Teaching

As a result of dramatic economic and social changes over recent years, the study of inequality has rapidly developed as one of the most important areas of inter-disciplinary social scientific study.

This MSc offers a comprehensive and wide-ranging programme which includes expertise from leading academics in the Departments of Sociology, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Government, Law, Social Policy, Media and Communications, Gender, and Statistics and will provide students with state-of-the-art teaching in this area.

Each year, the MSc student with the best overall performance will be awarded the Atkinson Prize. The prize is named for Professor Tony Atkinson, who sadly passed away on New Year's Day 2017. Professor Atkinson played a very important role in the establishment of the III and continued to support our work, but more importantly as the economist worldwide, ensuring that inequality is given the attention that it deserves.

Programme Director: Dr Sam Friedman

See here for information on how to apply.

Read about our MSc students' experiences and graduate desinations here.

For 2020 entry, LSE is offering a minimum of three new prestigious studentships for PhD study in a Department whose research addresses 'Analysing and Challenging Inequalities'.

Students will apply to specific Departments and will also be affiliated to LSE’s International Inequalities Institute. They  will be part of a dynamic research culture exploring the links between the economic dimensions of inequalities with their social, cultural and political aspects to systematically assess whether and how inequalities might be hardening in mutually reinforcing ways.

As well as being supervised by experts in their home Departments, they be actively mentored by a group of leading scholars who all have outstanding records of research on escalating inequalities. 

Further guidance for applicants: LSE PhD Studentships on 'Analysing and Challenging Inequalities'

There are three previous cohorts of students already funded by the Leverhulme Trust developing research on this theme.

Application deadlines to be announced 

Each academic department will stipulate their own application deadlines.

Applications must make reference to where their research will fit into the theme of 'Analysing and Challenging Inequalities'.

Selection process

The relevant academic departments are invited to select candidates who fit the research theme and nominate them to be considered.

Nomination process

Departments nominate candidates using the application for admission. When nominating students, departments will need to appraise the applicant for outstanding merit and research potential.

Nominations must be made via a nomination form and be returned to the Financial Support Office by the deadline. They will then be processed in order to be considered by the specialist Postgraduate Research Awards Panel.

Responsibility for selecting recipients for these awards will fall to specialist Postgraduate Research Awards Panel. The Panel will make the awards purely on the basis of academic merit and research potential. 

These awards are for intended for new applicants only. The Panel will not consider any continuing students.

The III Doctoral Programme and consists of an interdisciplinary seminar for Leverhulme scholarship students together with a small group of doctoral students from the Analysing and Challenging Inequality Scholarship from across the School with funding from other sources who are also working in the area of inequalities.

Much research on inequality over recent years has pointed to the need for interdisciplinary work. While the study of inequality was originally dominated by economics, it is now more clearly understood how deeply rooted is inequality (in all its multiple dimensions) in embedded social practices and institutions.

This brings in disciplines from economics, political science and political economy, to sociology, anthropology, law, philosophy and psychology, as well as sensitivity to history and culture. Hence, the overarching aim of the programme is to increase our understanding of the mechanisms that link the economic dimensions of inequality with their social, cultural and political dimensions at the global level.

Programme Structure

In the first year of the programme for the 2019-20 cohort there will be a fortnightly core interdisciplinary seminar. There will be 10 of these through the academic year.

In Michaelmas Term the seminar will combine informal teaching and discussion. The intention is to cover the main methodological approaches to the study of inequality, while discussing how they should be seen from an interdisciplinary perspective. 

In the Lent Term, the seminars will be based on student presentation and discussion of their future ideas. The broad assumption throughout the seminars is that neither teaching nor presentations should be technical, in part because we want the cohort where necessary to develop competences in explaining technical ideas in non-technical language.

These seminars will take place on Tuesdays at 12-2pm in the PhD Academy, alternating with the III’s regular seminar in the same slot. The first session will take place on Tuesday, 8th of October.

In the remaining years of the programme (so in the 2019-20 academic year for the 2018, 2017 and 2016 cohorts), we will have monthly meetings in the PhD Academy. These will take the form of presentation and discussion of on-going research by the students in the cohort, followed by informal discussion and ‘refreshment’.

How to apply

Applications for 2019-20 are now closed. Applications for 20/21 will open in September 2020.

Candidates will be asked to write an application of no more than one page explaining how their plans for doctoral studies link to the concerns of the III Doctoral Programme. 

Candidates will need to obtain the support of their supervisors who need to write no more than two sentences of support.

Please note that becoming part of this cohort means that you continue to be based in your home Departments - it entails that in addition to all normal Departmental expectations you have the opportunity of Cross-Departmental support and engagement, but must commit to attending the Tuesday lectures in the first year. 

Read about current doctoral students participating in the programme here.