Research opportunities in the Faculty of Media, Art & Technology are available for either full-time or part-time study and are offered at all levels.
Research supervision in Art and Design subjects is offered by an experienced team of research-active staff. It embraces a wide range of theoretical and practical theory-based approaches and in recent years the supervision of cross-cultural topics and approaches to research has become a successful addition to the studio’s supervisory expertise.
Fine Art and Design areas of supervision include Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Printmaking, Digital Media, and Art and Design History & Theory of the 20th Century. In the studio-based subjects, the proportion of studio practice to theoretical study is normally 60% to 40%. Supervision covers both practical and theoretical issues, and is provided through a supervisory team and regular individual tutorials with supervisors. Subjects covered by research students, past and present include: The Reaffirmation Of Singular and Unified Sculptural Form Through Contour Lines; Drawing With Light: Space — The Pencil Of Nature; Robert Wilson and an Aesthetic of Human Behaviour in the Performing Body; and Walter Bennington (1872-1936). Pictorialist & Portrait Photographer.
Students currently enrolled on our Research Degrees come from both the UK and overseas and include recent graduates, practitioners, theoreticians and tutors in the Faculty. Many follow a Research Degree out of either professional development or personal interest however for some it is an important step towards a lecturing career in higher education. Peer group seminars and discussions together with campus-based and university-wide open lecture programmes underpin supervisory support for Research Degree programmes, and we expect all research students to contribute to the experience.
We encourage attendance at relevant conferences, as well as the giving of papers and publication of articles towards the later stages of studies. Our institutional policy of using a supervisory team, as opposed to an individual supervisor, lends itself well to research across different disciplines both within the Faculty and across the University as a whole.
Training in Research Methods
All research students who have not already completed a relevant Masters Degree or other appropriate postgraduate research methods training must complete the university's research methods training course: MR401 (philosophy and approaches to research) and MR402 (methodologies and methods).
Entry requirements
- You will normally need an Honours Degree of upper second class or above from a UK university or equivalent in a subject area relevant to your proposed research
- In exceptional circumstances, the University will consider applications from mature non-graduates with experience of undertaking research
- Registration is usually for MA by Research or PhD
- Candidates may register for PhD directly if they have a recent masters qualification in a relevant subject that contained appropriate research methods training
Staff offering supervision
Andrew Bick BA MA
Senior Lecturer in Painting
Artists’ Books; Relief Constructions
Bob Davison BA MA
Senior Lecturer in Painting
Painting and Drawing
Nat Goodden BA MA
Senior Lecturer in Fine Art
Sculpture Installation; Work with Spatial, Interactive & Electronic Media
Sharon Harper BFA, MA, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Media Theory and Contextual Studies
Photography, History and Theory; Art/Media Connections; History and Theory of Art Production & Distribution; Contemporary Art Theory; American Art Post-WW11
Matthew Harris BA
Senior Lecturer in Fashion Textiles
Textiles
Paul Rosenbloom BA HDipAD
Senior Lecturer in Painting and Course Leader MA Fine Art
Painting & Drawing; Australian Art; 20th Century European & American Art
Richard Salkeld BA MA
Senior Lecturer in History & Theory of Art & Design
Theories of Cultural Value; Postmodernism
Nick Sargeant MA
Head of Department of Art and Design
Photography
Professor Andrew Stonyer BA PhD
Professor of Fine Art
Sculpture; Research Methodology
Isabel Young
Senior Lecturer in Painting
Painting and Drawing