PhD Opportunities in Art, Media Arts and Design

We warmly invite applications for full-time or part-time self-funded PhD study.  

About the PhD programme 

Research in the Art, Design and Media Research Centre (ADMRC) employs critical and imaginative art, media and design strategies to investigate and problematise social and cultural norms.  In REF2021, 90% of our research was rated as either world leading or internationally excellent and was in the top 10 of UK universities for social, economic, or cultural impact. Explore our people and projects at Culture & Creativity Research Institute’s Impact blog.

Our community includes practice-based research expertise in experimental, fine art and documentary film practice, sculpture, public art, live art, digital arts, painting, drawing, interactive design, social arts, installation practices, curating, art writing, interior design, product design, visual communication, graphic design, fashion, illustration, drawing, multi-media arts, VR, photography, animation, and interdisciplinary terrains.

We are particularly interested to receive applications relating to:

Social, Cultural and Philosophical Narratives

• Archives and institutions to contest official histories and heritage, challenge colonising processes, reveal the suppressed and illuminate social challenges
• Threat, crisis, conflict, risk, and empathy
• Global contexts, challenging representation, and influencing policy development
• Publics, inclusion, space, and place
• Gendered experience

Creative Practices in Health and Wellbeing

• Design for the One Hundred Year Life
• The Future Home 

Physical and Digital Making:

• Net-zero sustainability
• Frugal making
• Digital materiality
• Future of design education
• International collaboration for sustainable development  

PhD Study in Art, Design & Media Practice at SHU 

You will join a vibrant PhD programme with excellent student satisfaction scores in the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey. Our study environment draws together an art school emphasis on practice, studio models of self-organising, outward-facing exhibition-making, interdisciplinary and University-level training, and innovative postgraduate research conferences on the topics of research METHOD and research IMPACT. A high number of our PhD projects have been in partnerships with museums, galleries, and heritage organisations. Read more about the PhD community and past and current PhD projects here.

Scholarship Opportunities

When available, PhD scholarship opportunities are advertised here: PhD scholarships.

How to apply  

For important course information about PhD in Fine Art & Design including entry requirements, tuition fees, list of documents you need to upload with your application, the online application form and information about doctoral student loans, see the SHU prospectus entries for:

PhD Fine Art & Design (Full-time)

PhD Fine Art & Design (Part-time)

As part of your application, we ask that you provide a research proposal and also information about your exhibitions and creative projects with concise documentation. This can be uploaded as a separate document (e.g., a pdf portfolio) or included as website links in the personal statement field of the application form. 

Applications are invited to be considered for entry in October, February, or May. 

For an October start, apply by 1^st June.

For a February start: apply by 1^st October

For a May start: apply by 1^st February

Click here: ‘How to Apply’ for more information about the PhD application process including how to make an enquiry about supervision, what happens after you submit an application and answers to some frequently asked questions.

Applications are welcome from all candidates, irrespective of age, ethnicity, pregnancy and maternity, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief, or marital or civil partnership status.

For academic enquiries: Dr Becky Shaw, Postgraduate Research Tutor for Art, Media Arts and Design  b.shaw@shu.ac.uk

For general enquires: the Cultural & Creativity Research Institute Postgraduate Research Team culture-creativity-admissions@shu.ac.uk