PhD Scholarship in History Race, Gender, and Violence in Western Militaries in the War on Terror

Dr Mia Martin Hobbs seeks a PhD candidate for her DECRA project Race Gender and Violence in Western militaries in the War on the wake of 9/11 Western militaries agreed that force alone would not defeat global terrorism. The US UK and Australian militaries set forth new doctrine outlining the need to build trust with local populations and a core element of this doctrine was the diversity of their armed forces. Leaders were explicit about the necessity of diversity among the ranks while rhetorical justifications for the War on Terror framed it as defending values of pluralism and equality. Military recruitment materials heavily promoted diversity tying the individual empowerment of the soldier to the liberating mission of the War on Terror. Yet the War on Terror was characterised by the weaponisation of race and gender by Western militaries and the soldiers who diversified Western forces faced widespread sexual violence and racism within military institutions.

Dr Martin Hobbs will be conducting oral histories with women and minority veterans from the US UK and Australian militaries. The PhD candidate will conduct their own research on a related but independent topic and coauthor research with Mia. Possible areas for the independent topic include (but are not limited to):

• Oral histories with women and minority veterans from other Western militaries (beyond US UK Australia)
• Histories of the civilian experiences of Western warfare in the War on Terror in particular war theatre
• Perceptions of race and gender among the wider ADF
• Transnational analysis comparing how the War on Terror was interpreted in different countries
• Histories of terror groups that emerged during the War on Terror
• History of a particular war theatre in the War on Terror

We are seeking a motivated and enthusiastic candidate who has the capacity to design their own research project and work both independently and collaboratively.

The successful candidate will be based at Burwood Campus in Melbourne.

The PhD will be of 3 years duration with a tax-free scholarship of $37450 per annum.

To be successful youll have:

Applicants must meet Deakins PhD entry requirements be enrolling full time and hold an Honours degree (First Class) or an equivalent standard Masters degree with a substantial research component. Please refer to the entry pathways to higher degrees by research for further information. The successful applicant will have an undergraduate or postgraduate degree in History or a related area.

The successful applicant will put forward an original 2-3 page proposal for a research project described in brief in their cover letter. The proposal should include:

• Your idea for the project
• The originality of the project (e.g. where it fits with the wider literature)
• Ideas for historical sources for the project
• Relevant expertise (e.g. language skills prior experience related work)

Your key responsibilities will be to:

The successful candidate will achieve the research aims via a variety of research modalities including the development of an independent research project and producing high quality outputs including conference papers co-authored journal articles and a dissertation. The candidate will work closely with Dr Martin Hobbs on areas of common research to produced co-authored outcomes.

About us:

The flexible learning options we provide our students and our diverse team of professionals and academic experts has enabled us to achieve a 5-star rating by the prestigious university ranking organisation Quacquarelli Symonds. For eight consecutive years weve achieved the highest level of overall student satisfaction among Victorian universities.

We have a network of campuses learning centres and research centres across Victoria and corporate offices in Melbourne China Indonesia India and Sri Lanka. Our online Cloud campus provides more than 13000 students with access to state-of-the-art digital tools and direct access to world-renowned academics.

As a Victorian university with a global impact Deakin is translating its research into commercial outcomes that will help drive innovation for Australias economy.

To submit your expression of interest please submit a cover letter research proposal CV university transcripts and evidence of written and research capability (e.g. publications masters thesis etc) to Dr Mia Martin Hobbs atby 31st May 2026.