University of Brighton‘s Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender (CTSG), which brings together academics and PhD students from across disciplines who work on sexuality and gender research, has launched a fundraising campaign for its Transforming Sexuality & Gender Scholarship which aims to promote gender diversity in Higher Education and society.
The CTSG scholarship aims to build researcher capacity within and around the trans community, by offering a full tuition fee scholarship to a student on the Social Research Methods Post Graduate programme – a stand-alone Master of Science degree offering ideal training for a student who wishes to go on to do a PhD – combined with individual mentoring by CTSG staff and a dedicated CTSG PhD student mentor.
The CTSG Scholarship is open to postgraduate applicants who situate their research topic within the CTSG research themes and can demonstrate a commitment to social change, trans rights and vision for the future of transforming sexualities and gender inclusion and diversity in HE and society.
Caleb’s story
Caleb Hayes is the current CTSG scholarship student. He did a degree in Criminology before applying to the Social Research Methods programme to pursue his research interest in is the experiences of transgender individuals with domestic violence or abuse.
The course is demanding but Caleb has taken part in Centre activities aimed at the post graduate community as well as contributed as a research assistant on a CTSG research project on the need for LGBTQ+ digital youth work during the pandemic.
Caleb said: “I hope for my academic work to contribute towards polices or initiatives aiming to support trans people. For example, working with domestic violence support services or LGBTQ+ charities in the future to create domestic violence support specifically for transgender people.”
As part of the scholarship Caleb has access to mentoring via the Centre. Being mentored by CTSG PhD students has helped making valuable contacts with other early career scholars working in the area of gender and sexualities research whilst a staff mentor is helping with the development of his PhD proposal.
Caleb added: “The CTSG community has been incredibly welcoming and supportive. Everyone I have spoken to has been happy to provide me with guidance, resources, or just an ear, to reflect on ideas with. Having the CTSG scholarship connection has been so beneficial with the demanding aspect of the course, both support wise and in terms of resources. I’ve used a lot of resources found through the CTSG to develop ideas for essays, my dissertation, and my PhD proposal.”
For more info and to donate, CLICK HERE.