Arts and Humanities Research Scholarships

Art, Design and Architecture

The Centre for Cultural Ecologies in Art, Design and Architecture (CEADA) at the University of Huddersfield provides a dynamic and interdisciplinary environment for doctoral research across creative practice, design, architecture, and the cultural and creative industries. The Centre supports practice-based and practice-led researchers working across art, design, making, architecture, film, photography, illustration, animation, fashion, textiles, and creative technologies.

CEADA is home to collaborative and community-focused research that engages with co-production, participation, heritage, place, health, wellbeing, inclusion, and cultural democracy. Researchers are encouraged to develop innovative projects that connect creative practice with wider social, cultural, and environmental concerns.

Doctoral researchers benefit from working alongside experienced supervisors and active research communities, with opportunities to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration, public-facing research, and partnerships with external organisations and communities. CEADA provides an intellectually stimulating and supportive environment for researchers interested in how creative practice shapes public life, cultural ecologies, and contemporary society.

English, History and Archaeology

The University of Huddersfield provides an intellectually stimulating and highly supportive environment for doctoral research in the humanities, underpinned by thriving research cultures in English, History, Archaeology, and Media. PhD researchers join a vibrant scholarly community supported through the Centre of Archaeology and the Centre for History, Culture and Memory.

The Centre of Archaeology is internationally recognised for combining cutting-edge academic research with professional and community-focused practice. Doctoral researchers benefit from expertise in forensic and Holocaust archaeology, landscape and industrial archaeology, material culture studies, heritage management, and community archaeology.

Research in History is supported through the Centre for History, Culture and Memory, bringing together scholars exploring the relationships between the past, identity, heritage, and contemporary society. Staff expertise spans medieval to modern history, social and cultural history, public history, memory studies, regional and transnational histories, and place-based research.

English at Huddersfield offers a supportive and research-active environment for doctoral study, with expertise across early modern to contemporary literature, creative writing, critical theory, and interdisciplinary humanities research.

Across the humanities, doctoral researchers receive close and personalised supervision from experienced and research-active staff. PhD students benefit from structured research training, opportunities to publish and present their work, and encouragement to engage in teaching, public engagement, and knowledge exchange activities.

Music and Performing Arts

Music and Performing Arts at the University of Huddersfield provides one of the UK’s leading environments for postgraduate research and was ranked 20th globally in the 2024 QS World University Rankings for Performing Arts. Doctoral researchers join internationally recognised research communities across music, performance, drama, sound, and creative technologies.

PhD supervision spans a wide range of specialist areas including composition, performance, contemporary music studies, music technology, spatial audio, creative coding, music production, popular music, songwriting, musicology, gender and identity, music for screen, sound archaeology, actor training, empirical performance research, immersive theatre, and performance magic.

Doctoral researchers become part of active and internationally connected research cultures, including projects such as the Leverhulme Amplification Project, the AHRC-funded Heaviness in Metal Music Production and Songwriting Camps in the 21st Century projects, and the Magic Research Group.

The department offers exceptional facilities and platforms for research, including the Huddersfield Immersive Sound System (HISS), more than twenty specialist studios, the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM), the Centre for Research in Music and its Technologies (CRMT), Huddersfield Contemporary Records, and the internationally renowned Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.

Across music and performing arts, doctoral researchers benefit from expert supervision, a collaborative and innovative research environment, and opportunities to develop practice, scholarship, and professional networks at an international level.