Arts Management (PhD / MPhil) - 2013/2014 entry

The Department of Media and Cultural Studies has an international reputation for teaching and research. We offer both practice-based research options as well as traditional PhD/MPhil study. Our current students are exploring a broad range of interests, including art and urban regeneration, socially engaged art practice, museology, institutional critique, curatorial practice, cultural industries, and interdisciplinary topics such as new media and geography.

Current research areas include: cultural policy and theory; public art; art and urban regeneration; sculpture parks and gardens; contemporary art history; environmental site-based art; museum studies; arts education; the dynamics of cultural relations and expression; language in society; race and ethnic studies; development of the arts in post-war Britain; and curatorial and archival artistic practices.

The Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice in the School of Arts brings together the research interests of staff of the department and offers an exciting range of events for staff and students, and support for PhD students. The Centre also acts as a focus for cognate areas within Birkbeck, such as creative writing, theatre studies and cultural studies generally. Students are also encouraged to attend research events staged by the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research.

In addition to the Birkbeck Library, research students have access to the nearby Senate House Library, various libraries of the University of London colleges, the British Library, as well as other specialist collections and institutions in central London.

Find out more about our world-class research resources, as well as our specialist resources.

• Fiona Candlin, BA, MA, PhD: Touch and histories of perception; disability politics; museum and gallery education.
• Ben Cranfield, MA, MRes, PhD: Post-war art history; institutional histories of creative practice; curatorial studies; archival theory and analysis; artistic dialogues with science, technology and education.
• Dr Sophie Hope, PhD: Socially engaged, participatory and public art; cultural policy, commissioning processes and evaluation practices; labour conditions in the arts and creative industries; community art histories in the UK; practice-based research in interdisciplinary contexts.
• Dr Lorraine Lim, PhD: Urban and cultural regeneration initiatives including sport; emerging capitals of culture in Asia; cultural policy in Asia.
• Dr Joel McKim, PhD: Digital media technology; media, urban planning and architectural design; cultural memory; media theory.

The research proposal forms the core of the application to undertake an MPhil or PhD, as it is the main way in which we can assess you and your research ideas. A typical proposal should include the following sections and the questions you should consider, in the order indicated:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Clear statement of research questions
• Methods
• Analysis
• Timetable.

The proposal should be 2000 words (not including references).

Introduction
This section is a broad setting of the scene for your research and can therefore be relatively short:

• What, in general, is the research about?
• Why, in general terms, is it academically important or interesting?
• What are the broad research questions your research is setting out to answer?

Literature review
This should be a substantial part of the proposal as it locates your proposed research in its theoretical and empirical context:

• What other research has been conducted which has directly or indirectly attempted to address your research questions?
• What is the theoretical basis of this research? How sound is this theoretical basis?
• How has theory developed in this field? Where is it heading?
• What methods have been used? What are the limitations of these methods?
• What are the unanswered questions in the field? How can your work make a contribution to the field? What is original about what you want to do?

• What are the questions you wish to address?
• Why are they important and interesting?
• How do they relate to the published literature discussed above?
• Are your questions answerable?

• What, in broad terms, are the data collection methods which are likely to be used?
• What types of data should be collected?
• How will this be done?
• What are the problems of collecting these types of data?
• How will access be gained to participants and organisations?
• What kind of design will be use?
• How many studies will be conducted, and why?
• In what ways do the methods and design answer your research questions?

• What, in general terms, will be done with the data you collect?
• What kinds of analytical techniques are you likely to use?
• What are their limitations?
• How will these analyses address and answer the research questions?

Timetable
While it is difficult to specify with certainty the course of the research, it is helpful to indicate how you see your work developing and the timescales involved. For full-time PhD students, the maximum period for completion under normal circumstances is four years. It is seven years for part-time students.

Please note: It is possible to undertake an entirely theoretical PhD. In this case, the structure of the proposal is likely to be different and should be discussed with the admissions tutor.

• You can apply throughout the year for commencement at the beginning of the autumn or spring terms (October or January).