The Research Institute for Media, Art and Performance

The Research Institute for Media Art and Performance boasts a talented research community of both international and home students with a commitment to developing cross-disciplinary research in literature, dance, art, media, journalism and film. Our students have access to specialist collections (John Bunyan, Hockliffe collection), and technical spaces equipped to industry standard (studios for art, dance, broadcast television and radio, two theatres, community radio station).

Our expertise in Journalism and media include reporting in Africa, MENA region, political communication, post-disaster narratives, comparative analysis of news reporting in Italy and UK, community radio. Our research has been funded by the British Academy in this area.

In Literature, the Institute has specialisms in book history (19th to 21th century), women writers of the 1920s (Stella Benson, Elizabeth Bowen, Clemence Dane, G.B. Stern), poetry (Veronica Forrest-Thomson) and in creative writing in the weird and horror genres. Our research has received AHRC and British Academy funding in this area. It is currently developing a project on Literary Bedfordshire, researching the writers, who lived worked and wrote about the Shire.

In Dance, we have expertise in quantitative research and evaluation of dance interventions, history of black dance, improvisation, dance and disability and intergenerational dance. Our projects have been funded by the Arts Council and independent research funders.

In Film we have expertise in Jungian psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and film.

In Art we have particular specialisms in textiles and fashion (styling and promotion, materials science and art), graphic design (politics and semiotics in society), and photography (documentary/commercial, architecture and landscape).

We interview all applicants who meet the entry requirements and where we have matching supervisory expertise.