Applications are invited for a fully-funded three year PhD, with opportunities for a visiting scholarship in Macau, to commence in October 2025.
The Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures (PCMC) is thrilled to announce an opportunity for doctoral research in the field of humanities and social science with a PhD Studentship with the ‘Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green: Empowering Port Communities in the Global South’ project.
The overarching theme of ‘Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green’ is to seek to understand the role of local knowledge and the impact of sail to steam shipping on communities and the infrastructure of international sea ports in the Global South. This will be underpinned by four PhD studies which will provide rigorous scholarly research for comparative analysis of the heritage and attitudes of people in the Global South in regard to maritime technological change and its consequences. The advertised PhD programme will focus on the port city of Macau (SAR China).
The PhD will be based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and will be supervised by the project leaders Dr Melanie Bassett, Dr Rudolph Ng and Professor Brad Beaven.
This doctoral-level research programme will consist of a cross-disciplinary study combining historical research and social scientific data collection. Each study will set the context for an identified port city throughout the period of sail to steam energy transition, and also measure its effects and impacts on the communities and cultures which have remained or have grown from the creation of global port cities. The project focuses on the past, present and future importance of urban-maritime cultures and communities within a global context, which align with the key research themes of PCMC. Working with academics, creative practitioners, funders and local community groups, the project will explore the relationships between urban and maritime spaces and seek to bring in local voices.
This exciting opportunity covers tuition fees and includes an annual stipend at the UKRI rate, a generous travel allowance for the student to conduct national and international research, and a ‘community engagement fund’ to enable the student to co-produce impactful responses to the historical research and current challenges associated with energy transition.
The PhD is funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF) and supported by the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Culture in the School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature. The visiting scholarship is supported by the University of Macau who will host the student as a visiting scholar. Additional research and dissemination support is offered by the Macau Maritime Museum.
Underwater Archaeology and Maritime History jobs 