Overview

The School of Arts and Creative industries is an ideal place to undertake PhD research. You will join a small, vibrant and diverse group of PhD students and will be taught by academics with international reputations. Our doctoral students often work together organising conferences, assisting academics in editing academic journals and publications and leading research-related events and symposia. Our applied research tackles real-world issues and encompasses a wide variety of methodologies and approaches, including practice-based research, empirical work on audiences and cultural instituions, as well as theory-driven analysis. We offer supervision in a variety of fields and we welcome diverse projects. 80% of our research was awarded 3* out of 4* for impact – ‘very considerable impacts in terms of their reach and significance’ – by the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014. There are two Research Centres in the department reflecting distinct areas of specialism – Centre for Research in Network Image and Centre for Research in Digital Storymaking. Our academic members of staff are active researchers, working at the cutting edge of research in many different aspects of performance and theatre, networked cultures, photography, film and journalism. We offer PhD supervision in a range of subject areas, methodological approaches and theoretical approaches, including practice-based research. Our PhD in Arts and Creative Industries course is a conventional PhD in which candidates are assessed via thesis and viva voce examination. The course sees candidates assessed via practice-as-research, a thesis that contextualises and analyses their creative practice in relation to the research topic, and a viva voce examination. We welcome proposals in all areas of research relevant to the School, but are particularly interested in applications which relate to one or more of the following: network cultures and networked image performance and borders performance and digital technologies audience research institutional and educational evaluation digital storytelling (including digital journalism) sonic culture

Transferable skills

A research degree will equip you with many transferable skills. The self-discipline, the demand for clear analytical thinking and intellectual synthesis, and the ability to turn criticism of others’ work into something constructive of your own, all constitute a unique training for almost any kind of career. The excitement and satisfaction of finding new facts, developing a robust new thesis, or a new methodology for considering architectural paradigms can be highly rewarding.

Employability

Many of our successful doctoral students have been appointed to full time lecturing posts both in the UK and internationally. We are also proud that many of our PhD students choose a career in the public sector and industry, working as curators or leading educational departments in major cultural organizations. Read about our alumni Zeta and her work in the industry here.