PhD scholarship opportunity – Sustainability at Seaside Arts Festivals

Signature Research Theme PhD scholars will receive the following:

• Annual stipend at UKRI rates (£17,668 in 2022/23).
• Annual tuition fees at home rates (£4,596 in 2022/23).

2023/24 rates to be announced.

The deadline for applications is Friday 17th February 2023 at 23:59 GMT. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for an interview taking place the week commencing Monday 13th March 2023.

We are seeking a highly motivated and independent individual, who also has the personal skills that are conducive to working across arts, humanities and social science disciplines. The successful candidate will need to collaborate and communicate with key stakeholders including festival programmers, artists, audiences and local communities. The ability to effectively communicate in both verbal and written form is therefore a key requirement of this studentship.

The project’s interdisciplinarity means the candidate is expected to adopt a mixed-method approach to the research, which will include qualitive and quantitative data collection and analysis. Experience in devising, conducting and analysing surveys and interviews would be especially beneficial. We also welcome candidates who have an interest in ethnographic research and practice-based research.

Applications must demonstrate a motivation and enthusiasm to engage with the issue of sustainability across various pillars (social, economic and environmental). A demonstrable interest in the arts, including professional experience in the sector would be advantageous.

This studentship is open to candidates with experience in at least one field relevant to the topics under investigation. Relevant disciplines include, but are not limited to:

• Arts subjects, especially Film and Visual Arts
• Tourism
• Event Management
• Leisure Studies
• Audience Studies
• Human/Cultural Geography

Candidates must also meet the entry requirements for postgraduate study at the University of Kent. Applicants to a PhD programme should normally hold a good Honours degree (First or 2:1) or a Master’s Degree (at Merit or Distinction) in a relevant field, or the equivalent from an internationally recognised institution. The University of Kent requires all non-native speakers of English to reach a minimum standard of proficiency in written and spoken English before beginning a postgraduate degree.

The University of Kent is delighted to invite applications for a doctoral scholarship on a project starting in the academic year 2023 (from September 2023). This is an exciting opportunity for an exceptional PhD candidate to lead research centred on seaside arts festivals and improve our understanding of the various sustainability issues at play in these ephemeral events and at host locations that are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change. It is anticipated that findings from this interdisciplinary project will underpin key considerations for future arts festival management and curation.

This project is funded by the University of Kent Signature Research Theme “Positive Environmental Futures”. The Signature Research Theme’s aim is to facilitate trans-disciplinary work designed to be responsive to environmental challenges and pro-active in its use of collaborative knowledge to affect positive change. Within the “Positive Environmental Futures” umbrella, our aspiration is to nurture active areas of research expertise, provide space for new and emerging collaborative activity to grow and to build inclusive relationships with a range of external partners.

Project overview

The inherent ephemerality of arts festivals makes them especially vulnerable to managing and maintaining audiences while coastal areas have additional pressures in terms of the exposed physical landscape and ever-shifting social demographics – both of which are often tied to climate change. The project therefore considers the various and particular sustainability issues at play in the seaside arts festival.

Key considerations:

• how seaside arts festivals contribute to or complicate place-making in areas that are often overlooked or neglected at other times of the year (namely in winter months)
• how seaside arts festivals can sustain audiences across the year to avoid or minimise a ‘feast’ or ‘famine’ cycle that has a negative impact on the physical and economic health of an area
• how seaside arts festivals can build capacity to promote “greener” audience behaviours amongst the temporary festival community
• current practice in terms of promoting and auditing environmental sustainability in the management of seaside arts festivals and knowledge exchange for a “best practice” model.
• how the activities of seaside arts festivals directly address questions of sustainability in their practice and content (e.g. including a programming strand related to climate change or using local suppliers to reduce the festival’s carbon footprint).

Seaside arts festivals remain popular in the UK despite the well-noted fluctuating fortunes of the country’s coastal towns and resorts. As such, we suggest this project takes the UK as a starting point though we are open to a comparative cross-country analysis.

We would also welcome candidates narrowing the focus of arts festivals to marry with specific interests (e.g. film or visual arts) and/or considering a comparative analysis.

This PhD will be a training programme where you will learn how work across disciplines, bringing together the varied approaches required to find solutions to the pressing issue of sustainability within the arts and culture sector. This PhD project will therefore train a junior researcher in skills that can intersect multiple disciplines, as well as facilitate the ability to move beyond traditional academic boundaries. Through the range of quantitative and qualitative methodologies employed within this project, alongside the need for regular engagement with key stakeholders, the student will develop a comprehensive research and employability toolkit which, upon graduation, could be applied both within and outside academia.

What support will the successful candidate receive?

• The successful applicant will be supported by an interdisciplinary supervisory team with a range of theoretical and methodological expertise across the fields relevant to the research proposal.
  • Dr Lavinia Brydon; Senior Lecturer in Film & Media in the School of Arts
  • Dr Juliane Thieme; Lecturer in Management in the Kent Business School
• The supervisory team will provide guidance on training on the methodological techniques and approaches to be employed with this project. This includes School-specific training and the range of development opportunities (personal, professional, and career) provided through the Graduate Research College as part of the researcher development programme.
• Postgraduate research students are acknowledged and regarded as a core component of the University and our ability to develop and deliver high-quality research. The PhD student will join a cohort of postgraduate researchers across the School of Arts and the Kent Business School and will also be part of a growing community of PhD students associated with the University of Kent’s Signature Research Themes.