Royal College of Art
Kensington Gore
London
SW7 2EU
www.rca.ac.uk
www.rca.ac.uk/schools/school-of-humanities
Based in the world’s most influential university of art and design, the School of Humanities Research Programme offers a unique opportunity to undertake scholarly research of the highest quality in a wholly postgraduate environment. Our disciplinary interests span the fine arts, design, architecture, film, photography, performance and digital media. We embrace and encourage a broad range of interests in research across the history, theory and practice of art, design, curating and critical writing and criticism as creative practices; and we are committed to extending the reach of these fields into new geographical and intellectual terrains.
As a Humanities research student, you play a key role in the life of the School of Humanities, an environment offering postgraduate programmes in Critical & Historical Studies, Curating Contemporary Art, Critical Writing in Art & Design, and V&A/RCA History of Design (with the Victoria and Albert Museum). You will also have access to all schools’ facilities, shared events and courses as well as to other programmes by request. Each student follows their own programme of research developed in their proposal under the guidance of an assigned supervisor who will be a member of the regular Humanities faculty.
There are currently around 60 full-time and part-time MPhil/PhD students (by thesis and by project); together they form a lively community of writers, thinkers and makers with close relations to the artists and designers studying in other parts of the Royal College of Art, often sharing skills and interests through symposia and exhibitions. Many have gone on to publish their research and to establish significant careers in the arts.
“Like all good researchers, our students produce new ways of thinking about and understanding the world. Our role is to nurture the historians, theorists, curators, writers, journalists and critics of the future.”
—Dr Marquard Smith, Research Leader and Head of Doctoral Studies, School of Humanities
The official deadline for applications is 13 January 2014, but we welcome year-round applications. The RCA offers a number of funded research scholarships in collaboration with national funding bodies. As a member of TECHNÉ, the AHRC-funded doctoral training partnership, the RCA welcomes applications from eligible candidates for full-time and part-time fully funded studentships across a range of arts and humanities disciplines, the deadline for which is 19 February 2014. (The current maintenance rate for awards beginning 2013–14 is 15,726 GBP per year paid in quarterly installments.) To be eligible for TECHNÉ, the applicant must have been accepted by the RCA. For further information, contact [email protected].
The School’s academic staff is comprised of expert tutors who are also active as writers, broadcasters and curators. Our student interests and subject expertise range from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century, across global geographies. A broad range of visiting professionals also contribute to our programmes, including those from museums and galleries; broadcast, print and digital media; contemporary art and design organizations, historic archives, collections and research facilities.
Current MPhil/PhD research topics include the neo-avant garde, utopia, urban cultures, exhibition making, artistic research, ecologies, atomic and molecular iconography, materiality, luxury, art criticism, object-oriented ontology, editing, the line, translation, bad writing; political contexts for art and design production; and the history and theory of art making, design practice and curating in diverse national settings including Britain, France, Italy, Socialist Eastern Europe, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mozambique and Turkey.
For further information on the application process, fees and available funding, please visit here or contact [email protected]. A member of faculty will be happy to discuss your proposal with you prior to application.
UK and EU applicants may be eligible to apply for AHRC scholarships. UK and EU students registering as MPhil may also be eligible for an RCA bursary towards fees in their first year.
