PhD Studentships in History and Geography

Duration: 4 years, full-time

Start date: Sept 2025

The DCU School of History and Geography is a research-active school in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. We are offering doctoral scholarships in either history or geography, and invite applicants who wish to undertake PhD research in the following areas:

History We wish to particularly encourage applicants interested in: Medieval Ireland (12th -16th century), especially social history, the history of Irish towns and cities, legal history and women’s and gender history.

Other areas of expertise in the School include:

• Early modern and modern Ireland o Aspects of Irish history in the later early modern period, c.1660-1850
  • Aspects of Irish women's lives in the period 1850-1985
  • The Irish Revolution and post Civil War Ireland
  • Partition and its consequences
  • History of religion, in particular all aspects of Irish Catholicism
  • Aspects of labour and legal history
  • The history of science, medicine and technology
  • The history of children, childhood and youth
  • The history of crime and punishment
  • The history of Dublin o Poverty and efforts at its amelioration
• Early modern Italy (c. 15th -18th c)
  • History of religion
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Social history
  • History of crime
  • Comparative and/or transnational projects are welcome

Geography Areas of expertise in the School include:

• Historical geography including:
  • Geography of Irish crime and punishment
  • Landlord landscapes of town and country (18th to 20th c.)
  • Housing and suburbanisation in Ireland (late 19th c. to present)
• Infrastructural labour
• Urban governance of sustainability and/or just transitions
• Waste geographies
• Freshwater and drinking water quality
• Rewilding as a nature-based solution to address Ireland's climate and socio-environmental challenges.
• Societal and/or policy impacts of citizen science monitoring of freshwater quality
• Coasts and climate change
• Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services
• Environmental Systems Modelling
  • Health, wellbeing and climate change
  • Climate change policy and governance

Applications in research areas not listed above may also be considered, provided the applicant has identified a suitable research supervisor from among the members of the staff. Applications made without the agreement of a potential supervisor will not be considered. Please direct any queries to Dr Juliana Adelman (juliana.adelman@dcu.ie ).

Successful candidates will be offered a scholarship that covers all tuition fees (EU or non-EU) and provide an annual stipend for living expenses of €25,000 pa for up to 4 years subject to satisfactory annual progression.

For further information, including the application form, please see PhD Scholarship Opportunities