About UCA

UCA is the UK’s highest-ranked creative university (Guardian/Complete University Guides 2021), offering courses in Architecture, Art, Crafts, Design, Fashion, Film, Performing Arts and Creative Business across Surrey, Kent, and overseas.

We support our students to forge their own path and use their creativity to make a difference. Right now, they’re making the creative industries more inclusive and sustainable, changing perspectives, and winning awards – from Golden Globes to Pulitzers.

Research at UCA

With a vibrant and progressive research community and a wealth of specialist resources for creative research and practice, UCA offers you the ideal environment, based in UCA Doctoral College in Canterbury, to explore your chosen field and develop unique and impressive doctoral work.

We are a top-ten research community for Art & Design, and the second-largest provider of creative education in Europe. In REF 2021, 99% of our research was judged to be internationally recognized for quality, and 78% to be world-leading or internationally significant.

Project Title: Jo Spence and Rosy Martin: Pioneering Phototherapy

This studentship is offered in conjunction with UCA’s Fast Forward project, led by Professor Anna Fox. Proposals are invited for an archival research project using material in the Hyman Collection, the Jo Spence Memorial Library Archive, and elsewhere, to investigate the development of phototherapy through the collaborative practice of Jo Spence and Rosy Martin. This thesis-only or practice-based project would look at issues around collaboration and the ways in which the art world struggles to appreciate multi-authored work. This doctorate would refocus attention on the more psychological and performative aspects of Spence’s and Martin’s practice and would address strategies that used humor and the absurd to address trauma.

For full details of the scope and context of the studentship, please visit: https://www.uca.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/
The studentship package includes a fee waiver for three years’ full-time study, and a stipend of £17,688 each year for three years (or equivalent for part-time study for Home students). The studentships recognise excellence in research and are highly competitive and limited in number.  Applicants whose application passes an initial review will be invited to interview. Applicants who are successful at interview and offered a place will be put forward for consideration for the Vice Chancellor’s Studentship awards. Studentship decisions are based on the relevance of the research proposal, and performance at interview. Those applying for a studentship or other funding must apply by 17 April 2023. Decisions on studentship awards will be announced by 30 July 2023.

Subject Area(s)

Health & Medical
Medicine & Dentistry
Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmacy
Nutrition
Nursing
Medical Technology

How to apply

To see our entry requirements, register your interest or apply, please visit www.uca.ac.uk/research/research-degrees