PhD Research: application processes and topics

Our main scholarship competition (for the Department for the Economy Studentship and the Vice Chancellor's Research Scholarship) generally opens in early/mid-December of each year, with a closing date in February. See further details of terms and conditions for UK/EU researchers and 'international', i.e. non-UK and non-EU researchers.

Full details will be provided on the Doctoral College site under 'funded PhD opportunities'. Search for 'Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies', which includes Heritage/Museum Studies.

In advance of applications, candidates should make contact with potential supervisors.

Following application, application materials will be reviewed and shortlisted by subject representatives, after which shortlisted candidates may be invited for interview by a panel comprising a subject specialist, an external representative (from another subject within the unit), and a Chair (generally, the Research Director of the unit), whose role is to ensure consistency in the process.

All candidates will have their interview outcome communicated to them by the Doctoral College.

The Northern Bridge Consortium is a Doctoral Training Partnership funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

We are a part of this consortium, along with

• Durham University
• Newcastle University
• Northumbria University
• Queen’s University Belfast
• Sunderland University
• Teesside University

The consortium offers up to 67 fully funded studentships per year to outstanding postgraduate researchers across the full range of Arts and Humanities subjects, including Creative Practice disciplines.

Prospective applicants should discuss their interest with relevant potential supervisors at an early stage, as the application is reviewed entirely by written proposal and associated documentation.

Stage one of your application is through Ulster University's standard internal route, and if successful, it may be nominated for review by the Northern Bridge consortium.

• Full details are available from the Doctoral College website

Film and Screen at Ulster University is a new and vibrant area of research that combines theory and practice of moving image arts in the new digital media age. Applicants can propose practice-based research topics, cinema studies related research questions or focus on the uses of alternative media practices that involve moving image.

Proposals are welcomed in a wide range of areas relating to staff research interests. Example topics which align with staff interests are listed below.

• Contemporary Filmmaking Practice
• Modern and Contemporary Cinema
• Alternative, Experimental and Resistance Media
• Horror: Theory, Practices and Cultures
• Virtual production

Staff

• Dr Laura Aguiar - film festival studies, archival studies, socially-engaged filmmaking practices
• Dr Murat Akser -  Third Cinema, social media and protest, contemporary filmmaking practice, film festival studies
• Dr Lee Cadieux  -  filmmaking practice and visual effects; games
• Dr Darryl Charles - games and interactive media
• Dr Victoria McCollum - horror - theories, practices and cultures
• Dr Gerard Gibson - horror theory and visual effects
• Prof. Declan Keeney - virtual production and immersive media
• Dr Michael McKnight  - immersive media (incl. audio)
• Prof. Paul Moore (Future Screens NI) has interests in the creative economy, as well as practices in sound and audiovisual practices
• See also Music, below, for more staff with research interests in audiovisual practices and cultures.

Research interests in Drama focus collectively on performance in a post-conflict environment, particularly applied performance, and gender, conflict and performance; methodologies of theatre practice, and Irish drama. Individual specialisms are indicated below, but recent staff research projects include: Theatre for Young Audiences; Rape and Performance; Applied Theatre and Post-Conflict Societies; Theatre and Ritual; Storytelling.

Applications for practice-based research are especially welcome, as are interdisciplinary projects.

Current and most recent research theses supervised in Drama:

• Interactive online dramaturgy / Digital Storytelling and Border Areas;
• Storytelling and Conflict in Contemporary Northern Ireland;
• Community theatre in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday agreement;
• Actor training in Ireland;
• Liminal space on the contemporary Northern Irish stage;
• Working class theatre in Ulster;
• The role of the dramaturg in new writing in contemporary British theatre;
• Theatre and Children’s Rights in Northern Ireland;
• Site-Specific Performance and Community Performance in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland

Staff

• Dr Giuliano Campo - Grotowski, ritual theatre, actor training (incl. practice-as-research)
• Dr Lisa Fitzpatrik - Gender and violence in performance, post-conflict arts, Irish (incl. Northern Irish) Theatre
• Dr Jen Goddard - Applied theatre, participatory practices, gender and violence in performance (practice-as-research)
• Prof. Tom Maguire (Head of School: Arts and Humanities) - Theatre for Young Audiences, Irish (incl. Northern Irish) Theatre

The heritage and museum studies subject at Ulster University has been established since 2001 and has maintained a vibrant research culture ever since. Current research focuses around the theme Engaging the Past, which considers issues of memory, interpretation, representation, identity and political context of notions of heritage. We take an interdisciplinary approach and, depending on the research topic, the supervisory team is drawn from individuals with specialisms in museum and heritage studies, performance, sociology, policy studies, cultural geography, education, art and design, and history.

We support researchers in developing their academic interests in teaching and publication. PhD researchers with professional experience of the heritage, museums or arts sector have opportunity to run seminars on the Master’s courses in heritage and museum studies at Ulster.

Current and most recent research theses supervised in this area include:

• Material culture
• Collections interpretation and collection history
• Conflict testimony in museum interpretation
• Interculturalism and the museum
• Museums and the everyday
• Digital heritage interpretation
• Dark Tourism

Staff contact: Prof. Elizabeth Crooke

Music at Ulster is firmly committed to creative practice as an integral part of its research activity.

Particular areas of staff specialism at Ulster include music composition, jazz and improvised music, music technology and electroacoustic composition, sound installation practices, music and the visual, and microtonality. We are also extensively engaged in interdisciplinary research in collaboration with colleagues in drama, film and heritage/museum studies, amongst others. You are invited to review the research profiles of our various staff, and to contact those whose interests match your own.

Staff

• Dr Brian Bridges -  electronic/electroacoustic music composition, music/arts technology, sound studies
• Dr Rob Casey - composition/improvisation/open form practices
• Dr Adam Melvin - composition (incl. mixed-media installation practices), soundtrack studies/music and visual culture
• Prof. Brian Irvine - composition (incl. mixed-media), socially-engaged practices
• Dr Linley Hamilton - jazz- improvisation and composition

NB: Prof. Frank Lyons (Associate Dean for Research and Impact) is also a member of the music team - composition, accessible arts-technology practices (Inclusive Creativity/Acoustronic projects) and music in the creative economy