Postgraduates
Here is a small selection of our research postgraduates and their research interests. More profiles are added on a regular basis.
Arya Aryan
Having studied English literature for my bachelors at University of Science and Culture and masters at Azad University in Iran which resulted in writing my MA thesis exploring the problematisation of the representation of reality in Peter Ackroyd’s novel Chatterton, encouraged by my MA thesis supervisor Dr. Sarah Catherine Houshold-Ilkhani, I just started my PhD at Durham University in January 2013, being honoured and glad to be supervised by a noted leading expert in postmodern literary theory and literature in the world, Professor Patricia Waugh, to which I should add a woman of high character and kindness as well.
Theories of authorship have gained much attention since the call for the death or dethronement of the author as an apotheosised figure as put forward by Roland Barthes. Accordingly, my PhD research probes selected metafictional novels of the 1960s which are fraught with the ideas of authorship and biographical and/or autobiographical elements and provide grounds upon which authorial elements play roles far beyond a God-like transcendental author. It also deals with a more recent obsession manifest in authors, including Paul Auster, who present simultaneously a practice and a critique of theories of authorship. Consequently, the research may cover a vast scope of ideas – autobiography biography, to name only two – which should be brought into consideration. My fervid enthusiasm for this subject is in part due to acknowledging that theories concerning the nature of author and authorship lead us to the perception of the nature of literature itself.
Thomas Ball
I work on Medieval Political and Ethical Philosophy with an emphasis on Saint Anselm of Canterbury. I am currently completing a PhD provisionally entitled 'From the Temporal to the Eternal: the Normative Philosophy of Anselm of Canterbury.'
Joshua Bergamin
Joshua Bergamin is reading for a PhD in the Department of Philosophy at Durham University. His dissertation explores the relationship between language and perceptual consciousness, drawing deeply upon the work of Martin Heidegger. His broader academic interests stretch from mythology and religious experience, to economic ethics, to literary criticism, and much in between.
Joshua’s formal education consists of an MA from the University of Queensland and a BA from the University of South Australia, supplemented by many informal lessons from the long highways of four continents.
Charlotte Cairns
I'm conducting an M.Sc (by research) in behavioural ecology within the Biological and Biomedical department. My research concerns behavioural development in young grey seals and the existence of 'personality' in this wild marine mammal. I hope to be published in the near future as a co-author on a paper relating different personality types to varying life history strategies in this species.
Jonathan Clinch
Jonathan is a PhD candidate and tutor in the Department of Music. Alongside this he is also a freelance organist, a part-time teacher in the foundation department, Director of Music of St George’s Church in Cullercoats and Musician-in-Residence at Durham School. His research is focused on twentieth century British music, with a particular interest in the music of Herbert Howells, Harold Darke and Edward Elgar.
Zoe Cormack
I am a PhD Candidate in the History Department. My AHRC-supported doctoral research is looking at the social construction of landscape, geographies and place in Dinka agro-pastoralist and urban communities in Warrap State, South Sudan. I am studying how social geographies in this region have changed over periods of conflict and reconciliation in South Sudan and how narratives of environmental change are used to construct local histories. I am supervised by Dr. Cherry Leonardi (History) and Dr. Ben Campbell (Anthropology).
I hold a BSc in Anthropology from UCL and an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford. I have been studying Dinka language for the last 3 years and I am interested in the visual and photographic record of South Sudan and heritage and historical memory in post-conflict societies.
James Edwards
I work in the Mathematical Sciences department in the Centre for Particle Theory group. I have an M.Sci in theoretical physics and am reading for a PhD, researching the fundamental structure of the universe by trying to understand how quantum field theories and gravitational theories can be combined together. In particular, String Theory is a powerful idea which is currently a popular approach to this type of work.
Contact James Edwards
Miao Liu
Miss Miao Liu is a PhD candidate under the supervision of Prof. Christian Witting and Prof. Roman Tomasic in Durham Law School. She obtained her LLB Degree in 2010 from East China University of Political Science and Law, and her LLM Degree (in International Trade and Commercial Law) in 2011 from Durham University. Now she is undertaking a comparative study which focuses on statutory provisions regulating takeover defences in China, the UK and the United States.
Kaja Marczewska
Kaja is a PhD candidate and tutor at the Department of English Studies, funded by Friedrich Von Huegel and Durham Doctoral Studentships and supervised by Professor Pat Waugh. Kaja's current research project focuses on modes of formation of notions of originality and authorship in the 21st century and draws from literary theory and philosophy, contemporary literature as well as intellectual property law.
Departmental profile
Ruth Machen
Ruth Machen returned to Durham from a career in environmental policy to take up a Durham Doctoral Studentship in the Geography department. Ruth is considering the interaction of science policy in the field of climate change and is particularly interested in critical engagement with processes characterised as 'translation'. She is focussing specifically on the Scottish Climate Policy Context and the new frameworks for science policy exchange that Scotland are developing.
Claire Nattrass
I gained a BSc in Environmental Science from the University of York in 2011 and I am currently reading for a PhD in the Department of Earth Sciences. My research explores the toxicity of volcanic ash, focusing on the carcinogenic crystalline silica polymorph, cristobalite. The research thereby contributes to the wider understanding of crystalline silica toxicity, as well as hazard assessment post volcanic eruption.
