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Funded PhD Studies at University of Groningen Forwarded for Bettina van Hoven.  For more information, check our website at http://www.rug.nl/ursi, or send an email to dr. Peter Groote: [log in to unmask] The research proposal for the PhD position is available at the website of URSI.
Lawrence

Funded PhD Studies at University of Groningen
 
Project Title: Final Places: Geographies of death and remembrance in The Netherlands

Organization
Faculty of Spatial Sciences
The Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen consists of 75 members and focuses on high quality teaching and research in the fields of economic and cultural geography, planning and demography. URSI, the Urban and Regional Studies Institute, established in 1999, coordinates all research projects at the faculty. Projects, conducted from the interdisciplinary perspective of geography, planning and demography, focus on the relationship between urban and regional structures and real life processes at one hand and human agency and intervention within urban and regional structures at the other hand.
 
URSI has available a PhD position entitled
 
Supervisors: Dr. P.Groote, prof.dr. G.J.A. Ashworth, prof.dr. P.P.P.Huigen
 
Project Information
It is often suggested that place, defined as meaningful locations, may play an important role in coping with death. In the project the cultural meanings attached by different agents or cultural groups to different types of places of death and/or remembrance will be analysed. This will be done by using methodologies and theoretical frameworks developed in cultural geography, focusing on place meanings, the contestation of such meanings, and their iconography. Inevitably, the modernity-postmodernity debate will be part of the research.

As basic knowledge about the topic is lacking, the project must first yield descriptives of people’s attitudes towards places of death and dying by means of a large scale survey. Then there will be a focus on more specific topics, namely: roadside memorials, the rise of interest in natural burial places, funerary heritage, and meaningful designs of graveyards and crematoriums.
Job description

The PhD researcher will work on an individual project, leading to a doctoral dissertation. The project is conceived of several separate modules, each of which should result in an article submitted to an academic journal. In the initial period, PhD researchers are offered courses in relevant fields and research methods. The courses in the PhD programme are taught in English. During the remaining period, PhD students will work on their thesis. Work on the dissertation is carried out under supervision of URSI fellows. Supervision is close and the PhD students are encouraged to present papers at international conferences.

After the first year there will be an assessment of the candidate’s results and the project’s progress. Part of that is that the PhD student will have to defend his/her research proposal. Based on this, it will be decided whether a project will be continued.
 
Entry requirements
-  MA, MSc or MPhil in relevant fields of enquiry and / or cognate disciplines (cultural geography, cultural studies, human geography, death studies, sociology, etc.)
-  Fluency in Dutch (written and spoken) and English (written and spoken).

Conditions
The PhD fellows will have an employee status and receive a starting salary of approximately 1.900 euro (gross). This salary increases yearly to achieve al salary of approximately 2.500 euro (gross) in the fourth year. PhD fellows at URSI are expected to contribute to teaching or research. These occupations generally occupy on average 15% of the candidate's time.
After the first year there will be an assessment of the candidate’s results and the project’s progress. Based on this, it is decided whether a project will continue.
 
Information
For more information, check our website at http://www.rug.nl/ursi, or send an email to dr. P. Groote: [log in to unmask] The research proposal for the PhD position is available at the website of URSI.
Applications
If you are interested to apply, we invite you do so before January 8th 2007. Applications should be sent to: adres VMP.