Visual Cultures of Fascism

THREE AHRC NWCDTP Collaborative Doctoral Awards on the project “Visual Cultures of Fascism”

Applications are invited for three fully-funded AHRC NWCDTP Collaborative Doctoral Award (+3) beginning in September 2025.

Co-supervised by three leading historians of European fascism, three PGR students will research how fascists used photography and film to promote themselves and their programmes. This project is grounded in historical research methods, while benefitting from insights from Art History, Photography, and Film Studies. By comparing the fascist regime in Mussolini’s Italy to movements in France and Romania, the research team will be able to show how the differing availability of technology and distinct visual cultures in Western, Eastern and Southern Europe resulted in contrasting uses of photography and film across the continent.

Analysing images used by fascists from Italy, France and Romania alongside one another will allow the team to identify what photographers from all three countries had in common, as well as throwing national idiosyncrasies into more sharp relief. Working with images from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service (SSTAS) and the Wiener Holocaust Library further expands the comparative perspective of this project, helping researchers to see how visual cultures on the continent influenced the ways that local fascism was presented to the British public. The students will apply the methodologies they have developed for interpreting fascist visual cultures to items held in the partners’ collections and will use them to create public-facing resources to be used by the partners in future educational campaigns. Collaborating with archivists and curators will allow students to engage with some of the same challenges that fascists had in the 1920s and 1930s when it came to deciding how best to use images to communicate with a wider public as well as engaging with the ethical challenges involved in using propaganda images in educational contexts. These projects digital curation, interpretation, and technical skills, and students will also gain experience working in the non-profit sector while directly generating impact related to their research in a way that informs the research process itself.

• The deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday, 28 February 2025. Please send application materials to Roland Clark ([Email Address Removed]) in the first instance, stating which of the three projects you wish to work on and including a current CV, and a 500 word summary of how you intend to approach the topic. Upon receipt of application you will be sent an EDI form to complete.

Specific enquiries should be directed to ONE (the most relevant) member of the supervisory team:

• Professor Roland Clark, University of Liverpool ([Email Address Removed])
• Professor Aristotle Kallis, Keele University ([Email Address Removed])
• Dr. Chris Millington, Manchester Metropolitan University ([Email Address Removed])
• Dr. Christine Schmidt, Wiener Holocaust Library in London ([Email Address Removed])
• Rebecca Jackson, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Archive Service ([Email Address Removed])

Applicants must have achieved a first class or high 2:1 undergraduate degree and postgraduate qualification (or expecting to complete PGT studies before September 2025) in a related Humanities or Social Science discipline. Competency in the languages of the countries being studied is required. Applicants are advised to check the AHRC NWCDTP guidance on eligibility for Studentship Awards which can be found on the NWCDTP website: https://www.nwcdtp.ac.uk/home/current-students/funding-prospective-students/

Upon submitting your application, you will receive an EDI monitoring form, together with receipt of submission.