People: Erin Manning, Sandeep Bhagwati and David Morris

Why it fits: It has already hosted a PhD on conversational inquiry that took Authentic Relating and Circling as examples (Finbloom, 2019), supervised by Sandeep Bhagwati, Erin Manning and Nathan Brown. David Morris works on the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. The work would be philosophical, artistic or ethnographic, not experimental.

How to apply: Apply with a confirmed committee of three (a supervisor and two advisors), which takes months to assemble. The autumn deadline is 15 January. Applicants are considered for Concordia fellowships, but amounts aren’t published.

Suits: What being met is like, Authenticity as a social script

People: Daiva Daukantaité

Why it fits: The only quantitative evaluation of an Authentic Relating course we have been able to read was a degree thesis here, supervised by Daukantaité. Her own research is on adolescent mental health, so a Circling study would be a new direction rather than an extension.

How to apply: Doctoral positions are salaried jobs, advertised when funded, with no tuition fees. Watch the university’s vacancies for a fitting topic, or bring your own funding to a supervisor.

Suits: A controlled trial of Circling, Transfer beyond the room

People: John Vervaeke

Why it fits: Of all academics, the most engaged with Circling itself. His appointment is in the teaching stream, which often rules out being a primary PhD supervisor, so he is more likely a co-supervisor or collaborator than your supervisor.

How to apply: Apply to a Toronto graduate programme in psychology or cognitive science. Ask early whether he can supervise or co-supervise, and who would be the primary supervisor.

Suits: What being met is like, Active ingredients

People: Tania Singer

Why it fits: The closest working paradigm in mainstream science: training trials built on structured partner exercises, measured with everyday-life sampling. Circling would be a test case set against the lab’s own contemplative dyads.

How to apply: The lab advertises salaried positions tied to funded projects. Its most recent PhD call (2023) was a three-year post that required fluent German. No call was open when we checked.

Suits: A controlled trial of Circling, Transfer beyond the room, Active ingredients

People: Arthur Aron

Why it fits: The origin of the best-known experiment in generating closeness between strangers, which a Circling study would build on and compare against. Aron is a research professor and isn’t on the list of faculty recruiting for 2027–28.

How to apply: Apply to the PhD in Social and Health Psychology with a colleague who is recruiting, and ask about involving Aron.

Suits: A controlled trial of Circling, Active ingredients

People: Juliana Schroeder

Why it fits: Close to the Chicago work on conversational depth. Circling would be framed as a test case, studied with experiments.

How to apply: Apply to the Haas PhD in Management of Organizations by 3 December 2026 for autumn 2027. Funding details weren’t on the page we checked.

Suits: Active ingredients, Transfer beyond the room

People: Nicholas Epley

Why it fits: The mainstream lab that most directly tests why deeper talk feels risky and turns out better. Circling would be framed as a test case of conversational depth, studied with experiments.

How to apply: Apply to the Behavioral Science area of Booth’s doctoral programme by 15 December 2026 for autumn 2027. Students who started in 2025 receive US$55,000 a year for five years, plus tuition.

Suits: Active ingredients, Transfer beyond the room

People: Michael L. Platt

Why it fits: The closest published template for a Circling experiment: one ingredient tested against a stripped-down control, with synchrony recorded between partners. The exercises lasted two minutes between strangers, so Circling would have to be shrunk to something measurable.

How to apply: Penn’s Neuroscience Graduate Group funds every student’s tuition, fees and stipend; Michael Platt also takes students through a joint Marketing and Psychology doctorate. Ask whether he is recruiting.

Suits: Active ingredients, Bodies in synchrony

People: Harry Reis

Why it fits: Feeling understood and cared for is close to what circlers mean by being met, and responsiveness was one of the main measures in the Lund study of an Authentic Relating course. Reis isn’t taking PhD students for 2027–28.

How to apply: Apply to Rochester’s psychology PhD in a year he is recruiting, or now to its master’s programme, which he is accepting. Ask about co-supervision with colleagues.

