Arts PhD

Course Overview

Your PhD at Lancaster could focus on one of a wide range of topics within Fine Art or on a subject that crosses different disciplines. As a PhD student you will normally be supervised by a team of two supervisors who will ensure that you receive focused critical feedback and encouragement throughout the programme. In some cases the second supervisor will be based in a different discipline within the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA), or a different department within the university in order to ensure that you have the most appropriate supervisory team for your chosen project.

We have supervised PhD projects on an exciting variety of topics within painting, drawing, sculpture, new media, art/science, and socially engaged practice. These have previously included: sculpture and new materialism; relationships between drawing, graphic practices and biomedical imaging; health and therapeutic landscapes; ontological experiments in material activism; Deleuze's transcendental realism in painting; creative communities in online spaces; identity and contemporary Iranian art; transferences and translations between visual languages of indigenous Latin American textiles and geometric abstract painting, improving scientific literacy, agency and resilience with participatory art practice; and new visual languages of landscape.

You can take your Fine Art PhD at Lancaster either in the form of a written thesis, or as a project that combines the written thesis with creative practical work. Many of our academic staff are engaged with practice-based research in the fields of art, film, theatre and design, and we have a dedicated team of technicians to support you as well as workshops, editing suites and technical resources for our students.