The University of Strathclyde is able to offer high quality, strongly supportive, individualised supervision in the subject areas listed blow, including specialised centres with access to resources and professional networks facilitated by supervisors.

Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Professional Development (PgCert RPD)

As an institution, the University of Strathclyde has invested heavily in training for postgraduate researchers.  PhD graduates will have completed the Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Professional Development – which is mandatory - a wide-ranging set of skills training courses and workshops designed to equip them for undertaking their doctoral research and entering employment on graduation.  Students select and follow a preferred path through the available provision, as appropriate to their personal training needs.  Classes range from Research Design and Project Management to Building International Visibility and Getting Published in Academic Journals.

Panel B - Cultural & Museum Studies (incl Heritage & Conservation), Art History

• PhD English
• PhD Marketing

Panel C - Creative and performing Arts & Design

• PhD Architecture
• PhD Creative Writing
• PhD Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management

Panel D - History

• PhD History

Panel E - Law and Legal Studies, International Development, Diplomacy and International Relations

• PhD Law

Panel F – Linguistics

• PhD English

Panel G – Media, Communications, Cultural Policy, Film & TV, Library and Information Studies, Information & Communications Technology

• PhD Journalism, Media and Communication
• PhD Gender Studies
• PhD Computer and Information Sciences

Panel H – Modern Languages

• PhD Translation Studies
• PhD French
• PhD Italian
• PhD Spanish

Panel J – Literatures

• PhD English

 

Architecture

Architecture by its very nature crosses the disciplinary borders between science, technology, the arts and humanities.  The Department of Architecture has particular expertise in the history and theory of architecture and cities, as well as in the broader contextual and cultural dimensions of architectural culture.  Situated in the heart of the city, the Department has a long history of civic engagement with its institutions and citizens, producing innovative and impactful research.  Its staff are well regarded internationally for their theoretical and practical contributions and supervise students with dedication, providing exciting collaborative partnerships with practice, policy and international networks.  Postgraduate Research students enjoy a lively doctoral school with an extremely supportive community, gaining experience across a wide range of activities important for their professional development.

We welcome research topics in the following areas:

• The political and literary dimensions of the built environment
• The re-use of historic buildings and monuments; conservation theory; architectural history and the transformation of buildings
• Urban matters including resilience, culture, identity, evolution, living patterns and matters of justice
• The relationship between architecture, literature and film

Applications will also be considered from research proposals not included in above listing but within the scope of the subject area and also those with a range of backgrounds with previous professional / voluntary expertise.

Contact: Dr Ombretta Romice Ombretta.romice@strath.ac.uk (Panel C)

 

Creative Writing

In this thriving and lively subject area practical skills are taught by experienced writers. Dr Rodge Glass is an award-winning novelist, short story writer and creative nonfiction writer with a particular interest in hybridity across form and the study of individual lives, while Andrew Meehan is a critically acclaimed novelist with many years of experience in feature film development, with a particular interest in transcultural revisions, adaptation and romantic relationships in narrative fiction. Dr Sarah Bernstein is a Booker-shortlisted novelist and poet with a particular interest in contemporary Scottish Literature and the politics of difficulty.  Dr Steven Veerapen is an author historical fiction and creative non-fiction. Dr Maria Sledmere is a poet and literary scholar whose work involves practice-led approaches to issues of health, environment and technology, with particular focus on sleep and dreaming. Dr Jessica Widner is a novelist, short story writer, and literary scholar with a particular interest in the politics of touch, sensuality, and embodied resistance in 20-21C women's writing.

There are opportunities for cross-disciplinary supervision - for example with English, Gender Studies, Media and History. Current and recent PhD students have been recognised on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists list (Graeme Armstrong); included in Best American Essays (Mirri Glasson-Darling) and secured publishing contracts with major publishing houses (Margaret McDonald, Callum McSorley, Sindhu Rajasekaran). Students can get involved with a vibrant literary scene, which has recently included events organised in collaboration with Gutter Magazine and the Glasgow Review of Books and the Jubilee-funded StrathWrites series of workshops with local and international writers. At Strathclyde there is a programme of visiting speakers from the world of prose, poetry, film and the publishing industry, which feature literary agents, magazine and book editors, publishers, acclaimed writers such as Denise Mina and Shola Von Reinhold, and representatives from the Scottish Book Trust. Students also have the opportunity to get hands-on experience in publishing by working on the Strathclyde Review, our programme’s literary journal.

