You’re interested in pursuing a PhD.

That’s an incredibly exciting juncture in your professional and intellectual development. If you are interested in working with Jess as a supervisor for your doctoral research, please read on for some general guidance and information about the application process.

Edward Hopper, (Rocks and Sea) (1916-1919)

First, you should know that pursuing a PhD is not easy. You likely know this already and you are likely undeterred — you ought not be deterred, if this is something that you really want to do — but it bears repeating. Institutional resources for doctoral researchers are scarce and academic jobs, at the end of the degree, are even scarcer. It’s hard work under precarious conditions. You should not pursue a PhD because you want to be a professor. No matter how brilliant your research, that outcome is far from guaranteed. You should pursue a PhD because you have a specific research question in mind to which you would like to devote several years of your life.

If that is you, you’ll be in need of a supervisor. Institutions around the world handle admissions differently; at the University of Edinburgh, the first step in the process is to contact potential supervisors.

Questions regarding the application process

  • Whose scholarship has informed your approach and your research questions? People who have influenced the shape of your research already are best positioned to help you develop it. As follows: there ought to be some thematic, geographic, and/or theoretical overlap between yourself and your proposed supervisor.

  • When emailing Jess with an inquiry for potential supervision, please be sure to include the following: (1) a proposal for the project you intend to conduct for the PhD; (2) a CV; and (3) a writing sample, such as an essay or term paper from previous coursework. Do also mention why you think that this could be a generative supervisory relationship for the research you intend to conduct. For information on what the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh formally requires for an application for admission, click here.

  • You will need to submit your materials to Jess by email at least one month prior to your first deadline for external funding. Please note that this deadline varies by funder!

  • A specific question and area of research! Simply put, what do you want to learn about a particular social practice or problem? How are you going to go about learning about it? What strands of scholarship inform your question? How will your future research contribute to those fields of scholarship?

    The School provides this guidance on how to write a research proposal, to which you will need to adhere in terms of length, etc, though you needn’t (oughtn’t) write in as scientistic an idiom as the School suggests — no need to send over a hypothesis, for example.

  • Given the very limited resources available to support doctoral training and the very short timelines in which students at the University of Edinburgh are asked to complete their doctoral work, you need to already be familiar with basic tenets of social anthropology as a discipline and with ethnographic methods. In other words, you need to already know enough about the field to be confident in selecting Social Anthropology as the field in which you want to earn a PhD.

  • You can read more about the too-few funding options available for students here. Funding varies widely by University; at the University of Edinburgh, securing admission and securing funding for the degree are two separate process. Given the insecurity of prospects at the end of the degree programme, it is not advisable to matriculate without at least some funding in support of your studies.

  • After Jess reviews your materials, you might be invited for a Zoom conversation to discuss your research interests. Please keep the deadlines for admission and funding in mind when writing.