PhD scholarship opportunity Kenya
Posted: Wednesday 28th January 2026
From Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green: Empowering Port Communities in the Global South (Mombasa, Kenya)
University of Portsmouth, Port Cities and Maritime Cultures (PCMC) invites applications for a fully funded three-year PhD to commence in October 2026.
This PhD studentship, and the Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green project, is funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation. ‘Sail to Steam, Carbon to Green’ seeks to understand the role of local knowledge and the past and present-day impact of the maritime industry and globalisation on communities in the Global South. The advertised PhD programme will focus on the port city of Mombasa, Kenya, and is one of four PhDs to be funded by the project.
The PhD will be based in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, in the Centre for Port Cities and Maritime Cultures (PCMC) and in partnership with the AEGIS Centre (Advancement of Equality, Gender, and Inclusion Studies), and will be supervised by Dr Melanie Bassett, Professor Tamsin Bradley, and Professor Brad Beaven. Additional mentorship will be offered by our academic partners at the University of Nairobi and Pwani University, Kenya.
This doctoral-level research program will involve a cross-disciplinary study that combines historical research with contemporary social scientific data collection. The project focuses on the historical, contemporary, and future significance of urban-maritime cultures and communities in a global context, aligning with PCMC's key research themes.
The study will compare the port of Mombasa, Kenya, during the transition from sail to steam power in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with present-day measures to integrate decarbonisation technology.
By collaborating with academics, creative practitioners, funders, and local community groups, the project will explore the relationships between urban and maritime spaces and aim to incorporate local voices into the research.
