Discourses of masculinity and desire: Investigating the links between language, sex, and male supremacism

This funding model includes a 36 month fully funded PhD Studentship, set in-line with the Research Council values. For 2024/5, this will be £19,237 per year. The tax-free stipend will be paid monthly. This PhD Studentship also includes a Full-Time Fee Scholarship for up to 3 years. The funding is subject to your continued registration on the research degree, making satisfactory progression within your PhD, as well as attendance on and successful completion of the Postgraduate Certificate in Research Practice.

All applicants will receive the same stipend irrespective of fee status.

Application Closing Date:
Midday (UK Time) on Monday 30^th September 2024 for a start date of the 3^rd February 2025.

How to Apply

To apply, please follow the below steps:

Complete the BCU Online Application Form
Complete the Doctoral Studentship Proposal Form in full, ensuring that you quote the project ID. You will be required to upload your proposal in place of a personal statement on the BCU online application form.
Upload two references to your online application form (at least one of which must be an academic reference).
Upload your qualification(s) for entry onto the research degree programme. This will be Bachelor/Master’s certificate(s) and transcript(s).
International applicants must also provide a valid English language qualification. Please see the list of English language qualifications accepted here. Please check the individual research degree course page for the required scores.

FAQs

Where do I include the project ID?	You must include the project ID listed in the advert on your completed Doctoral Studentship Proposal. There is a field for this in Section 2 of the form under ‘Research Project’. If you do not provide the correct project ID, we would be unable to review your expression of interest for this project.
Do I need to complete a research proposal when the topic has already been set?	Yes, you must complete the Doctoral Studentship Research Proposal in full. This Research Proposal acts as part of your expression of interest, so without this, we will not be able to consider you when the projects are set up.
Can one of my referees be the project lead listed in the advert?	No, the project lead listed in this advert cannot be a referee for any expressions of interest for this project.
What if I want to apply for more than one funded project being advertised?	You can apply for more than one funding scheme being advertised. To apply for multiple opportunities, you only need to complete one online application form to study at BCU. However, you mustsubmit a separate Doctoral Studentship Proposal for each project you want to be considered for as part of your application to BCU. To confirm, please complete one BCU online application form but upload separate Doctoral Studentship Proposals for each opportunity you wish to be considered for.
I have applied before the deadline, but now want to be considered for a different funded project advertised. Can I switch my application?	No, we will only consider your application for the funded projects you applied for by the deadline.
What if I miss the deadline, can I still apply?	No, unfortunately we are unable to accept applications for funded projects that are submitted after the deadline. You can still apply for a research degree at BCU, but applications for a funded project must be received before the deadline: Midday (UK time) on Monday 30^th September 2024.
The advert says the start date is February 2025. Is this flexible?	At this time, we are only able to offer February 2025 starts for these funded projects.

If your question is not answered above and you need any further information, please use the contact details below:

For enquiries about the project content, please contact:
robert.lawson@bcu.ac.uk
For enquiries about the application procedure, please contact: research.admissions@bcu.ac.uk

Project Title:

Discourses of masculinity and desire: Investigating the links between language, sex, and male supremacism

Project Lead:

Dr Robert Lawson

Project ID:

BLSS-39547800

Project Description:

A concerning trend in recent years has been the increase in male supremacy and toxic masculinity, across both day-to-day life and digital spaces. This increase has fuelled more overt expressions of misogyny, sexism, and violence against women, bolstered by the mainstreaming and normalisation of male supremacist viewpoints on social media. One especially troubling component of male supremacist ideologies is the degradation and dehumanising of women, often based on explicitly violent articulations of sexual desire. We know very little, however, about what these discourses of sex look like or how online and offline ideologies about sex are connected to one another.

Approaching sex and sexual desire as a spectrum, this PhD project will employ a range of analytical techniques to explore the language used to talk about these issues within both mainstream contexts (such as educational settings or ‘normal’ digital conversations) and taboo/fringe spaces (such as sex work forums and manosphere communities). By investigating how men talk about Sex (as a concept) and sex (as an act/desire) and interrogating how these practices are implicated as part of male supremacism, this project aims to better understand how men’s views of/about sex are shaped, how such views might shift depending on the space under consideration, and how these views might drive the objectification of women. Such insights will inform potential deradicalisation efforts, in addition to pedagogical developments in RSHE curricula at the intersection of sex, consent, and desire, helping to counteract the corrosive effects of male supremacism, sexual violence, misogyny, and harassment.

Anticipated findings and contributions to knowledge:

The primary focus of this PhD project is how sex and sexual desire are discursively constructed in online spaces and how these online articulations of desire might connect to ‘real world’ attitudes and ideologies. As such, this project will have a substantial impact on our understanding of the pathways between online content about sex and sexual desire to personal expressions of these desires. Not only will such insights help inform deradicalisation and desistence interventions in the context of male supremacism, but they can also inform interventions centred on reducing rates of gender-based violence, a particularly important contribution given the extent to which sexual violence against women and girls is highlighted as a public safety concern. These insights can also be integrated into developments across school-level RSHE policy and curriculum provision, which is becoming an increasingly important concern across the education sector. Finally, the substantive focus in this project will engage with a variety of distressing data related to sexual desire, violent ideation, and misogynist and sexist content. As such, the project will explore a range of issues related to mental health provision for researchers working with forms of distressing data, contributing to broader debates concerning researcher wellbeing in the context of difficult or upsetting topics.

Person Specification:

International applicants must provide a valid English language qualification, such as International English Language Test System (IELTS) or equivalent with an overall score of 6.5 with no band below 6.0.