Dance (Phd)

Our university has a well-established research reputation, and has developed links and partnerships with arts organisations, professional dance companies, dance practitioners and publishing houses in the UK and Internationally.

We welcome students studying dance, somatics and philosophy; dance, spirituality and religious studies; dance science; performance praxis; community dance and education; and inter-cultural and cross-cultural dance cultures. The school is interested in research topics that innovatively cross- disciplinary boundaries; thus interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary scholarship is most welcome, as well as pioneering approaches to embodied scholarship and immersive practice-as-research.

Our supervisory teams are specialists in dance science, somatic movement dance education and therapy, philosophy, religious studies, feminism, community dance and performance studies. Our system of supervising allows for a supervisory team that makes this mode of study particularly appropriate for interdisciplinary research degrees in dance and other performance areas. You will have the opportunity to create with work with external stakeholders, staff and students.

The aim is to produce a thesis that contains original research. If focused on practice, the thesis might comprise a ground-breaking performance (of a publishable/ performance standard), or make a significant contribution to the production of new knowledge in professional practice.

Research students who have not already completed a relevant masters degree, or other appropriate postgraduate research methods training, are required to complete the university’s Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods.

This research contributes to the subject community Performing Arts and Play and the research priority areas Sport, Exercise, Health and Wellbeing and Creative Practice as Research.