Department of Arts (Advert Reference: RDF25/ADSS/ARTS)

The subject area of Arts, within the School of Design, Arts and Cultural Industries at Northumbria University offers a rich research environment that cultivates dialogues between critical, historical, theoretical, and practice-based research. We invite ambitious, rigorous research proposals for PhD study located within one or more of our teams in Fine Art, Visual and Material Culture, Film and Media, and Theatre and Performance.

PhD proposals that lead to a written 80,000-word thesis or practice research portfolio with complementary thesis (c. 40,000 words) are welcome. We provide expert supervision by internationally leading researchers, who run the following interdisciplinary research groups:

•  Cultural Negotiation of Science
•  Contemporary Arts Research Forum
• Horror Studies Research Group
• Performance Cultures
• Visual and Material Cultures
• MARGINALITIES

We welcome proposals in the following areas:

• Applied and Socially Engaged Theatre
• Art History, Design History and Visual Culture
• Technical Art History
• Film and Television History and Methods
• Fine Art Theory and Practice
• Cultural Management
• Climate Justice, Geohumanities and Environment
• Decolonisation and Racial Justice
• Cult Film and Television
• Art Practice, Science and Technology
• Digital Cultures
• Disability and Performance
• Documentary Forms
• Film Festivals and Audiences
• Heritage, Tourism and Conservation
• Horror film, television and screen media
• Independent and Experimental Film
• LGBTQ representations
• Media and Film Censorship
• Political Cinema and the Global South
• Pornography and Sexualities
• Scenography
• Sound and Music in Film and Television
• Sport in Performance and the Media
• Art education
• Feminist Visual Culture
• Art Writing

These studentships are extremely popular and very competitive. We therefore recommend that you contact one of the following PGR Subject Leads in the Department of Arts as soon as possible (and significantly before the deadline for submission of your proposal), so that they can connect you with an appropriate supervisor: Dr Victoria Horne (Fine Art; Visual and Material Culture); or Dr Cormac Power (Theatre and Performance); or  Dr Kate Egan (Film and Media)

Eligibility Requirements:

• Academic excellence i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities with preference for 1st class honours); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
• Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
• Applicants cannot apply if they are already a PhD holder or if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.
• Must be able to commit to campus-based full-time or part-time study.

To be classed as a Home student, candidates must:

• Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
• have settled status, or
• have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
• have indefinite leave to remain or enter.

If a candidate does not meet the criteria above, they would be classed as an International student. 

Applicants will need to be fully enrolled in the UK before stipend payments can commence, and be aware of additional costs that may be incurred, as these are not covered by the studentship, such as the immigration health surcharge, visa costs and English Language requirements. More detail can be found under the Funding Notes about these costs on our RDF webpage.

International applicants (including EU) must have valid immigration permissions to live and study in UK if they wish to study on a part-time basis. Northumbria University does not sponsor part-time student visas.

Apply now at https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/  

In your application, include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words and also the advert reference (e.g. RDF25/…).

Application Deadline: 24 January 2025

Start date of course: 1 October 2025

Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our postgraduate research students. We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Leader, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme. We also hold the HR Excellence in Research award for implementing the concordat supporting the career Development of Researchers and are members of the Euraxess initiative to deliver information and support to professional researchers.