PhD Postgraduate research in Social Sciences

The PhD programme in the School has the following three milestones:

• Registration
• Progression
• Examination

Registration

Applicants who satisfy the entry requirements are encouraged to complete the online 'Expression of Interest' form. If the initial application is satisfactory, a conditional offer will be issued and a potential supervisor will be allocated who will provide guidance on the research proposal development. 

An interview will take place when the final draft of the research proposal is submitted for approval. The granting of the interview does not imply that the applicant will necessarily be admitted to a research degree programme.

Subject to the satisfactory interview and that the Faculty Research Committee (FRC) is satisfied that: a) the research proposal is sound and has the potential to deliver a postgraduate research award; and b) the proposal is appropriately resourced, the applicant will be admitted to the research degree programme.

Progression

All students who wish to study for a PhD are required to complete a progression within 18 months (for full-time students) or 36 months (for part-time students).

The student at the progression needs to produce a paper which summarises his/her achievements on the research programme and outlines future research plans (including research methods), and conduct an oral presentation of the paper at a workshop set up for the progression purpose.  

An independent assessor, nominated by the FRC, reviews the paper produced, together with supervisors’ assessment, the student’s presentation and other evidence. On this basis, the assessor will provide evaluative comments and recommendations to the FRC. Upon considering all aspects, the FRC may recommend that the student a) proceed as proposed; b) proceed subject to changes or amendments being made, addressing the concerns raised; c) be placed 'at risk'; or d) change the research degree originally sought. 

Examination

Towards the end of the research programme, the student will be examined on the basis of a thesis and an oral examination (viva voce). Normally two qualified examiners are appointed, at least one of whom is external to the institution. If the student is a member of staff at the University, then a second external examiner will be appointed.

Following the oral examination, the examiners will make recommendations to the University’s Research Award Sub-Committee (RASC) whether the research degree sought can be awarded.

PhD Supervisors - Social Sciences

Dr Christopher Stone

Dr Stone is an experienced academic within Interpreting and Deaf Studies having previously worked at Gallaudet University and also working as an interpreter.  Dr Stone’s research includes areas within Interpreting Studies such as ethnography, language and cognition, whilst recent work has included Deaf people working as translators and interpreters within the Deaf community.  With a range of academic publications to his name, Dr Stone also has interest in Deaf legal discourse, specialized vocabulary in ASL, the invisible work of interpreters, and ethnographic study of interpreting.  Recent work by Christopher at the European parliament further demonstrates his understanding of cross-national issues. Read more here. 

Professor Laura Caulfield

Professor Laura Caulfield PhD is Director of the Institute for Community Research and Development. Laura has been undertaking research with public, private, and third-sector agencies since 2001 to tackle complex social issues, and is an expert in bridging the gap between evidence, policy, and practice.

In 2017 Laura launched the Institute for Community Research and Development, working with communities, practitioners, and policy makers to use research and evidence to improve people's lives. Laura is a Psychologist and much of her research focuses on the impact of interventions in and around criminal justice. She has received funding from the Home Office, Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts Alliance, the NHS, Arts Council England, the Ministry of Justice, and several third-sector organisations. Laura has significant leadership experience and has held Director of Research roles since 2012. Read more here.

Dr James Rees

James Rees is Reader and Deputy Director of ICRD. He joined the University in Summer 2019; prior to that he was at the Open University and also worked at the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester in a range of disciplines including Geography, Politics and Social Policy. His work is notably inter-disciplinary and is concerned with the voluntary sector in its broadest sense, but also more specifically in its relationship with current transformations in public services in the UK. At the Third Sector Research Centre, University of Birmingham, he led the public service delivery programme, research from which helped set the agenda for debates on the involvement of voluntary organisations in public services. His jointly-edited collection on The Third Sector delivering Public Services was published by Policy Press in July 2016. Read more here.

Dr Clare Williams

Dr Williams’ research focuses on political science theory to evaluate the development of the service provision and developments in policy for children and families.  Recently, Dr Williams’ research has also examined the impact of welfare reform and government policy changes on vulnerable groups.  This has included evaluating domestic violence refuge provision for women with mental ill health and food bank use.  Dr Williams always welcomes expression of interests linked to children and family policies, domestic violence policy and services, impacts of austerity and welfare reform policy and policy development theory. Read more here.

Sam Pryke

Dr Sam Pryke has a primary academic interest in the sociology of nations and nationalism.  His PhD work was on issues around national identity, gender and sexuality in national British youth movements.  Subsequently he has researched long distance nationalism and the relationship between nationalism and globalisation.  He is a member for many years of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism.  He has additional academic interest in the study of migration. 

Mary-Rose Puttick

Dr Mary-Rose Puttick joined the Institute for Community Research and Development (ICRD) in November 2022 and leads the Migration and Mobilities strand of research. She is currently working as a Research Fellow on two Arts Council England-funded projects with the ICRD: the Artists' Care project, exploring ways to develop workplace interventions to support the wellbeing of freelance artists working in prisons and secure immigration settings; and the Wolverhampton City of Youth Culture project, a co-created project with young people that aims to improve life outcomes for 7-25 year olds. Mary-Rose is also a member of the ICRD's evaluation team for the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership. evaluating trauma-informed practice in policing and education contexts. Read more here.

Dr Jane Booth

Jane is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton. Her teaching interests bridge the disciplines of sociology and social policy, namely the politics of welfare, community engagement, death and dying, social change. However she is also interested in curriculum development in HE, with a particular focus on community-based learning and critical pedagogy. She is module leader for a number of community-based learning modules at University of Wolverhampton. She has lead 2 teams of students who participated in the SHAPE programme in 2023 and 2024 - a joint Students Organising for Sustainability (SoS) and The British Academy programme. The team in 2023 designed a website to enhance the mental health and wellbeing of young people in Wolverhampton, coproduced with Base 25 (a Wolverhampton based charity that works with children, young people and families). Read more here.