EPA (Ireland) funded PhD – An anthropology of water catchment areas

About the project

Water has long been more than a natural resource. It is a historical actor, a cultural archive, a material presence in the life of communities. In Ireland, as elsewhere, it flows through the poetics of myth and the pragmatics of survival. It delineates borders, nurtures soil, and bears the memory of collective rituals. Yet in the context of the Anthropocene—a term that names the planetary consequences of uneven histories of extraction and colonialism—water becomes a charged terrain of conflict and responsibility. The present project, situated at the intersection of anthropology, communication studies, and science and technology studies, interrogates how public participation in water governance is not simply a technical necessity but a political gesture, one in which recognition, voice, and legitimacy are at stake.

This research aims to examine the emergent ecologies of knowledge surrounding water catchment areas in counties Dublin, Kildare, and Meath, where springs and rainfall converge into the rivers Liffey and Rye. These are not neutral spaces. They are contested sites of governance, subject to competing rationalities: scientific, bureaucratic, and vernacular. Through an ethnographic lens attentive to the everyday life of participation, the project will explore how different publics—residents, policymakers, non-human actors—are differentially positioned within anticipatory governance frameworks. The anthropology of water (Ballestero, 2019; Strang, 2020) provides a critical grammar for understanding these entanglements—not simply as questions of “culture,” but of inequality, exclusion, and resistance.

We are particularly interested in how modes of co-design, citizen science, and public deliberation intersect with broader questions of environmental justice. Who gets to speak for water? Whose knowledge counts? And what kinds of futures are imagined—and foreclosed—in the name of “adaptation”? The project does not idealise participation, but rather examines it as a site of ethical and political tension.

The successful candidate will engage with:

• ethnographic and participatory methods that make visible the structural and symbolic dimensions of local water governance;
• global debates on anticipatory innovation, while remaining rooted in the local histories and materialities of Irish waterways;
• the codes, customs, and cosmologies—both human and more-than-human—that shape life in and around water catchments;
• speculative and pragmatic engagements with the future: not to predict, but to reveal the limits of what is thinkable, governable, and liveable in times of climate emergency.

The candidate’s work will contribute to an interdisciplinary ecosystem of research and practice aimed at co-producing knowledge in a time of planetary crisis. It will demand attention to the ethics of representation, the conditions of collaboration, and the politics of hope.

Project background

The successful candidate will join the Environmental Protection Agency project called Catchment communities - an interdisciplinary ecosystem for citizen science which aims to create a framework  and a set of tools and protocols to ensure the success of citizen science projects for water quality monitoring which can be rolled out to a national scale. These tools and protocols will be available to the wider community of researchers who use citizen science methodologies, and can be used as a framework for a National Citizen Science Programme for water monitoring. The candidate will work alongside researchers in hydromorphology, communications and geography. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires European countries to monitor water quality on a catchment scale, measuring the biological quality elements, the physio-chemical quality elements, the priority substances and the hydromorphology to give an overall indication of the status of the water bodies within the catchment. The work package to which the School of Communications candidate will work is called “Citizen and Expert Interdisciplinary Knowledge Co Production for Catchment Communities”.

In addition to the milestones of anthropological research as agreed between the candidate and supervision team, the larger project deliverables with the interdisciplinary team include:

• Literature review of relevant water anthropology and ethnographic methods as applied to an identified Irish catchment area (Dublin, Meath and /or Kildare)
• Database of identified “stakeholders” and publics in the catchment area
• Knowledge coproduction criteria with citizen science researchers
• Stakeholder and engagement workshops

The candidate will be based in the School of Communications, DCU supervised by STS and communications researcher Dr. Pádraig Murphy and cultural anthropologist Dr. Fiona Murphy (SALIS).

The candidate is expected to join Dublin City University and start the PhD research in September 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.

This is a 4 year fully-funded PhD position, with a PhD scholarship of €25,000 per year. Additionally, PhD fees are paid. Please note that if a student commences later than September 2025, for visa or other reasons, and subsequently enters into Year 5, the fifth year of fees will not be covered.

All scholarship awards are on the condition that the applicant meets DCU entry requirements, that qualifications are supported by relevant documentation and that application is completed via the DCU application system.

Applicants are invited to submit:

• A 2,000-word research proposal
• A brief CV detailing academic qualifications and professional experience to date.
• A personal statement (personal statement guidelines are provided here: https://www.dcu.ie/registry/personal-statement-guidelines )

Indicative components of the research proposal are: 

1. a preliminary literature review, locating the work in the appropriate field(s);
2. clearly defined research questions;
3. proposed methodology (please be specific on the methods you plan to apply);
4. indicative contribution of the research to disciplinary knowledge;
5. a bibliography (not included in the word count).

Eligibility

Applicants must: 

• Hold a relevant undergraduate degree at 2.1 or first-class honours level (or equivalent). Ideally, they should also hold a relevant Masters qualification in anthropology, sociology, communications, cultural studies or STS. Candidates who are currently completing a Masters qualification are welcome to apply.
• Meet, where relevant, the English language requirements for non-native speakers of English.

DCU Entry Requirements apply, which are detailed here

Criteria for assessment and next steps

The initial assessment of the proposal is based on the criteria below: 

1. Quality of the research proposal (strong research question, relevant literature / theoretical frameworks, etc.)
2. Merit of the proposed research methodology
3. Compatibility of proposed topic/field of scholarship with the thematic areas defined above
4. Suitability for research student teaching and related professional development

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to conduct an interview (either in person or online) to discuss their research proposal, academic and professional background and achievements, and their motivations to undertake PhD level research at DCU. 

Criteria to assess the interviews include: 

1. Knowledge of topic / ability to speak competently to proposal
2. Communication skills
3. Prior publications / conference contributions and commitment to publish during studies
4. Suitability for research student teaching and related professional; development
5. Professional experience / ability to complete projects / meet deadlines;
6. Motivation for taking on the challenge of a PhD project and awareness of what is involved. 

Successful candidates then will be required to apply formally to be admitted as PhD scholars, and may also need to show proficiency in the English language. Successful candidates will begin their studies in September 2025 and are required to be normally resident in Dublin for the duration of their studies.

Further information

For the scholarship details and fees please consult the Faculty of Humanities and  Social Sciences scholarship policy, which is linked here.

General information on making a Postgraduate Research application is available from the Graduate Studies Office.

NB. All applications should be submitted to Dr. Padraig Murphy, School of Communications, DCU (padraig.murphy@dcu.ie) and Dr. Fiona Murphy (fiona.b.murphy@dcu.ie) by June 30^th 2025.