international applicants | Scholarship for Nigerians and Africans - Part 2

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

University of Central Lancashire International PhD Scholarship in School of Pharmacy & Biomedical Sciences, UK

Applications are invited for a full-time scholarship available in the School of Pharmacy & Biomedical 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. A wide range of human diseases (e.g. cancer, diabetes, atherosclerosis) are accompanied by enhanced intracellular lipid droplet formation. In recent years, sterol regulatory element binding proteins (SREBPs) have been shown to regulate the expression of key lipid synthesis genes including those encoding fatty acid synthase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase and ?9 desaturase. It is proposed that SREBPs function as allostatic nodes which contribute to cellular lipid quality control processes. Consequently, their activity is closely controlled through a variety of upstream (mTOR/Akt pathways) and downstream (metabolic products e.g. saturated fatty acids, cholesterol) effectors. The project will utilise a number of species of yeast, including Schizosaccharomyces pombe, Saccharomyces cerevisie and Lipomyces starykei, to determine the underlying transcriptional control of acyl lipid metabolism and lipid droplet formation. Using a variety of stimuli, we will investigate which transcription factors are involved in the promotion of acyl lipid metabolism and desaturation. This will involve the use of a number of molecular biology techniques including Northern blot and microarray analysis, to identify important regulatory proteins, and chromatin immunoprecipitation (CHiP), to determine regulatory elements within target genes. Furthermore, the genetic manipulation of yeast is relatively facile providing the opportunity to decipher the functional components of these regulatory pathways and identify future drug targets.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 13 May 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application