Dr A Briggs-Goode, Dr E Ferry, Dr A Twigger-Holroyd
No more applications being accepted
Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
The study is part of a larger body of work that focuses on the Lace Archive at Nottingham Trent University building on the successful work of Donovan and Buttress, whose projects explored elements of the Archive concerning the relationship of lace to skin (Buttress) and to particular communities (Donovan). In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the lace collections in the city, which include material from the Castle Museum and Art Gallery as well as Nottingham Trent University, together with collections not yet dispersed from lace manufacturers.
This research is therefore part of a larger push to gain public and academic interest in this key part of Nottingham’s history. In focusing on the post-war period, it encourages a use of oral history techniques and emphasises the timeliness of this project. Designers working at this time will now be in their 70s and 80s, and if not recorded soon, their stories will be lost. It is these stories that will ‘bring to life’ the Lace collections across Nottingham.
The object of this research is to make visible the histories and experiences of women who trained at the Nottingham College of Art in the years after the Second World War, examining the following questions:
• How many of the women who trained at the Nottingham College of Art (1945–1960) became lace designers in the industry and what were their experiences of the industry and how can this be contextualised in relation to other opportunities of the time?
• How did their art education (in particular design education), impact upon their working lives?
• How can such education be contextualised/framed within contemporary socio-cultural and economic policies within post-war Britain up to the 1960s?
• Why was the important role of the designer within the lace industry left uncelebrated?
This research aims to fill the gap in current knowledge by highlighting the complex interactions between manufacturing and design education during this period, locating that exploration within the frame of a consideration of the effect of the post-war social and economic policies on women designers, working within a male dominated industry.
Contexts
Both the importance of Nottingham in terms of manufactured lace and the history of individual factories have been documented at length, in particular by Earnshaw, Mason and Varley. This includes material on lace identification, machinery, working practices and employment of lace workers in the factories. The gap in knowledge in the field of manufactured lace history concerns the relationship of the designers in the process and their training at the School of Art and Design. The history of the Nottingham School of Design has been considered by Carol Jones who clearly identifies the dearth of material concerning alumni: ‘there is little mention of those many students who became successful at their chosen specialism’. The material from Carol Jones’ research has been deposited within the Nottinghamshire Archives and this will provide a rich source of information, including photographs, student records of enrolment and Nottingham College of Art literature. The research will also answer some of the complex questions concerning the position of lace designers (both women and men) within the textile industry, as their role in the success of particular firms has often been hidden from view, as is still the case today. This follows through on the important work of Dormer and Hart.
Specific qualifications/subject areas required of the applicants for this project:
Entrants must have a first/undergraduate Honours degree, with an Upper Second Class or a First Class grade, in Art History, Textiles, Textile Design or related subject areas. Entrants with a Lower Second Class grade at first degree must also have a postgraduate Masters Degree at Merit.
This studentship competition is open to applicants who wish to study for a PhD on a full-time basis only. The studentship will pay UK/EU fees (currently set at £4,195 for 2017/18 and are revised annually) and provide a maintenance stipend linked to the RCUK rate (this is revised annually and is currently set at £14,553 for the academic year 2017/18) for up to three years. Applications from non-EU students are welcome, but a successful non-EU candidate would be responsible for paying the difference between non-EU and UK/EU fees. (Fees for 2017/18 are £12,900 for non-EU students and £4,195 for UK/EU students). The studentships will be expected to commence in October 2018.