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How we help you

Whether you have a clear research direction or just some emerging ideas, we can help you shape, strengthen and refine a PhD proposal.

We generally offer feedback on your proposal and can meet with you to discuss the first draft if desired. We have many areas of expertise and specialism, and can support research in other areas as well. We also encourage practice-based PhDs.

Our areas of expertise and specialism

Key areas of focus include:

  • exhibition practice
  • curation
  • publication projects
  • critical art writing
  • experimental film and video
  • performance

These are all underpinned by an emphasis on digital technologies as a format for the production, dispersion and interpretation of art.

Other specialisms include:

  • post-colonialism
  • de-colonisation
  • artist films
  • performance and subjectivity
  • theories of labour
  • feminism
  • radical art pedagogy.
     
While many students develop research proposals whose outcome will be a fully written thesis, we also support research that incorporates elements of art practice combined with critical reflection.
Get in touch with the School so we can help you develop your proposal. Find out how to apply for a PhD

PhD Practice in Curating

PhD Practice in Curating is a ‘by distance’ programme that understands the doctoral cohort and faculty as a supportive environment of shared knowledge production. 

 

We especially encourage applicants with a track record of curating, who are already curatorial professionals working in museums and galleries. 

Doctoral candidates develop their curatorial research and writing skills, in conceiving, organizing, as well as carrying out independent and/or collaborative research in an environment that is dedicated to interdisciplinary exchange, and shared knowledge production.

The thesis and the projects are developed in close dialogue with the Programme Director - Professor Dorothee Richter and the second supervisor provided by research staff in Art.

PhD Practice in Curating is supported through regular reading groups, presentations, and exhibition tours. The doctoral cohort critically utilizes the editorships of the discipline leading journal OnCurating, edited by Richter, as well as the public symposia and conferences that the research platform supports with partners such as documenta, tba21 and ARCO Seoul. Recent iterations include conferences: De-Colonizing Art Institutions, supported by Kunstmuseum Basel; Curating in Feminist Thought, Migros Museum; Our Hegemonic Machines, Bucharest Biennial; Curating on the move, conference and workshop examining ecology and world-making with the Taipei Biennale in partnership City University, Hong Kong.

Published thesis from PhD Practice in Curating researchers can be found here or are retrievable from the British Library database EThOS.

For more information or to express your interest in applying, please contact Dorothee Richter at d.i.richter@reading.ac.uk

PhD supervision

Through the expert PhD supervision we offer, we seek to ensure that the time you spend with us as a doctoral student is as rewarding as possible.
Our academic staff are leaders in their areas of research and many have extensive experience as art practitioners.
Find out more about our staff and the areas of postgraduate research that they supervise

Our research

Art work by John Russell
The School makes a distinctive contribution to knowledge through practice-led, theoretical and art historical modes of enquiry.
Our doctoral students, academic researchers, research fellows and post-doctoral research assistants work on art research and knowledge transfer with everyday relevance.
Learn more about our research areas, and current and past projects

Types of doctoral degree

Student using tablet while drinking tea in a cafe
You can choose a PhD by Thesis or PhD by Published Works. 

Part-time study

Smiling student sitting in a library with a notebook and a stack of books
Our Department offers both part-time and full-time PhDs, so you can choose a mode of study that suits your circumstances. 

PhD by Distance

Student sitting outside a cafe with a laptop and a cup of coffee
Our PhD by Distance programme allows you to benefit from the expertise of a Reading-based supervisor, while conducting your research in a different location.