PhD Studentship: The Health and Well-Being of LGBT+ Military Personnel and Veterans

The Kings Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR), King’s College London, and the Royal British Legion are seeking a PhD candidate for a collaborative studentship funded by the London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (LISS-DTP)/Economic Social Research Council (ESRC).

Background

Little is known about the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) personnel in the UK military. A recent review of thirty papers examining the health and well-being of serving and ex-serving LGBT personnel (Mark, McNamara et al. 2019) found no UK studies on this population. Inquiries to address issues of historical hurt among the LGBT+ veteran community during the ban on homosexuality in the UK Armed Forces (lifted in 2000) (UK Government 2022) focus rightly on a community previously unheard but may exclude the experiences of those who are currently serving, or have served, more recently.

This project will use quantitative survey data from a UK cohort study in its 4^th wave of data collection and qualitative interviews to understand the health and well-being of serving and ex-serving LGBT+ personnel in the UK Armed Forces. The study aims are to:

1. Qualitatively explore influences on the health and wellbeing of ex-serving LGBT+ personnel across military service
2. Quantitatively determine the health and well-being of serving and ex-serving LGB UK military personnel and examine risk/protective factors for these outcomes

The PhD student will join the KCMHR team, based in the Psychological Medicine department at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience. The project would be supported by the main KCMHR cohort study team leading the work on 4^th wave of the cohort data collection which has been running since 2003 (www.kcl.ac.uk/kcmhr/research/kcmhr/healthstudy), as well as the supervisory team and the Royal British Legion.

The student will have access to data from the previous three phases of the cohort study (2004-2006, 2007-2009 and 2014-2016) and be supported in collecting qualitative data. The student would have full access to all of King’s research methods and academic skills training and have opportunities to teach on undergraduate courses at KCL.

As a CASE LISS-DTP Studentship, the student will have a close partnership with the external partner, the Royal British Legion. This partnership will involve a 13-week internship to experience work on a research paper, policy document or dedicated workstream, shadowing members of the Campaigns, Policy, and Research team, mentoring sessions, facilitation of access to the Armed Forces community, and dissemination at relevant events. CASE LISS-DTP students also have access to additional training and funding opportunities – for more information see https://liss-dtp.ac.uk/training/

Funding

More info: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/study/research-funding/rg-kcmhr-lissdtp-lgbt-23

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