Suits: Transfer beyond the room, Active ingredients, A controlled trial of Circling

People: Gillian Sandstrom

Why it fits: Close to the hesitation many people bring to a circle. Its focus is single acts of kindness, not an extended group practice.

How to apply: The School of Psychology advertises funded studentships for set projects. The 2026–27 rate was £21,805 a year for three years, covering UK fees but not international fees.

Suits: Active ingredients

People: Christine Parsons, Andreas Roepstorff, Riccardo Fusaroli and Lone Fjorback

Why it fits: The broadest single home we found: group physiology, micro-phenomenology, anthropology and the Danish Center for Mindfulness under one roof. The centre is a network and doesn’t hire; positions come through its departments.

How to apply: Danish PhD fellows are salaried employees. Watch for calls from member departments, such as cognitive science in the Faculty of Arts, and approach a member about a project or a joint application.

Suits: Bodies in synchrony, What being met is like, Authenticity as a social script, Safety, facilitation and harm

People: Thalia Wheatley

Why it fits: Alignment between minds in live conversation is a basic-science version of what circlers call attunement. A Circling study would likely become a corpus of natural conversations or a test of alignment.

How to apply: Apply to Dartmouth’s PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences: every student in good standing receives a stipend and pays no tuition.

Suits: Bodies in synchrony, Active ingredients

People: Leonhard Schilbach

Why it fits: The theory nearest to Circling: understanding others by being in interaction with them, not by watching. It is a hospital psychiatry department, so Circling would be studied as healthy interaction alongside clinical questions.

How to apply: Doctoral routes run through Munich, where he is a full member of LMU’s Graduate School of Systemic Neurosciences, or through Düsseldorf. Ask him which fits; how much supervision time his clinical leadership leaves isn’t stated.

Suits: Bodies in synchrony, What being met is like

People: Uri Hasson

Why it fits: Known for showing that speakers’ and listeners’ brains couple during successful communication, with recent studies of live conversation. The lab has turned towards AI agents and infant development, and its methods would shrink Circling to a two-person speech test.

How to apply: Apply to the Psychology PhD by 15 November 2026 or the Neuroscience PhD by 1 December 2026, naming him among your choices. Princeton fully funds every PhD student.

Suits: Bodies in synchrony

People: Ivana Konvalinka

Why it fits: Two brains and two hearts recorded together is the physiology of a circle. It sits in a computational department, so the practice would need to become a task that can be recorded.

How to apply: DTU PhDs are three-year salaried posts, advertised as vacancies. Ask whether the group has funding or a project that a Circling study could join.

Suits: Bodies in synchrony

People: Guillaume Dumas

Why it fits: The most Circling-shaped measurement toolkit we found: recordings of two brains at once (his group published the HyPyP hyperscanning pipeline), a study protocol on interpersonal mindfulness, and methods that pair synchrony with first-person interviews. It sits in a paediatric hospital research centre focused on psychiatry.

How to apply: Apply to the Université de Montréal neuroscience PhD (open until 1 February 2027) with his letter of acceptance, or through Mila’s supervision requests by 1 December 2026. Funding comes from the supervisor’s grants, and a master’s degree is expected first.

Suits: Bodies in synchrony, What being met is like, Active ingredients

People: Thomas Fuchs

Why it fits: A place to study the phenomenology of the encounter together with its clinical edges, including what happens when a practice unsettles someone. Funding isn’t stated, and a doctorate in philosophy requires basic Latin.

How to apply: Doctorates in philosophy, psychiatry or psychology through Heidelberg University, alongside the section’s doctoral colloquium. Ask about funding first.

Suits: What being met is like, Safety, facilitation and harm

People: Dan Zahavi

Why it fits: The strongest place for a philosophical study of what being met is. Posts are tied to funded projects, so a Circling project needs a supervisor’s backing or its own funding.

How to apply: Three-year salaried PhD scholarships in the Department of Communication, advertised project by project. The one open when we checked was on ADHD.

Suits: What being met is like

People: Giovanna Colombetti

Why it fits: A philosophy of feeling as bodily and situated, close to the felt sense people describe in a circle. It is philosophy rather than a lab.