Creative Writing Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: Dr Sarah Bernstein sarah.bernstein@strath.ac.uk (Panel C)

 

Cultural and Museum Studies

The study of ‘Heritage and Culture’ is one of the Strathclyde’s priorities under its ‘Society and Policy’ strategic theme. In Cultural and Museum Studies, students have the opportunity to work across disciplines, drawing on expertise in English, History, Modern Languages, Architecture, Marketing, and Computer and Information Science, and building on existing partnerships with National Museums Scotland, National Library Scotland, National Galleries Scotland, Glasgow Women’s Library, and more.

Areas of specialism include:

• Co-creation
• Access and marginalised communities
• Tourism and heritage
• Sustainability and conservation
• Intangible heritage and digital heritage
• Heritage management
• Translation and memory

Contact: Dr Jordan Kistler jordan.kistler@strath.ac.uk (Panel B)

 

Design

The Department of Design, Manufacturing and Engineering Management (DMEM) is a multi-disciplinary department that focuses on the total design and development of innovative products, services and systems.  The Department is well furnished with the latest state-of-the-art tools and equipment to support the designing, prototyping, manufacturing and testing of design-led research outcomes.  DMEM’s research interests embrace a culture of open and inclusive design that extends beyond the mere functional and/or technical requirements of future products, services and systems.  Our research interests also focus on enhanced user experiences in the embodiment of designed outcomes, the design process of how designers create and collaborate and the broader innovation trends through social and cultural influences.  DMEM staff also explore the value and impact of design research as a driver of social, economic, cultural and/or environmental change. 

Potential areas of supervision include:

• User experience: Product aesthetics, remote presence, product interaction
• Design process: creativity and creative working, information support, collaborative tools
• Disruption design / design activism techniques as innovative change agents
• Design-led research as a driver of innovation / change i.e. social, cultural, economic and/or environmental impact e.g. in health and social care contexts

Contact: Dr Andrew Wodehouse andrew.wodehouse@strath.ac.uk (Panel C)

 

English Language and Literature, Scottish Literature

Supervisors in English cover historical periods from Renaissance to Contemporary and have additional strengths in Animal Studies, Periodical studies, Scottish literature, Creative Writing, Gender and Sexuality, Medical Humanities, Victorian and neo-Victorian studies, Heritage, Life Writing, Travel Writing, Cognition of Literature and Literary Linguistics. The department has particular strengths in interdisciplinary research in Post- and Anti-colonial studies, as well as Queer Theory. Strathclyde is also home to the internationally renowned British Animal Studies Network.

We have an outstanding record in internally and AHRC funded doctoral supervision. Research topics range from Scottish Asian writing, periodical studies and the history of medicine, Scottish magazine culture, Alasdair Gray, feminist media studies, Scottish cultural activism of the 20th century, social networks and the railway, popular and speculative fiction, ecofeminism, and spoken word poetry.

Colleagues in English, Creative Writing, Gender Studies, and in Journalism work closely together and with colleagues in History and Modern Languages, all of which are contained within the same Department of Humanities. Students are co-supervised across different subject areas within the department, as well as across the University and with English and History departments in other Scottish universities.

English Language Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: Dr Eleanor Bell Eleanor.bell@strath.ac.uk (Panel J)

 

Gender Studies

• Gender issues, inequalities, gender-based violence, gender justice, gender differences, gender identities, gendered relationships, gender and power.
• The social, cultural, historical, political, and economic dimensions of gender.
• How gender intersects with related structural inequalities including class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and disability.
• Gender theory, queer theory, feminist epistemology and methodology.
• Activism, advocacy, business, education and policy work in fields of diversity, inclusion, equalities, and social justice

Gender Studies Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: PGR Co-Directors, Humanities hass-hum-pgr@strath.ac.uk (Panel G)

 

History

History has an excellent track record in attracting postgraduate funding from the AHRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust and Carnegie Trust.  Recent graduates have not only continued in post-doctoral appointments at Strathclyde and elsewhere, but also full-time academic posts and permanent positions as historians with other employers, such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.  

