AHRC-Funded PhD Studentship
Performance Studies
Department of Visual Cultures
Goldsmiths, University of London
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Two full PhD studentships are being offered, one based in the
Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, the other in Drama,
Theatre and Performance at Roehampton. Both studentships will commence
1 October 2009 and run for three years until September 2012.
The studentships will comprise an integral component of an innovative
three-year research project `Performance Matters', funded by the Arts
and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This project will explore the
challenges to ideas of cultural value presented by contemporary live
art and performance practices. Co-directed by Dr Gavin Butt
(Goldsmiths), Professor Adrian Heathfield (Roehampton) and Lois Keidan
(Live Art Development Agency), it will comprise the staging of
discursive and performance events in the Higher Education and cultural
sectors in London. The project will be transdisciplinary in approach
and is intended to investigate the changing status of performance
within the institutions and practices of visual art, dance, and
theatre, as well as within academic theory and cultural life more broadly.
Each of the studentships relates to a specific theme, or research
track, within the project. One, addressing the theme of `Performing
Idea', will be based at Roehampton and be supervised by Professor
Heathfield. The other will relate to the theme of `Trashing
Performance' and be supervised by Dr Butt at Goldsmiths. You should
decide which studentship you wish to apply for and apply directly to
the appropriate institution (see below). Applications are welcomed in
a broad range of areas associated with performance studies, but are
especially invited in the specific areas of: performative writing and
forms of criticism; performance, temporality and cultural value;
critical and creative dialogue; performance writing and experimental
dramaturgy; and performance, transferable knowledge and curatorial
practice (for Performing Idea); and on de-valued and/or vernacular
performance including camp, trash, street, queer, and popular forms;
`non-serious' modes of performance participation and consumption;
taste and critical judgement; unofficial performance archives and
community testimonies; and performance in visual arts institutions and
discourses (for Trashing Performance).
Candidates may work through either theoretical or practice-as-research
methodologies. The award holder will be selected on the basis of
qualifications and research ability; capacity to work in a
collaborative research environment; the preparedness and viability of
the proposal; and the fit between the proposal and research concerns
of Performance Matters.
For further information and enquiries about the Goldsmiths studentship
contact Dr Gavin Butt, e-mail g.butt@gold.ac.uk.
Application forms can be found at http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/apply/. Please mark your application `AHRC Performance Matters studentship'.
The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday, 16 March 2009.
Interviews will take place on 2 or 3 April 2009.