This unusual PhD studentship (based at Imperial College London, funded by the Wellcome Trust) aims to theorise public engagement as an educational process. It builds on an extensive body of engagement activity (focused on surgery and other clinical practices) aimed at giving insight into professional worlds which are usually hidden from view.

The studentship will be supervised jointly by Professor Roger Kneebone (Professor of Surgical Education at Imperial College London) and Professor Gunther Kress (Professor of Semiotics and Education at the Institute of Education). The project’s ‘experimental laboratory’ and source of data will be a series of engagement events, funded by the Wellcome Trust, at diverse venues (including Cheltenham Festivals, Green Man Music Festival and Royal Institution). Kneebone’s research draws in clinicians, engineers, scientists, educational scholars, social scientists, arts performers and craftsmen.

The project’s aim is to develop an apt theoretical and methodological approach for understanding engagement as educational activity, in a generously conceived sense of education. It offers a unique opportunity to carry out research across traditional boundaries, at the leading edge of an emerging field.

Applicants will have a Masters degree with a significant/strong research component, in one of a range of relevant academic backgrounds. The successful applicant will be able to demonstrate enthusiasm, motivation and a commitment to the theoretical development of this evolving field.

The studentship stipend is £19,943

*Please note that this studentship is only available to prospective students who will be classified as UK/EU students’

Closing date for applications: 18/11/2013

Application details can be found online here: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/surgeryandcancer/study/phd/