Overview
Our PhD research programmes will allow you to explore your own interests in the area of film and television production, supported by the expertise of our staff.
Informed by your particular discipline, you’ll critically contextualise your work, clarifying theoretical and practical research-based enquiries, and contributing distinctive new ideas to the field.
You’ll be allocated two supervisors, with additional staff members available if necessary. Our supervisors are experienced in most areas of film and television production, including the management of media SMEs, the effect of digitisation on programme production and distribution, narrative in factual programming, experimental film and video, cinematography and the role of the director of photography, and the 'glass ceiling' in factual programming. You can see a full list of research areas in the Supervision and support section below.
Based in the historic Cambridge School of Art, you’ll be part of a growing community of researchers from many different fields. We provide various research forums and hold regular seminars and informal presentations for our postgraduate and research students. We also have links with our Faculty’s StoryLab Research Institute and Anglia Research Centre in Media and Culture (ARCMedia).
You’ll have the chance to take part in various exhibition and conference opportunities in the area of film and television production, and benefit from our strong links with institutions like the Cambridgeshire Film Consortium, the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, Kettle's Yard, and the University of Cambridge's Centre for Research into Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH).
All your subject-specific studies will be enhanced and supported by our University-wide training sessions, where you’ll gain important research expertise in areas like ethics, presentations, intellectual property and digital scholarship.
Supervision and Support
You’ll be supervised and supported by staff who have professional and academic expertise in film and television production, and have worked on the production of many films, documentaries and television programmes. Our research expertise includes:
Shreepali Patel: documentary; creative tools of production in storytelling across genres; audience/user engagement in site specific, multi-platform and interactive audio-visual projects; cross-disciplinary collaborations between audiovisual art, science and politics.
Catherine Elliott: social history and film; the documentary; gender and television; current trends in the British television industry; the history of educational television.
Sophie Jackson: alternative storytelling in both fiction and non-fiction films; the changing landscape of financing and distribution of independent films.
Your department and faculty
Using our creative expertise and industry connections in Cambridge and beyond, we create experiences that entertain, educate, inspire and improve lives.
At Cambridge School of Creative Industries, we believe in the importance of experimentation and risk-taking to create experiences that entertain, educate, inspire and improve lives.
Whether writing bestselling fiction, creating challenging documentaries or sharing a piano with people on the autism spectrum, the expertise of our staff goes far beyond teaching. Their research produces significant funding success, leading to important publications and international conferences.
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