (Supervisors: Professor Adam Crawford, Dr Sam Lewis, Dr Laura Bainbridge, University of Leeds)

·       Examining the use of restrictive practice by the police in response to mental health crisis (Supervisors: Professor John Baker, Professor Stuart Lister, Professor Liz Hughes, University of Leeds)

·       Vulnerability and police contact: Gendered pathways to drug dependence (Supervisors: Prof Charlie Lloyd and Dr Geoff Page, University of York)

·       Over-policing and vulnerability in minority communities (Supervisors: Dr Katy Sian and Dr Kate Brown, University of York)

·       The role of policing in diversionary interventions with young people (Supervisors: Dr Kate Brown and Dr Hannah Jobling, University of York)

Click on the link to access further information and application details.

Closing date for all applications in 28^th March 2022.