Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities (CAMC) Postgraduate Research
Image credit: John Devane, Yellow House.
Research Coventry
discover more online www.coventry.ac.uk/research
Welcome to the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities Innovative and outward-facing, the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities (CAMC) explores the historical, social and political dimensions of cultural production using both academic and practice-based research. Deeply committed to pursuing excellence with impact, CAMC members create world-leading research that reaches and influences local, national and global communities beyond the university. Professor Patricia Phillippy Executive Director
Image credit: ‘Anthony Luvera: Taking Place’ Exhibition, Foyles Gallery. 2
About CAMC CAMC is one of three research centres in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Coventry University. CAMC is home to a vibrant research culture that weaves together three strands of scholarship: Critical Practices, Cultural Memory and Wellbeing and the Arts. Within and across these themes, our research is both transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary. We are committed to excellence within our unique disciplines, and unified in our belief that exchanges across disciplines can transform both scholarly fields, and the experiences of the individuals and communities with whom we engage. Staff in CAMC are internationally recognised as leaders in the fields of: ▪ Art History ▪ Curatorial Studies ▪ Design and Design Futures ▪ English Literature and Linguistics ▪ Material and Cultural Memories ▪ Practice Research Research environment The centre is home to a community of researchers whose wide interests, cutting-edge scholarship and unparalleled creative practice enrich CAMC’s research environment and help to bring the centre’s research into classrooms across the faculty. We supervise a PhD community, currently numbering more than 30, whose studies lie in distinct fields of expertise, but who benefit from the transdisciplinary culture and ethos surrounding them.
3
Research strands Critical practices
Cultural memory
Wellbeing and the arts
The critical practices strand brings together practitionerresearchers in the fields of visual arts and the curatorial. We work across disciplines and explore innovative and speculative interdisciplinary enquiries. Our research engages with visual, aural, haptic and textual materials to critically address the ways we produce knowledge and engage with contemporary societal primacies. The strand welcomes researchers and postgraduate researchers (PGRs) to contribute to our renowned research ecology and to foster a programme based on the development of practice as a site for knowledge production. The doctoral programme welcomes researchers in practice research (artists, curators, musicians, performers, among others) and in critical studies.
The cultural memory research strand is about memory as placing, cultural connection and creativity. It explores the significance of sites, objects, artworks, images and texts in shaping identities of memory and belonging. This strand asks new and in-depth questions about why the past matters now and for future memory making. It encompasses art works, places, cultures, history and communities, and explores how these shape ideas of belonging, ownership and identities of the present.
The wellbeing and the arts strand draws together researchers from various disciplines who are interested in the contribution creative subjects can make to our understanding and enhancement of health and wellbeing. The strand takes a transdisciplinary approach to addressing health and wellbeing issues. We undertake creative practice that seeks to explore, understand, communicate and promote wellbeing and to develop new interventions and solutions that embed co-creation and participatory approaches.
▪ Art history ▪ History
Our main areas of research are:
▪ Material culture
▪ Creative interventions toward health and wellbeing
▪ Visual culture.
▪ Data generation
▪ Literature and languages
Our main areas of research are:
▪ Visualisation, prototyping and co-creation methodologies
▪ Critical epistemologies
▪ Design futures
▪ Critical theory
▪ Transport and mobilities.
▪ Curating ▪ Curatorial studies ▪ Exhibitionary practices ▪ Visual arts ▪ Visual cultures ▪ Practice research in the arts and the curatorial. Image credit: Graham Chorlton, Island. 4
Our main areas of research are:
Postgraduate research: what we offer CAMC is a truly exceptional environment where a team of world-leading researchers, artists and research practitioners from a variety of fields are engaged with each other’s work. They are committed to nurturing our early career researchers and postgraduate researchers. CAMC welcomes researchers and those undertaking research degrees to our renowned research ecology, where they are invited to explore rich sites of innovation and learning, guided by experts in their fields. Our postgraduate provision, comprising MARs, MRes, and PhD degrees, recruits both students in practice research and those artists, creative writers, photographers and curators, among others and those pursuing critical and cultural studies, whether based in texts or artefacts. Current PGR environment PGR students in CAMC are supported by expert and engaged supervisors, as well as a larger scholarly community within the centre that provides opportunities for exchanges of research and ideas between students and staff. A vital calendar of events in CAMC is complemented by an active programme of lectures, workshops and masterclasses within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Our cosponsored PhD studentships allow students to work with partners in the arts and creative industries beyond the university, and to gain valuable experience in cultural and practical research. CAMC’s uniquely transdisciplinary focus promotes a vital sharing of methods, approaches and viewpoints that enrich every student’s experience. Within specialised disciplines, they develop expertise within an environment of collegiality that is unsurpassed.
