To apply you will need a good honours degree and preferably an MA in literary, historical or other disciplines of cultural studies. The formal application proceedure is outlined here: BirkbeckPHD
I am currently welcoming proposals for PhD study. In the first instance please submit an informal letter of interest to me at g.halden@bbk.ac.uk . I will work with successful applicants on relevant funding applications including CHASE and Wellcome.
I welcome proposals on the topics below but will prioritize projects related to reproduction, motherhood and medical humanities.
PHD Study
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Medical Humanities
Broad topics as an example: reproduction, donor gametes, fertility, fertility clinics, donor regulations, assisted reproduction, motherhood, relationship between patient and practice, lived-experience of the patient.
20th and 21st Century Literature and/or Culture
Broad topics as an example: British Literature, American literature, Transnational literature, Global literature, Cold War, World War Two, technological development, genocide, human rights, migration, displacement, ruination, weaponry/military technology, counterfactuals, technotexts, cyborg, science fiction, gothic literature, horror, fantasy, 9/11, posthumanism, transhumanism, artificial intelligence, bio-objects, space-race, millennium, Y2K, technological singularity, the Internet, the deep web, Web 2.0., social media, avatars, nuclear power/nuclear technology, virtual reality, city, dehumanisation, energy, space, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, Fukushima, arms race, drones, conception, assisted reproduction, donor genetic material.
Theory/Philosophy and Literature (not philosophy/theory solely)
Example: Hannah Arendt, Primo Levi, Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard, Martin Heidegger, Ray Kurzweil, L. Ron Hubbard (Scientology), Jacques Derrida, Plato, Rene Descartes. Technology and ethics. Cybernetics, Game Theory, Chaos Theory, human rights, human ethics.
Apocalypse
Broad topics as an example: Apocalypse theory/prediction, post-apocalypse narratives, ancient ideas of apocalypse, religious/secular apocalypse, zombie narratives, invasion, Book of Revelations, Armageddon.
Other (areas relating to the above)
Psychology (e.g. genocide mentality, psychological doubling), paranoia, psychoanalysis, trauma, urban exploration, ruination, abandoned spaces, evacuation, migration, displacement, environmental crisis, Anthropocene.
