Doctorate Degree | Scholarship for Nigerians and Africans - Part 16

International PhD Scholarship in Capturing the Early Modern Body, UK: Capturing the early modern body: discourses of embodiment in Shakespearean performance

Applications are invited for a full-time scholarship available in the School of Art, design and performance. The scholarship is tenable for up to 3 years for a PhD (via MPhil route) [subject to satisfactory progress] and is open to international applicants only. UK/EU applicants are not eligible to apply. The scholarship will provide £15000 towards the cost of the International tuition fee over 3 years.
In recent years a new field has begun to emerge in Shakespeare studies, as scholars have attempted to discover how the theory and practice of theatrical gesture may have impacted upon the performance of his writing – as witnessed in the Globe Theatre Education Department’s first gesture Lab in October 2010. However, while much of this scholarly work necessarily remains speculative, any attempt to make a conceptual map of Shakespearean ‘embodied writing’ must eventually ask: how did the early modern actor move?
This project seeks to address this question by engaging with a cultural history of early modern embodiment through experiments using motion capture technology. Drawing upon a range of visual and literary reference materials including art works, anatomical manuals, rhetorical treatises on gesture, and texts both by and about Shakespearean performance, the project seeks to uncover how early modern performance in England was marked by (and perhaps influenced) changing discourses of the body-in-motion. Applicants should have, or expect to receive a qualification equivalent to a high class UK honours degree.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 13 May 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application

International PhD Scholarship in School of Built & Natural Environment, UK: Climate Change and Soil Biodiversity: Earthworms as Indicators

Applications are invited for a full-time scholarship available in the School of Built & Natural Environment. The scholarship is tenable for up to 3 years for a PhD (via MPhil route) [subject to satisfactory progress] and is open to international applicants only. UK/EU applicants are not eligible to apply. The scholarship will provide £15000 towards the cost of the International tuition fee over 3 years.
Data on distribution, abundance and diversity of earthworms in Britain is scattered in the scientific literature. Collation of such information, spanning more than a century will permit production of preliminary distribution maps. More importantly it will provide baseline information for re-examination of sites where date-specific records exist. Through re-sampling, direct comparisons of faunal assemblages will permit assessment of effects brought about by climate changes directly affecting soil-related conditions. These mainly relate to increased temperatures, decreased soil moisture (at times of drought) and elevated carbon dioxide levels.
Major Aims: To determine long and short term changes to soil fauna (earthworms specifically), at selected field sites, from both literature-based and field-collected data; To relate recorded faunal changes with recorded climate changes and analyse observed relationships.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 13 May 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application

International PhD Scholarship in Total Gesture Recognition, UK

Applications are invited for a full-time scholarship available in the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences. The scholarship is tenable for up to 3 years for a PhD (via MPhil route) [subject to satisfactory progress] and is open to international applicants only. UK/EU applicants are not eligible to apply. The scholarship will provide £15000 towards the cost of the International tuition fee over 3 years.
Total gesture recognition based on dynamic facial expression, body motion and hands sign is a vision pursued by the Applied Digital Signal and Image Processing (ADSIP) Research Centre. Over the past few years, the Centre has gradually and systematically developed a number of novel methodologies and algorithms for recognition of individual gesture modality through various research projects, such as dynamic 3D facial expression recognition, multi-camera based human motion tracking, and data-glove based dynamic hand gesture recognition.
The proposed project will tackle a number of major technical challenges associated with simultaneous capture, parallel processing, multi-feature tracking, and high-dimensional classification of dynamic body motion, facial expression and hand sign in 3D, in real time and in different physical scales which have not been attempted previously. Furthermore, the propose project will explore the advantages which could be gained by making use of the interconnected and interdependent nature of the three gesture modalities to increase the robustness and accuracy of recognition which is unlikely to be obtained based on single modality.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 13 May 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application