Our main areas of supervision are: ▪ Art history ▪ Corpus linguistics ▪ Cultural history ▪ Curatorial studies ▪ English literature and creative writing ▪ Memory studies ▪ Materiality and material culture ▪ Practice research in the arts and the curatorial. CAMC is a consortium member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded Midlands Four Cities (M4C) Doctoral Training Programme, which supports PhD study in multiple disciplines within the centre. The M4C Collaborative Doctoral Awards, as well as CAMC’s co-sponsored PhD studentships, offer unique opportunities for students to study with expert academic supervisors and gain invaluable experience working with our partners in the arts, culture, heritage and creative industries.
5
Postgraduate leads A dedicated PGR lead within CAMC is a first point of contact for potential students, offering support in the application process and in aligning students’ interests with a supervisory team who can guide the project to completion. Our PGR tutor within CAMC provides sustained support and information throughout the PhD course, encouraging students to participate in centre and faculty research events, and helping to arrange for students to present their work nationally and to collaborate with external arts and cultural partners during their studies.
6
Professor Sheena Gardner E: sheena.gardner@coventry.ac.uk
Dr Imogen Racz E: imogen.racz@coventry.ac.uk
Professor Sheena Gardner is Midlands 4 Cities (M4C) site director for Coventry University and Postgraduate Research Lead for the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities. Sheena can advise on applications for Arts and Humanities Research Council funding through the M4C Doctoral Training Partnership. As PGR Lead for CAMC, she can advise applicants on the PGR+ admissions process at Coventry University. Please contact her if you are applying to study in CAMC for a research degree.
Dr Imogen Racz is the faculty Research Degrees Leader and Postgraduate Tutor for CAMC. Imogen oversees the progress of the applications for research degrees once they have been submitted. During the life of a research student within CAMC, she is there to support research students and their supervisory teams, both in helping to develop and program PGR research activities and to advise on any progression issues.
PGR success stories Our alumni are working as university lecturers, curators, artists and in the creative industries. Daniel Pryde-Jarman, since earning his doctorate in 2013, has continued as an artist, writer, creator of artist spaces, and lecturer. He is now Course Leader for BA and MA Fine Arts programmes at Hereford College of Arts. Zahrah Algamdi earned her PhD in 2014 in Fine Art, and now lectures at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. She exhibits widely, and represented Saudi Arabia at the Venice Biennale in 2019. Siân Alsop earned her PhD in 2015. She developed a visualisation tool for engineering lectures as part of her PhD project and is now a full time Research Fellow in the Centre for Global Learning: Education and Attainment at Coventry University.
Helen Gørrill earned her PhD on contemporary British Painting in 2017, co-supervised with the Royal College of Art, and has since published widely, including a monograph based on her PhD with I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury. She is active as an artist and curator, and lectures at a number of universities. Xiaoyu Xu joined us with a degree in Sociology, completed a PhD in 2017 on evaluation in research articles, and is now a lecturer in English at City University in Hong Kong. Lauren Walden earned her PhD in 2019 in Art History. She has since published several articles and has been a lecturer at the University of Leicester. She is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Birmingham City University.
Image credit: Anthony Luvera, Gerald. 7
PGR enquiries Professor Sheena Gardner, PGR Lead E: ab1248@coventry.ac.uk E: camc.fah@coventry.ac.uk www.coventry.ac.uk/camc
J1687-20 Š Coventry University.
Find us on social media: @CovUni_CAMC