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Dear all, Below are details of a funded PhD opportunity for a project on '‘Placental spaces’: the social history of investments in a regional placenta tissue collection.' Please forward to others who might be interested. ... Funded PhD Studentship at UWE in the Faculty of Health & Life Sciences Supervisory team, Professor Julie KENT (Sociology, UWE ); Dr Maria Fannin (Geography, University of Bristol) and Dr Julie Hobbs (Midwifery, UWE). ‘Placental spaces’: the social history of investments in a regional placenta tissue collection Aims: The aim of this project is to develop a socio-cultural understanding of the acquisition, storage, value and use of the ALSPAC human placental tissue collection. Context: There has been little social research on placental tissue collection and use so the PhD will make an important contribution to the understanding of its socio-cultural and ethical significance. This proposal draws from literature on the social and cultural histories and practices surrounding human tissue economies (Morgan 2006, 2009; Kent 2008) as well as recent work in human geography and other social sciences on the spatial aspects of biobanks in relation to local, national and global institutional and research networks (Parry 2004; Greenhough 2006; Gottweis and Petersen 2008). Relatively little attention in research on biobanks has been paid to the significance of regional (rather than national) population biobanks (Haimes & Whong-Barr 2004), and this project will address this gap by exploring the extent to which the regional significance of the biobank makes a difference to its management and use. The study will also consider how another spatial aspect of the collection – its bulk and physical size – shapes its management over time and space, particularly in the context of changing human tissue regulations and strategies for preserving the collection in the future. The collection may be seen as representing a significant investment by those who created it (donors and scientists) and the research will investigate how the value of placental tissue is understood and what importance is attached to sustaining this biological resource. ALSPAC have already agreed access for the project subject to ethical approval and funding. Research Questions: 1) How is the placental tissue collection understood by those who created, manage and regulate it? 2) How is the value of the placental tissue collection shaped by technologies of preservation and changing conceptions of research utility? 3) Does the regional nature of the placental tissue collected for ALSPAC raise different kinds of social and ethical concerns for consent, access, and use compared to other human tissue collections? Methods: The PhD project will employ social science methods to study the formation, history and use of the human placental tissue collection held by ALSPAC at UoB. The research will tell the story of collection, the materials themselves, their trajectories and movements from research participants to research laboratories, and the further exchanges and networks along which such materials might travel between scientists. The research activities of the project will include: • Review of social science literature on biobanks, tissue economies and the use of human tissue in the life sciences • Document-based analysis of material in the ALSPAC archive housed in the University of Bristol Library’s Special Collections (available in 2013) • 10 interviews with managers, originators, and any users of the collection • 20 (maximum) interviews with women donors The PhD student will be expected to complete the appropriate research training at UWE (and where possible at University of Bristol) for human geography and social science students. Closing Date: Sunday 13th May 2012 Contact: [log in to unmask] for further information if you wish to discuss this PhD project. For further details of this funding opportunity see: http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/research/postgraduateresearchstudy/studentshipopportunities.aspx and http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/research/postgraduateresearchstudy/studentshipopportunities/healthandlifesciences.aspx ... All the best, Maria ____________________________________ Dr Maria Fannin Senior Lecturer in Human Geography School of Geographical Sciences University of Bristol Bristol BS8 1SS United Kingdom tel: +44 117 904 4614 fax: +44 117 928 7878 [log in to unmask]