Overview
Explore your research interests in communication, film and media, supported by the expertise of our staff, on our PhD programme in Cambridge.
You will be allocated two supervisors with additional staff members available if necessary. Our supervisors are experienced in most areas of film, media and popular culture, with a strong focus on digital media theory and practice, network culture and media research, cinema and sexuality, violence and spectatorship, contemporary European cinema, television genres, and popular music.
You will conduct your research in a collaborative interdisciplinary environment with strong links to research networks in our University and the wider community, including the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, Kettle's Yard, and the University of Cambridge's Centre for Research into Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (CRASSH).
We host and take part in many research-oriented events for staff and postgraduate students, including regular Faculty and departmental research seminars, book launches, gallery events, film screenings and international conferences. Our seminars will give you the chance to present papers in a supportive setting.
We are also key contributors to the Faculty’s Anglia Research Centre in Media & Culture (ARCMedia) and the StoryLab Research Institute, who organise many events that you are welcome to attend, or even contribute to.
These networks, along with our online environment, will help you connect with other research students from a range of disciplines.
You could also benefit from financial support – we allocate a substantial sum every year towards postgraduate travel and conference expenses, as well as some bursaries.
All your subject-specific studies will be enhanced and supported by our University-wide training sessions, where you will gain important research expertise in areas like ethics, presentations, intellectual property and digital scholarship.
Supervision And Support
Our permanent supervisory staff members are recognised experts in their field, and have produced a number of influential books, journal articles and practice-based research. Our expertise includes:
Dr Patricia MacCormack, BA, PhD: continental philosophy (Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, post-structuralism, feminism); sexuality, gender and queer theory.
Dr Sean Campbell, BA, MA, PhD: popular music/culture; migration/ethnicity; Irish studies.
Dr Simon Payne, BA, MA, PhD: experimental video practice; digital video aesthetics.
Dr Tanya Horeck, BA, MA, PhD: feminist film theory; representations of sexuality and violence in contemporary cinema; crime narratives.
Dr Tina Kendall, BA, PhD: materialist film theory; spectatorship and cinematic unpleasure; the new extremism in European cinema.
Dr Nina Lübbren, PhD: nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century art, art and the fantastic, Bollywood cinema, visual narratives.
Dr Mareike Jenner, PhD: Television Genre, Television Studies, Gender and Television, Video-on-Demand, Postmodern Television, Contemporary Television, American Television.
Dr Martin Zeilinger, MA, PhD: Digital media theory & aesthetics, Intellectual property and digital culture, Cultural theory and political economy, Game studies / digital storytelling, Creative coding, New media art.
Jennifer Nightingale, MFA: Artists' Film and Video, Experimental Animation.
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.
My name is Kavisha Prince Anthony, and I always had a dream of studying abroad. Thankfully, that dream came to life since I applied to the Study Advisor. I was able to receive my visa within four days. I also had some visa refusals in the past; I had about six UK visa refusals in the past, but thankfully, it was not an issue since the Study Advisor was able to make things work this time. I highly recommend Study Advisor for your dreams of going abroad, whether it be the UK or any other European country there is.