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Three Year PhD Stipend at the Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany

Deadline: 30.11.2012.

Scholarship administrator: Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Level: doctoral
Field of study: Natural Sciences, Engineering, Social Sciences, Humanities
Place of study: Germany

 

Three Year PhD Stipend at the Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany

Three year PhD stipend available in Mercator Foundation research group “Spaces of Anthropological Knowledge: Production and Transfer”. The successful candidate will join a team investigating the enactment and knowing of “media-related harm” in science, politics and law and among young gamers. The task of the PhD will be to add to this project an ethnographic study of the enactment and knowing of “media-related harm” in press or game industry.
 

Description

The public problem concerning if and how violent computer games are harmful to children is a recurrent one. Gamers, game industry, press, scientists and game regulators configure the problem differently. They have different devices for identifying and measuring the problem. The digital technology is differently entangled and subjectivities become differently constituted dependent on their participation the public problem. How is this public problem configured in such different ways? What social and material participants are involved, and how do they contribute to configuring the problem? How are the different public problems intertwined? The aim of the project “Knowing Media Harm: Production and Circulation” is to describe and characterise how media harm is enacted and thus known in different areas of German society. Its points of departure are practice theoretical approaches to knowledge production (e.g. Latour, Verran), the circulation of knowledge (e.g. Appadurai, Tsing) and ethnomethodologi-cal methods (e.g. Knorr, Lynch, Suchman). It is investigated how, when and where knowledge is produced within and across areas of society: science, children’s media practices, press, game regulation and game industry. Through empiri-cal research the project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the co-existence of different orderings of knowledge and technology in complex societies.
 

Specification

The projects’ investigations in the areas of ‘science’, ‘children’s gaming practices’ and ‘game regulation’ has already begun. We now look for a Ph.D. candidate who will do research in the area of either ‘game industry’ or ‘press’. The research unfolds in an interdisciplinary context of close empirical and theoretical collaboration and regular exchange.
 

Eligibility

An M.A. in science and technology studies, media studies, social anthropology, cultural psychology, social sciences or related disciplines is required. Experience and interest in qualitative methods, preferably ethnography, is necessary. Applicants must be good writers and possess empirical as well as theoretical curiosity. She or he must have the ability to work independently as well as collaboratively. Proficiency in German language is furthermore important.
 

Application procedure

Please submit an application to mrg2@rub.de including:

  • a letter of motivation, CV
  • a short research proposal
  • a text sample (e.g. publication or thesis)
  • the complete contact information of two references

Interested candidates are invited to contact project leader on estrid.sorensen@rub.de prior to application. Deadline: 30. November 2012.

For further information about research project, visit this page or write directly do Estrid Sorensen (estrid.sorensen@rub.de).


 

 

 

 

 

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