William Carter
My PhD focuses on peace and conflict research, exploring how perceptions and emotions affect 'conflict transformation', which is the process of structural, socio-political change from violent conflict to sustainable peace. Essentially, it is an interdisciplinary research project; I straddle the School of Government and International Affairs and the Anthropology Department, but am closely related to the Durham Global Security Institute, where I also did my MSc. As part of the PhD, I will most probably be developing and analysing case studies on southern Afghanistan, Syria and northern Myanmar (I have personal-professional experiences of all three), but it is 'early days' as I have yet to finalise the literature review, theoretical framework and research design. Alongside my studies I also work for an NGO safety organisation in Afghanistan, and have previously worked for: an NGO specialising in 'child protection' in conflict areas (War Child UK); the British Army on an operational deployment to Afghanistan, and; a local NGO in Yemen which specialised in tribal peace-building. I also continue to provide operational research for the ethical consultancy firm, Integrity. I originally read Arabic and Philosophy at Durham through the Combined Honours programme. I've ended up travelling a lot for work and pleasure (and now for research), so it is grounding to have been academically rooted in Durham over the years.
Benjamin Rogan
Mr Benjamin Rogan, a current MA student, obtained his BA in 2011, and is now examining the relationship between Aid Conditionality, Gender Bias, Corruption both domestic and foreign in Sub Saharan Africa and the impact these factors have on the effective implementation of ODA and PRSPs. All of his current research is based upon data sets released by the World Bank, particularly Interim PRSP reports and Progress Reports as well as IMF development markers, to monitor the progress towards the 2015 MDGs.
Mark Shaw
Mark Shaw is a PhD candidate in the School of Government and International Affairs. His ESRC-funded project looks at policy, national identity, and elite discourse on European integration during the New Labour period, 1997-2010. Mark's general interests lie around British and European politics, particularly European integration and the dynamics of national identity. He is also interested in German politics and is working on a co-authored journal article which examines the representation of Germany and the Germans in the British Press. In addition to his membership of University College, Mark is a College Tutor and SCR member at Grey College.
Hatice Kubra Savas
Hatice Kubra Savas has a BA degree in Business Administration and she completed her LLM degree at University of Leicester in 2010. Currently, she is pursuing PhD in Law at Durham University. Her research focuses on the regulatory responses of the EU after auditor failures (from Enron scandal to 2008 financial crisis). As a recipient of the scholarship from the Turkish Government (Ministry of National Education), she will work as an academic in Turkey after completing her studies.
Research interests: Corporate Governance, European Law, Big Four, ISA, IFRS.
Ian Shovlin
I am PhD Candidate in the History Department, currently working on a study of British perceptions of colonial violence during the mid-eighteenth century. I am interested in how violent, overseas incidents, such as ‘The Black Hole of Calcutta’ (1756) or ‘The Massacre at Fort William Henry’ (1757), not only allowed for intense displays of interpersonal hostility but also acted as platforms for a variety of cross-cultural, ethnic and ideological exchanges. My work therefore explores the interactions between incidents of colonial violence, the response of the mid-eighteenth century press and the expression of 'public' attitudes towards empire and 'others' within the changing socio-political conditions of early British imperial expansion. I worked for Newcastle University as MBA Programme Administrator between 2007 - 2011 and now work in the HaSS Faculty as a Research and Commercial Projects Assistant.
Melih Sonmez
Melih Sonmez has a BA in Business Administration from Gazi University in Turkey (2007) and LLM in International Commercial Law at University of Leicester in the UK (2010). Melih's current research examines recent developments in corporate governance in terms of transparency and financial disclosure. His research will be a comparative analysis between the EU and Turkey. The research shall basically evaluate the significance of transparency and public disclosure in financial markets, examine well-known corporate governance models regarding their effects on the level of transparency and assess the recent developments in enhancing transparency and financial disclosure both in the EU and Turkey.
James Stewart
I am an MSc (by research) student in the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. The main areas of my work are behavioural and landscape ecology; specifically my research aims to investigate the habitat preferences of breeding grey seals. I am using geographic information systems and habitat suitability modelling to determine the preferences of seals for a number of topographical and climatological aspects of their environment.
Sarah Eardley-Weaver
Sarah is a PhD candidate and part-time lecturer in Translation Studies in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. As a linguist and musician with experience of disability, her main research interests are media accessibility and audiovisual translation with a particular focus on multisemiotic translation within the context of musical performance. More specifically her current research focuses on opera translation for patrons with varying hearing and visual ability, and she is especially interested in audience reception studies exploring the complexities of verbal and non-verbal communication between visual, audio and tactile sign systems. She has recently set up a new international research group PAN-ART (Performing Arts Now: Audience Reception and Translation) and co-convened a Translation Studies conference in Durham. She has also coordinated studies in collaboration with Opera North and the Royal Opera House, investigating facilities for the blind and partially-sighted as well as the deaf and hard-of-hearing, including audio description, touch tours, surtitles and sign interpreting. Sarah also has experience working as a private tutor in languages and music, and as a translator in French, German, and Italian.
