Peter Davies PhD Scholarships in French and Francophone Studies (2026-2029)
Application deadline: 13th March 2026
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow is pleased to offer three Peter Davies PhD Scholarships in French and Francophone Studies tenable from 1st October, 2026.
The scholarship will fully cover UK/”home” or international PhD student fees. You can find more information about the fees here. The scholarship holder will receive a subsistence grant of c.£20,000 per annum, for the duration of three years.
Current research in French and Francophone Studies at the University of Glasgow ranges from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period and includes expertise in literature, history, cultural studies, theory and thought, and visual cultures, including emblems and comics. Particular areas of focus cover legacies of empire and slavery, travel writing, gender, migration and exile, work and consumption, illness and health, memory and trauma, the historical avant-gardes and poetic practice. Our current and recent postgraduate students' work includes topics such as inter-art relations in Mallarmé and Whistler, twentieth-century autofiction, visual satire in nineteenth-century caricature, urban interconnections in the works of Zola and Serao, translating narratives of autism, Victorian revival emblems, cosplay, and visual strategies of album covers. After successful completion of our postgraduate programme some of our recent graduates have continued with their academic careers in UK or abroad, while others have moved to highly prestigious positions in the non-academic sector.
Glasgow boasts outstanding material resources via one of the finest University libraries in Europe and the outstanding collections of The Hunterian, in a city where French culture is part of its very fabric.
Comparative and interdisciplinary proposals, which examine French and Francophone topics within European and global contexts are welcome. Comparative Literature and Text-Image Studies proposals with a French and Francophone Studies aspect are encouraged. Research proposals in other areas of study relating to France and the French-speaking world will be also considered. An appropriate supervision team will be advised according to a chosen topic and a candidate’s research interests.
These scholarships are established in memory of Dr Peter Davies, a former Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Glasgow, who also generously supported the French Studies Programme. His research interests were French and Occitan language and literature of the 12th-15th centuries; post-medieval Occitan literature; non-metropolitan French; French dialects; medieval French with music and bande dessinée. Following his retirement in 2005, he remained active as an Honorary Research Fellow and member of the Friends of Glasgow University Library until his death in 2020.
For more details, see:
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mlc/study/postgraduatestudy/postgraduatescholarships/#peterdaviesphdscholarshipsinfrenchandfrancophonestudies(2026-2029)
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mlc/staff/?filter=french
https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/mlc/staff/?filter=comparativeliterature