PhD Studentship in The Legacies of Transatlantic Slavery and Reparations (Reparations and the Media/Culture) – Call for Applications 2025!

Are you obsessed with exploring the legacies of British slavery and its ongoing impression in the Caribbean and the UK? Are you a Black British scholar with a eager curiosity in media, tradition, and restorative justice?

If so, this absolutely funded PhD studentship inside UCL’s School of European Languages, Culture and Society (SELCS-CMII) might be the very best match for you. This 4‑12 months programme gives a singular probability to work with main researchers at UCL and its Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, offering a collaborative and intellectually wealthy atmosphere for a doctoral mission that explores how histories of slavery and debates about reparations are reshaping tradition, media, and society in Britain and the Caribbean.

Basic Information About the PhD Studentship

• Ref Number: B03-02496
• Professional Expertise: Research and Research Support
• Department: UCL SLASH (B03)
• Location: London
• Working Pattern: Full-time
• Salary: See advert textual content
• Contract Type: Fixed-term
• Working Type: Hybrid
• Available for Secondment: No
• Closing Date: 07-Jul-2025

Learn more

SELCS-CMII is a world-main centre for instructing, analysis and public engagement, focussing on the literature, linguistic traditions, historical past, sociology, philosophy, artwork, movie and different features of the cultures related to the languages we train (Danish, Dutch, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Old Norse, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish).

Our taught programmes are progressive and interdisciplinary; educational colleagues and college students have interaction with many pressing considerations going through the world at this time by understanding Europe’s languages, cultures and histories and their impression globally.

BA, MA and PhD programmes in SELCS-CMII embody Comparative Literature, Film Studies, Translation Studies, and interdisciplinary MAs in Gender, Race, Health Humanities, European Studies and Early Modern Studies (please go to for extra data).

The awardee will conduct an investigation of modern debates concerning the historical past and legacy of British slavery, abolition, and reparations/restorative justice in Britain and/or the Caribbean for a doctoral mission.

Specifically, we welcome proposals which can be involved with (however not restricted to):

• The media’s illustration of the calls for for financial and cultural reparations for Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Comparative analyses of media reportage on slavery reparations and restorative justice throughout the Caribbean, Britain, and the US
• The illustration of calls for for slavery reparations and restorative justice throughout varied cultural mediums and varieties (literature/print media/movie/tv/broadcast media)
• Qualitative, oral historical past and narrative primarily based analysis on the impression of public narratives, media reportage, and debates on reparation and restorative justice amongst the Black Diaspora in Britain/The Caribbean
• Narratives/media representations of Intergenerational trauma as a legacy of transatlantic slavery in the Caribbean and amongst the Black diaspora in the UK

Based inside SELCS-CMII, the scholar will even collaborate intently with UCL’s Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery, which has succeeded in making the historical past of slavery extra extensively identified in Britain by constructing a publicly accessible proof base. Their database on the compensation funds of £20 million made to British slave-house owners for the loss of their human property after emancipation in 1834 has contributed monumentally to the nationwide dialog on slavery, rights, justice, empire, memorialization and how we reckon with uncomfortable truths. For present work of the Centre, please go to www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs.

Learn more

Documents to Read

Download: PhD Studentship Legacies of Transatlantic Slavery & Reparations.pdf

We are trying for:

• A Black British scholar with PhD analysis pursuits inside the broad themes of media, tradition, politics, and the query of restorative justice and reparations for the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
• The profitable applicant may have acquired related coaching from the disciplines of media and communications, Black research, race and postcoloniality, literature, cultural sociology and historical past, significantly of the Caribbean, Britain and the United States.
• Candidates with a related MA/MSc (have to be accomplished) in a associated topic (e.g. sociology, media and communications, movie and cultural research, literature, Black research, race and postcoloniality, gender, social coverage).
• Have expertise of the study of Black historical past, Black individuals and racial inequality, gained by means of educational study and/or working expertise.

Candidates should additionally fulfil the customary entry necessities for acceptance for postgraduate study at UCL:

• The studentship is full-time and will run for 4 years from September 2025.
• It covers full-time tuition of Home Fees at the Doctoral Level (at present £6,215 each year) plus an annual stipend of £20,280.
• Primary Doctoral supervision shall be undertaken by Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, Associate Professor of Film, Culture and Society at UCL and secondary supervision by Professor Matthew J Smith at UCL (LBS/Department of History).
• The scholar will take part in the Research Training programme in the division and may have the alternative to contribute to the analysis and public engagement actions which type an vital part of each the SPRC and the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery.

Application Deadline

How To Apply

To apply for this studentship, eligible candidates ought to ship the following to selcs.operations@ucl.ac.uk:

• A curriculum vitae (most size 5 pages).
• A 2 web page define of the proposed space of analysis
• A private assertion outlining your motivations and suitability for the studentship
• Transcripts of study out of your first diploma and postgraduate {qualifications}.
• Fill out the application form and submit it.

Interviews shall be held for quick-listed candidates in the week starting 14th July 2025.

After interview, the profitable candidate shall be given directions to formally apply on-line by way of the UCL web site.

Contact

 

For extra alternatives, go to the OFY Scholarships (PhD) web page!