How to apply: Apply to Exeter’s philosophy PhD. Ask about studentships; her page doesn’t describe a funding route.

Suits: What being met is like

People: Shaun Gallagher

Why it fits: His account treats understanding another person as something done together in the moment, close to how Circling works. The project would be conceptual or phenomenological rather than empirical.

How to apply: Apply to the philosophy PhD, where seminars are small. Funding and deadlines weren’t on the pages we checked, so ask the department.

Suits: What being met is like

People: Ezequiel Di Paolo

Why it fits: Participatory sense-making is the theory closest to how circlers describe their practice: the interaction itself as a source of meaning. Its co-author Hanne De Jaegher left the centre in 2023, and current seminars lean towards biology and theory.

How to apply: Apply through the UPV/EHU doctoral programme in Philosophy, Science and Values. Funding isn’t stated on the centre’s pages, so ask a supervisor which fellowships apply.

Suits: What being met is like, Active ingredients

People: Willoughby Britton and Jared Lindahl

Why it fits: The clearest method template for studying difficult experiences in a practice; the lab also offers a meditation-safety toolbox. No PhD route is listed, so treat it as a source of advice or collaboration.

How to apply: No doctoral route is listed. Write to the lab about advising or co-supervising a safety study based elsewhere.

Suits: Safety, facilitation and harm

Why it fits: Not a degree, but the front door to contemplative science: a place to meet possible supervisors. Attendance is also a condition for Mind & Life’s research grants.

How to apply: Apply to the US institute or the European one when calls open. Applications for the 2027 US institute open on 1 December 2026.

People: Michael R. Sheehy

Why it fits: The only active micro-phenomenology service we could verify, and a natural partner for studying moments of being met. The centre doesn’t grant degrees.

How to apply: Apply to a UVA department, then link to the centre, whose PhD students work as graduate research assistants. Ask the centre which departments its students come from.

Suits: What being met is like

People: Richard J. Davidson

Why it fits: A leading contemplative-science centre with the infrastructure for training trials. Its work is on individual practice, so Circling would be a new, relational test case.

How to apply: The centre doesn’t grant degrees: students are admitted to the Psychology PhD through an affiliated faculty member. Ask which affiliates are recruiting.

Suits: A controlled trial of Circling

People: Elizabeth Stokoe

Why it fits: Conversation analysis could show how “authentic” talk is put together in a circle, and what an “I notice” turn does. It needs consented recordings of real sessions.

How to apply: Contact a supervisor, then apply to the MPhil/PhD in Psychological and Behavioural Science. The department offers two studentships a year; other places are self-funded.

Suits: Authenticity as a social script, Active ingredients

People: Saul Albert, Elizabeth Peel and Marco Pino

Why it fits: A long-standing training ground in conversation analysis, the method for studying authenticity as a script. Its best-known member, Elizabeth Stokoe, has moved to the LSE.

How to apply: Apply to the PhD in Communication and Media, in language and social interaction. Places are listed as self-funded unless a studentship is advertised.

Suits: Authenticity as a social script

People: Tanya Marie Luhrmann

Why it fits: The natural home for an ethnography of a Circling community: how people in a practice learn to notice and report experience. Extremely competitive, and anthropological rather than experimental.

How to apply: Apply to the Anthropology PhD by 2 December 2026. The department funds tuition and living costs over a five-year plan of study.

Suits: Authenticity as a social script, What being met is like

Why it fits: Welcomes practitioner-led, first-person inquiry, in the city where Circling began. The degree carries less weight in experimental psychology.

How to apply: Apply to either PhD. East-West Psychology offers teaching and research assistantships, but funding amounts aren’t published.

Suits: What being met is like, Authenticity as a social script

Why it fits: Its humanistic frame is the closest academic language to Circling’s own. Humanistic psychology has little standing in research-intensive departments.

How to apply: Five to six years, full or part time, with required virtual residencies. Funding isn’t stated.

Suits: What being met is like