The University is part of a the Collaborative Doctoral Training Centre in the Celtic Languages (CDT) which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Across the consortium 23 full PhD studentships will be made available between 2014-19. The research will be in the areas of Celtic Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
The studentships will cover the University’s Tuition fees (currently £3,900) for the period of your enrolment (to a maximum of 3 years), and a bursary based on the annual RCUK rate, which is currently set at £13,726.
We are able to offer research supervision in the following areas, and are keen to consider joint supervisor with any of the CDT members:
- Feminine Sanctity and Middle Welsh hagiography
- Medieval Welsh prose and poetry
- Medieval Welsh religious history
- Second language acquisition and bilingual education
- Sociolinguistics and dialectology
- Language planning
- The early Celtic languages
- Medieval Welsh literature
- Celtic saints
- The literature of Wales in the Romantic period
- Place-names
- Lexicography
Part of the Centre’s activities will be training programmes in Celtic languages, literatures and cultures, and students will be enabled in an unprecedented way to partake of shared supervision and resources across these universities, and to engage with partners outside the higher education sector. The consortium will be aided in this by three core partners, BBC Northern Ireland, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, and the National Library of Wales.
The Consortium Members are the universities of Aberdeen, Bangor, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, Swansea, Queens University Belfast, the University of Ulster, the University of the Highlands and Islands/Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies; the Centre is managed by the University of Glasgow.
Training
CDT funded PhD students will also have access to an extensive programme of research training accessed through a Student Development Fund. This will include:
- Language Training for individual students. Advanced training in the student's specialist language(s) and, where appropriate, introductory training in other Celtic languages.
- Doctoral Visitorships will involve appropriate visits, normally for no more than a semester, to a different RO than the supervising RO(s). Travel and accommodation will be funded.
- Non-HEI Placements with our three core partners will support students pursuing group and individual work-based projects.
- Fieldwork for research (eg, linguistic or place-name survey, time-limited visits to archives, libraries or collection; interview work in the field.
- Travel & Subsistence Costs for individual students: (i) accessing essential research resources outside of the consortium; and (ii) enrolled for joint supervision across Consortium partners.
- CLARSACH: Part of our flagship event, the Celtic Languages Annual Research Symposium and Collaboration Hub (CLARSACH), will be workshops related to research and employability skills which cut across the sub-disciplinary concerns of the consortium, but which will be orientated towards the parameters of the field of Celtic Studies.
CDT Application process
In line with AHRC regulations, in order to be eligible for a studentship, a student must also meet certain conditions relating to residence: applicants must be ordinarily resident in the UK (for reasons other than education), or ordinarily resident in a member state of the EU. Students from EU countries other than the UK are generally eligible for awards restricted to the payment of tuition fees only but do not qualify for maintenance awards. Full details regarding residency can be found in Annex A of the AHRC's Student Funding Guide. Students are advised to read these details carefully and, if there is any doubt as to eligibility, they should discuss this with the HEI’s Graduate School or point of contact.
The application process is made up of two stages.
1) UWTSD
In order to be considered for nomination to the AHRC CDT you will first need to apply for Doctoral Study (with initial registration as an MPhil student) through UWTSD’s application procedure. Formal deadlines for the 2014/15 cohort will be announced in due course, but we can accept applications at any time for the next available intake. The University will run an internal competition for all applications and will select candidates for nomination to the CDT.
In the first instance you should contact the UWTSD Postgraduate Research Office at:
Email: pgresearch@tsd.ac.uk
Telephone: 01570 424900
You should also speak to prospective supervisors in the School of Welsh and Bilingual Studies to discuss your interests. You will need to provide a detailed description of your proposed research project. Contact:
Dr Jane Cartwright j.cartwright@tsd.ac.uk 01570 424870
Dr Christine Jones c.m.jones@tsd.ac.uk 01570 424931 / 01267 676774
CDTC Review Process
Once applications to the CDT in Celtic Languages have been received by the next available deadline (to be announced) the applications and their HEI supporting statements will be read and assessed by the CDT Awards Committee, chaired by Prof. Mícheál Ó Mainnín of Queen’s University, Belfast, and comprised of representatives from all of the 12 consortium HEIs. The recommendations of the awards committee will then be communicated to the CDT Executive, and the Executive will finalise the awards.
