The University of Sussex provides two 3.5 year scholarships for a PhD in Politics as part of the NEWREPUBLIC European Research Council project.

NEWREPUBLIC is a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant which asks “What are the ideas that animate anti-autocratic movements in Africa, and beyond?”

One of the foundational claims for this project is that a series of anti-autocratic movements in Africa articulate people power philosophies. These people power movements put ideas of power and domination at the center of their visions of democratic struggle. As NEWREPUBLIC asks what ideas animate anti-autocratic movements, it will endeavor to 1) extend, 2) enrich and 3) complicate these foundational claims.

The candidates will be supervised by a team consisting of  Dr. Dan Paget, Dr. Hannah Richter and/or Prof. Paul Taggart. As PhD studentS in the NEWREPUBLIC team, the candidates will undertake an independent research project of their own design, in pursuit of one or more of the three goals described above.

Application deadline: 6 March 2026