PhD Studentship : AHRC Landscape Award PhD Studentship in the Arts and Humanities

Interview: March 2026

Project Description

Oxford Brookes University is delighted to offer three fully funded doctoral research scholarships under the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Landscape Award scheme. We welcome applications from motivated candidates in the Arts and Humanities or related disciplines who wish to undertake innovative and socially engaged research aligned with the University’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

We particularly encourage applications from individuals from groups that are underrepresented in the Arts and Humanities and in doctoral research, and from candidates whose research proposals address EDI-related themes within the arts and humanities.

Scholarship holders will join the vibrant research community of the University, engaging with interdisciplinary projects that span practice-based work, empirical research, textual and theoretical analysis, industrial studies, and historical or contemporary perspectives.

Oxford Brookes University is committed to fair, transparent and inclusive recruitment. Our processes include:

● Diverse and balanced interview panels, transparent assessment criteria, and anonymised applications to minimise bias.

● Flexible interview options (remote or in-person) and provision of interview questions in advance.

We apply a broad definition of excellence, valuing professional and creative experience alongside academic achievement. Our inclusive admissions policy welcomes applicants from all backgrounds, including those with non-traditional educational paths. We offer tailored support to our students, including to those with disabilities, neurodivergence, and caring responsibilities, and to those from care experienced, estranged or refugee backgrounds

We welcome proposals on any topic related to the University’s research strengths and particularly encourage projects that align with our interdisciplinary and challenge-led priorities.

Areas of supervisions include:

1. Creative and Cultural Industries, Media, and Arts Practice (EDI in Practice)

• Inclusive Creative and Cultural Industries
• Inclusive Arts-Based Learning and Social Practice
• Socially Engaged Arts Practice for Nature Connectedness and Climate Change
• Post-digital Artist Publishing and Public Libraries
• Community-Based Arts: Music, Dance, Play, and Intergenerational Practice
• Widening Access to Music: improving music provision for all children in primary schools
• Immersive Storytelling for Social Impact and Inclusion
• Participatory and Community-Based Digital Documentary
• Critical Media Literacy and Inclusive Pedagogy
• Creative Art Practice, Health, Ageing, and Longevity
• Comfort and Crime: Genre, Ageing, and Broadcast Nostalgia
• Dark Tourism, Feminism, and Media Cultures
• EDI and the Global Stunt Industry: Precarity in Creative Labour
• Craft, Sustainability, and Colonial Histories
• House Museums and Inclusive Heritage Preservation
• Platform Labour, Creator Economies, and Algorithmic Change
• AI in the Creative Industries (cross-faculty potential)
• Independent Cinema Exhibition and UK Screen Policy
• Screen Tourism in the UK
• Archiving Underrepresented and Marginalised Voices
• Art and Environment: Impacts of Extractive Practices on Ecologies and Communities
• Practices of Difference: Connecting Art, Trauma and Neurodivergence
• Cultures of Digital Hate: Safety, Visibility and Public Knowledge

2. Identity, Representation, and Social Justice (EDI in Theory and Experience)

• Trans and Gender-Nonconforming Identities, Representation and Belonging
• Porn Studies and Gendered Media Discourse
• Representation of Othering and Marginalization in Screen Media
• Women’s work in Cultural and Creative Industries
• Diversifying Audiences and Inclusive Engagement (Ethnic, Migrant, Diasporic, and Female Consumers)
• Migration Studies: Integration, Inclusion, Belonging, and Refugee Access to HE
• Hispanic and Latin American Cultural Studies: Race, Class, Inequality, Decolonialism
• Middle East Cultural Studies
• EDI and Accessibility in the Global Stunt Industry
• Girls’ Engagements with Online Political Content
• Feminist Identity Work in Popular Culture and Second-Screening
• Histories of Popular Politics and Grassroots Movements
• Disadvantaged Communities and the Politics of Difference
• History of Crime, Disorder, and Social Marginalization
• Portland Sculpture and Quarry Trust: Art / Archive / Landscape / Community / Heritage / Legacy

3. Humanities, Philosophy, and Literature (EDI in Knowledge and Method)

• Digital Humanities, Spatial Narratives, and Identity (gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, disability, race, ethnicity)
• American Literature: Localism, Regionalism, Nationalism, and Infrastructure
• Landscape and Experimental Writing
• Public Humanities
• Film Narratology: Cognitive Theories and Global Storytelling Traditions
• Social Epistemology
• Philosophy and Visual Art
• Environmental Philosophy
• Art and Photography in Transnational Contexts
• International Surrealism and Avant-Garde
• Critical Theory and Politics of Representation
• 19th-Century Art and Culture: Material Culture, Literature, History, and Visual Arts Other Modernisms: alternative voices / perspectives in early 20thC literature and culture (nonhuman animals, the environment, gender and race) ‘The other Renaissance’ (queer and other diverse identities in literature, history, art and philosophy)
• Who is left out of History? (representation and forgetting in literature, history, philosophy, history of art)
• Divergent futures - utopias and dystopias in modern and contemporary literature, media and film
• Ethics and AI in Education
• Futures of Education
• Intellectual Wellbeing

English language requirements

IELTS language certificate with an overall score of 6.5 (with no less than 6.0 in any element) issued in the last 2 years by an approved test centre.

How to apply

Complete your application Online via the 'Apply' button above, quoting ‘AHRC Landscape Awards Doctoral studentship’.

Contact for informal enquiries: Professor Daniela Treveri Gennari dtreveri-gennari@brookes.ac.uk with the subject line: AHRC Landscape PhD Scholarship.