From Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green: Empowering Port Communities in the Global South (Peru)

Applications are invited for a fully-funded three year PhD, with opportunities for a visiting scholarship in Callao (Peru), to commence in February 2025. 

The Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures (PCMC) is delighted to announce opportunities for doctoral research in the field of humanities and social science for a PhD on the first phase of the ‘Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green: Empowering Port Communities in the Global South’ project. 

The overarching theme of ‘Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green’ is to seek to understand the role of local knowledge and the impact of sail to steam shipping on communities and the infrastructure of international sea ports in the Global South. This will be underpinned by studies which will provide rigorous scholarly research for comparative analysis of the heritage and attitudes of people in the Global South in regard to maritime technological change and its consequences. The advertised PhD programme will focus on the port city of Callao (Peru).

The PhD will be based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and will be supervised by the project leaders Dr Rudolph Ng, Dr Melanie Bassett and Dr Karl Bell. Additional mentorship will be offered by Professor Jose de la Puente Brunke at PUCP.

This doctoral-level research programme will consist of a cross-disciplinary study combining historical research and social scientific data collection. The study will set the context for an identified port city throughout the period of sail to steam energy transition, and also measure its effects and impacts on the communities and cultures which have remained or have grown from the creation of global port cities. The project focuses on the past, present and future importance of urban-maritime cultures and communities within a global context, which align with the key research themes of PCMC. Working with academics, creative practitioners, funders and local community groups, the project will explore the relationships between urban and maritime spaces and seek to bring in local voices.

This exciting opportunity includes an annual stipend at the UKRI rate,  a generous travel allowance for the student to conduct national and international research, and a ‘community engagement fund’ to enable the student to co-produce impactful responses to the historical research and current challenges associated with energy transition.

The PhD is funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF) and supported by the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Culture in the School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature. The visiting scholarship is supported by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP) who will host the  student as a visiting scholar. Additional research and dissemination support is offered by the Naval Museum of Callao.

This project will learn from maritime energy transitions of the past to inform how the move to carbon-neutral shipping will impact coastal communities in the Global South in the twenty-first century. These often marginalised coastal communities have historically been under-resourced and today are at the forefront of climate change and issues of safety impacts and resilience. The project will have a real-world impact on the maritime sector in learning lessons from the earlier nineteenth-century energy transition from sail to steam. It will also uncover the past and present voices of local coastal communities, to articulate their historical and contemporary opinions on the impact of maritime technological change and climate adaptation. The aims of this project align with UNESCO’s ‘Ocean Decade’ (2021-2031) which seeks to promote a more informed view of the ocean and its resources.

The energy transition from sail to steam provoked a profound transformation in maritime environments, technologies, and cultures across the globe in the nineteenth century, and there is every indication that decarbonisation will have comparable impacts in the twenty-first century. Most existing studies have focused on the technological shifts within vessels and the impact this had on international trade, rather than how it changed work, lives, and environments in port and coastal communities. While the ‘Ocean Decade’ initiative seeks to raise awareness of how the ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected, their agenda overwhelmingly emphasises the science behind the changing oceanic environment, coastal ecologies, and economies. This does not account for the deep-rooted and complex ways in which people may come to identify with and understand their environment. As such, the stories and historical experiences of coastal communities continue to be eclipsed, especially in the Global South. This project will advance the need to incorporate perspectives from the humanities into this analysis, to enhance our understanding of the perceptions and human consequences of technological and ecological change.

The successful candidate will help to develop contemporary responses to historical and future energy transitions, and undertake a visiting scholarship in Lima and Callao. The studentship includes full fees, bursary, an additional travel bursary to support international research and dissemination, and access to a community engagement fund. 

How to apply

We’d encourage you to contact Dr Melanie Bassett (melanie.bassett@port.ac.uk) to discuss your interest before you apply, quoting the project code.

When you are ready to apply, you can use our online application form. Make sure you submit a personal statement, proof of your degrees and grades, details of two referees, proof of your English language proficiency and an up-to-date CV.  Our ‘How to Apply’ page offers further guidance on the PhD application process.

If you want to be considered for this funded PhD opportunity you must quote project code SASS9271024 when applying. Please note that email applications are not accepted.