HDR Scholarship - Climate justice activism

Location

Melbourne Burwood Campus or Geelong Waurn Ponds Campus (Flexible)

Research topic

A full time PhD scholarship is being offered as part of a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) project titled: Striking voices: Australian school-aged students’ climate justice activism, led by Deakin researcher Dr Eve Mayes.

This project aims to foster understanding of students’ climate justice activism through exploring how Australian young people are taking action on climate change, the supports for their activism, and educational conditions of and responses to their climate concerns, using participatory methods. Expected outcomes include online student-curated accounts of social movement participation, and a co-produced teaching and learning framework for schools. Anticipated benefits include a greater understanding of emerging patterns of political engagement, and the development of educational capacity to engage young people and face urgent environmental challenges. The project is being undertaken with the support of a First Nations Critical Reference Group (with representatives from First Nations educational and climate justice organisations) and a Stakeholder Reference Group (with representatives from climate organisations and education groups).

Potential applicants who identify as Australian First Nations are strongly encouraged to apply. The PhD candidate will be part of Deakin’s research centre Research for Educational Impact (REDI) and National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation (NIKERI) Institute. The candidate will be co-supervised by Dr Eve Mayes (REDI), Prof Gabrielle Fletcher (NIKERI) and/ or Dr Jessamy Gleeson (NIKERI). The project will commence early 2024, with the PhD candidate to be appointed by February 2024.

Project aim

The PhD candidate will undertake a specific project that will likely involve exploration of how school-aged students have taken action on climate change within and beyond schools through public strikes and in informal ‘everyday’ activism, online and offline. The PhD project may, for example, focus on young people’s creative uses of social media for activism, climate justice education, decolonising climate activism or decolonising climate education. The candidate will have the opportunity to refine a topic that aligns with their specific interests, while fulfilling the requirements of the larger project.

The candidate will receive significant research training and mentoring by the research team in terms of project management, budgeting, data generation and analysis, report writing and research publication. The PhD candidate will be part of Research for Educational Impact (REDI) and National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation (NIKERI) Institute, and co-supervised by Dr Eve Mayes (REDI), Prof Gabrielle Fletcher (NIKERI) and/ or Dr Jessamy Gleeson (NIKERI). For a successful candidate who identifies as Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander, NIKERI supports its Higher Degree Research candidates with opportunities for vibrant, located support and research workshops, further galvanising possibilities for the candidate to build a community of practice and networks of support with other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HDR candidates, and cultural and academic mentors and Knowledge Holders.

For a successful candidate who identifies as Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander, the candidate will also receive an additional top-up scholarship of $5,000 per annum for the first 3 years funded through the Mary MacKillop Today First Nations Scholarship Program.

Important dates

Applications will remain open until a candidate has been appointed.

Benefits

This scholarship is available over 3 years.

Stipend of $34,400 per annum tax exempt (2024 rate)
Top-up scholarship of $5,000 per annum
Relocation allowance of $500-1500 (for single to family) for students moving from interstate
International students only: Tuition fees offset for the duration of 4 years. Single Overseas Student Health Cover policy for the duration of the student visa.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible you must:

be either a domestic or international candidate. Domestic includes candidates with Australian Citizenship, Australian Permanent Residency or New Zealand Citizenship.
meet Deakin's PhD entry requirements
be enrolling full time and hold an honours degree (first class) or an equivalent standard master's degree with a substantial research component in one or more of the following areas: Media/ Cultural Studies, Education, Sociology and Indigenous Studies.

Please refer to the research degree entry pathways page for further information.

Additional desirable criteria include:

Knowledge and/ or lived experience of climate justice activism
Enthusiasm for and/ or research skills with social media, digital platforms and technologies
Experience in research with young people
Experience in climate change education