The Department of Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews (UK) is advertising 2 PhD scholarships (4 years, full time, 100% UK/EU fee waiver with maintenance stipend of approx. £14,296/year (equivalent to a RCUK stipend) and conference/research expenses) to participate in an ERC-funded research project on the ethics of oil. The start date is September 2017. Deadline for application: 16 January 2017

This project entitled "The Ethics of Oil: Finance Moralities and Environmental Politics in the Global Oil Economy (ENERGYETHICS)" offers an exciting opportunity for 2 outstanding graduates to join a major anthropological research project funded by the European Research Council - as part of the conventional track for a PhD in Social Anthropology at University of St Andrews. The project is a comparative study of how people in positions of influence within the global oil economy make financial and ethical valuations of oil. Ethnographic fieldwork will be carried out with oil companies in the US and Norway, energy analysts in the UK and the US, and fossil fuel divestment movements in Germany and the UK. Taking our starting point in people's own perceptions of and direct involvement in the oil economy, we aim to understand the relationship between oil, money and climate change. We will ask: What is the value of oil? How do such valuations, understood as both financial and ethical, intersect and inform the making of the global energy economy in oil? To what extent can oil be an important industrial resource, a profit-yielding investment opportunity and an undesired pollutant that brings about irreversible climate impacts?

We are seeking prospective candidates with an existing interest in fields such as economic life, morality and ethics, energy and climate change, corporations and organisations. Applicants are encouraged to contribute their own provisional research ideas in the form of a proposal as part of their application. Projects will have ethnographic fieldwork at their core, but may also draw on other methodologies, including archival and visual media work.

Successful candidate 1 will explore convergences of oil production with national welfare agendas and climate change concerns in Norway. The research will involve 15 months of fieldwork and the candidate must be able to/willing to learn Norwegian. Successful candidate 2 will examine how divestment projects in Germany and the UK intersect with oil industry vulnerability and visions for the future. The research will involve 15 months of fieldwork and the candidate must be able to/willing to learn German.

Prospective candidates are encouraged to contact the Principal Investigator Dr Mette M. High.

Funding is available for one student to undertake a two-year MA in Sociology or Public Issues in Anthropology (with the option of the collaborative International Development Studies program) and to undertake research on a topic related to young farmers in one or more of the four countries (Canada, China, India and Indonesia) under the aegis of the research project Becoming a young farmer: Young people's pathways into farming, at the University of Guelph.

The global phenomenon of an ageing farming population, poor returns on farming in the current economic paradigm and an apparent lack of interest among youth in agrarian and rural futures have attracted considerable attention among policy makers and researchers. At the same time, what is overlooked is that not all young people leave farming and the countryside, and some urban youth establish themselves as first-generation urban or rural farmers. By studying young people's pathways into farming futures we aim to fill an important void in current work on rural youth and agrarian studies and in policies related to rural poverty reduction and employment generation. First, the research studies will go beyond documenting the various barriers that keep young people from establishing agrarian futures to examining how at least some young people manage to overcome these. Second, they will assess the working of intergenerational dynamics underpinning trajectories into farming, ranging from inheritance to the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. Third, they will shed light on generational innovation in farming practices across the globe. Gender will be treated as a key relation of social differentiation shaping all three areas of inquiry. 

A competitive funding package (including a minimum guaranteed stipend, TAships, RAships and field research funding) is available for the right student. Fluency in the local language, prior field experience and familiarity with mixed methods of data collection and analysis are desirable. 

Those interested should please email a CV, a 250 word research design, sample writing, three reference letters, and an unofficial transcript to: Dr. Sharada Srinivasan by 09 December 2016. Short-listed applicants will be interviewed by Skype by the end of December 2016. Admission is subject to the approval of the relevant graduate admissions committee(s).

10 Fully Funded PhD Programmes 2017 at Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies

Funded by the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal and State Governments, the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies will admit up to ten new students to its next doctoral programme, which begins on *1 October 2017*.

The formal prerequisite for application to the programme is a university honours degree reflecting a level of attainment that is above average (typically an M.A., or diploma degree, with a grade of "very good"; with ranking, where applicable). The degree should be in one of the disciplines represented at the Graduate School (see List of PIs with an overview of their specialist fields and areas of research). Candidates are expected to submit an outline of their proposed dissertation project (maximum 6 pages, with a summary of no more than half a page), to include a short description of the topic, the current state of research, and its theoretical and methodological orientation, as well as a preliminary work schedule and an indication of whether the work is to be conducted via archival or field research.

As English will be the primary language of communication, students are expected to have advanced English-language proficiency. In addition, students must demonstrate proficiency in the language(s) relevant to their projects. It is assumed that language skills can be improved over the course of the doctoral programme.

*The deadline for application for commencement of studies in October 2017 is 15 November 2016.*

For more information and to apply follow: http://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/en/studies/application/index.html OR http://www.bgsmcs.fu-berlin.de/en/

The Global Religion Research Initiative (GRRI) of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society (CSRS) at the University of Notre Dame (IN, USA) invites applications for one or two (1-2), two-year sociological postdoctoral residential research fellowships in the study of global religion, starting academic year 2017-2018 (2-3 additional fellowships will be advertised and awarded the following year or two — in total, four will be awarded over the life of the program).

The post-doctoral fellowships are intended to support the early development of scholars who show promise of distinguished research careers in the social scientific study of contemporary global religions, especially religions in the "global south," beyond the North Atlantic world (i.e., not the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe). The fellowships also intend to help over time to better integrate the study of religion into mainstream social sciences, and in the process to enhance the intellectual community and scholarly activity of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame.

Each fellowship will provide $48,000 per year in salary for two years (i.e., $96,000 total salary for 24 months), university health insurance, and modest research and conference travel funds. Post-doctoral fellows will be expected to spend the entirety of their two-year fellowships in residence at the CSRS at the University of Notre Dame, IN, to participate actively in the intellectual and scholarly life of the Center (workshops, seminars, social events, etc.), to present their research at sociology department colloquia, and to teach one undergraduate course related to their research per year.

More details.