Holders of the 2024-25 awards
The winner of the 2024-25 award for a PhD student registered at a member university of the ACU outside the UK is Shalabh Chopra.
Shalabh is a PhD student at the Department of Media and Communication within the School of Language, Social, and Political Sciences at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Shalabh been actively engaged in the Public Diplomacy-Political Communication Forum at the University of Canterbury as a student researcher. He also works as a researcher within an international Jean Monnet Policy Network, ‘EU-Ukraine heritage diplomacy’, supported by Erasmus+ and the European Commission, in which he undertakes media analysis of Indian media narratives about Ukraine’s cultural and historical heritage in the context of the full-scale invasion by Russia.
Shalabh’s PhD research focuses on narratives of India’s foreign policy in the context of escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and China. He analyses narratives of India’s foreign policy in thinktank publications, media, and parliamentary archives as a pivotal metric to gauge how India has been navigating these choppy geopolitical waters. From a theoretical point of view, he makes connections between narratives of (i) India’s emerging role as a balancing power, (ii) its self-identity as an ethical civilizational state, and (iii) the geopolitical context of US-China tensions in which these signifiers of role and identity play out.
With the Routledge/Round Table Commonwealth Studentship award, Shalabh aims to improve the quality of his research by being able to access news websites hidden behind paywalls, fund a fieldtrip to India to conduct interviews with foreign policy elites and media professionals reporting on India’s foreign policy, and attend workshops on computational social science.
The winner of the 2024-25 award for a PhD student registered at a university in the UK is Rianna Patterson.
Rianna Patterson is a Dominican PhD candidate in applied psychology at the University of Nottingham. She is the founder of the Dominica Dementia Foundation, which she founded at eighteen in memory of her grandfather. She has been a voice for older people in forums such as the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. She was one of the principal authors and researchers on the report, ‘Dementia in the Commonwealth’, that was launched by the Commonwealth Ageing Association (CommonAge) at the International Dementia Conference in Australia. Her contributions to this report included providing autobiographical data from young people’s contributions in several Commonwealth countries on dementia advocacy as well as local government involvement in this field.
Rianna has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Kent and completed a master’s degree in dementia at University College London, where her thesis focused on ‘Dementia Policies in Caribbean Communities’. To her knowledge this was one of the first publications to focus on English-speaking Caribbean countries. Her research fits in a global agenda of developing national dementia plans as suggested by the World Health Organisation.
Rianna intends to use the Routledge/Round Table Commonwealth Studentship award to contribute to improving the quality of lives of people living with dementia in marginalised communities including African and Caribbean populations, by creating evidence-based research that could influence systematic and health policy change in Caribbean countries in engagement with global organisations such as the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation.
More about the Studentships
The PhD studentships provide support for research projects on Commonwealth-related themes.
Two studentships are available each year, to the maximum value of £5,500 GBP each:
- One for students registered at UK universities
- One for students registered at universities in other Commonwealth countries
Applications are welcomed from a broad range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, but preference may be given to disciplines usually covered by the Round Table journal, including (but not exclusively) politics, international relations, economics, international history, geography, law, development studies, and area studies.
Applications in the pure sciences and medicine will not be considered, but studies relating to science and health policies are welcomed.
Proposed research must:
- relate to the Commonwealth as a whole or to any Commonwealth-wide institution or organisation, or
- have a Commonwealth comparative aspect, or
- be of relevance to more than one Commonwealth country.
For example, a research project comparing LGBT rights in South Africa and Uganda would be eligible, as would a project on the reform of colonial-era anti-LGBT legislation in India, but a project on the role of Stonewall in advocating for LGBT rights in the UK would not. A project on media bias or election law in Canada would not be eligible, but a project comparing Canada with Jamaica or Australia would.
It is not expected that the applicant’s PhD/DPhil research already has a Commonwealth focus. Applications are particularly welcomed where the award will enable the applicant to add a Commonwealth dimension to the work.
The studentships are funded by The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and the journal’s publisher, Routledge, in association with the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).
Eligibility
The first studentship is open to registered PhD students from UK universities, although not necessarily UK citizens.
The second is open to registered PhD students from ACU member universities [https://www.acu.ac.uk/our-members/] in Commonwealth counties other than the UK, and to Chevening and Commonwealth Scholarship alumni who are PhD students at any Commonwealth university outside the UK.
Mentorship
As part of the studentship, applicants are required to identify and work with a mentor at a university in a Commonwealth country [https://thecommonwealth.org/member-countries] other than that in which they are based. This should be an expert in a subject linked to the applicant’s subject of research, who will be able to provide support and advice during the studentship. Before applying, applicants are encouraged to informally approach at least one potential mentor and, if their application is successful, will then be required to obtain a letter of support from their mentor to agree to the mentorship before their studentship is confirmed.
The role of the mentor
The mentor will be expected to hold a minimum of two virtual meetings with the student during the period of the studentship. They will be expected to be in contact with the student by email to share their experiences in their relevant field, provide advice around publishing, events and trends in their field, and to challenge and empower the student to consider new ways of thinking.
The mentor will also be expected to contribute to either the podcast or the article that the student is expected to produce at the end of the studentship (see below) and will be paid an honorarium of £500 GBP, payable at the end of the studentship. Mentors must read and abide by the mentor code of conduct guidelines [https://www.acu.ac.uk/funding-opportunities/for-students/fellowships/routledgeround-table-commonwealth-studentships/mentor-code-of-conduct-guidelines/].
Post-studentship requirements
Successful applicants will be required to submit, no more than twelve months after the take-up of the award, an article of between 4,000 and 6,000 words based on their research, for consideration for publication in the Round Table journal. Successful applicants will also be required to make a podcast on their research, for publication on the journal’s website.
Payment of the award
£4,000 GB will be paid on the announcement of the awards. The remaining £1,500 GBP will be paid on completion of the post-studentship requirements.
How to apply
Applications for the 2024-25 awards have now closed.
We expect to announce details of a new round of awards in May 2025.