Historical research at Strathclyde is built along four, often overlapping, strands:

1. History of Science, Technology and Medicine (supported by the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, run jointly with Glasgow Caledonian University) - mental health and psychiatry; drug policy and addiction; military medicine; food and nutrition; immunology; occupational health; gender, sexuality and medicine
2. Oral History (supported by the Scottish Oral History Centre) – history of work; disability; genocide; industrialisation and deindustrialisation; health and medicine; experiences of war; masculinities
3. European and International History – Ireland; Balkans and Eastern Europe; Russia; France; Africa (Great Lakes region); African American history; European diplomacy; Cold War history; British Empire; History of the USA; Italy
4. Scotland and the World – the Scottish ‘periphery’; political history; religious history; industrialisation and deindustrialisation; maritime history; Scotland’s relations within the wider British and Irish archipelago; Scotland and colonialism.

History Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: Prof Jim Mills jim.mills@strath.ac.uk (Panel D)

 

Journalism, Media and Communication

We are staffed by a team of internationally renowned scholars, presenting a range of academic and professional profiles. While we welcome proposals from across journalism and publishing, we enjoy particular expertise in the following fields:

• Media and politics
• Investigative journalism
• Journalism and ethics
• Health journalism
• Media and communications
• Strategic Communication and Communication Studies
• Gender Studies

Contact: Lesley Henderson (lesley.henderson@strath.ac.uk)

 

Journalism, Media & Communication

JMC @ Strathclyde is a leading department, and we are consistently ranked top in the UK for subject.  Our team of internationally renowned scholars represent a range of academic and professional profiles. 

There are 4 key areas which define our research at Strathclyde:

• Gender & Media
• Science, Health & Environment
• Politics, Publics & Activism
• Violence & Conflict

Within this, we have particular strengths in the analysis of the UK/Scottish media landscape, and in collaborative, interdisciplinary research which investigates media and communications practices in the context of global challenges including waste and pollution, gender inequalities and the growth of populism.  We have strong local and global partnerships involving media professionals, NGOs, business and policy makers.

JMC hosts the SCDT (Strathclyde Centre for Doctoral Training) in Social Dimensions of Plastics: Communications, Behaviours & Social Change

We aim to train the next generation of interdisciplinary plastics pollution researchers and build a transformational hub of research capacity to meet the global challenge of plastic pollution using the tools of humanities and social sciences.

We welcome proposals from across the broad field of media, communications, journalism and publishing, and enjoy particular expertise in the following fields:

• Media and politics
• Journalism and ethics
• Health Communication
• Strategic Communication
• Gender Studies
• Science Communication
• Environmental Communication
• Media Analytics

Journalism, Media & Communication Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: Prof Lesley Henderson lesley.henderson@strath.ac.uk (Panel G)

 

Law and Legal Studies

The Strathclyde Law School offers a vibrant and exciting environment in which to further your studies. Our research interests are diverse, offering expertise across a wide range of areas and in both doctrinal and socio-legal approaches to the study of law using theoretical and/or empirical methods. We can supervise most areas of law and legal studies, and our staff have particular interests in the following fields:

• Constitutional and Administrative Law – Scottish, UK, EU, global and comparative aspects
• Civil Justice – dispute resolution and mediation, labour law and employment tribunals, economic and social rights
• Criminal Law generally, Evidence, Criminal Justice and Criminology – child offenders, youth justice, forensic science, evidence, juries, expert evidence, criminal law, community penalties, cybercrimes, counterterrorism, homicide, sentencing and penal policy, judiciary, legal aid, plea-bargaining, high-risk offenders, desistance, imprisonment, domestic violence, sexual violence and sex work
• Environmental Law and Governance – biodiversity, climate change, corporate accountability, economic law, energy, environmental justice, fresh water, human rights, land, food and agriculture, oceans, sustainable development, traditional knowledge, legal anthropology, property theory and ecological justice
• Equality and Discrimination Law – gender, same-sex relationships, work and family reconciliation
• EU Law –constitutional, institutional, social law, competition law, EU asylum and immigration law
• Human Rights – domestic, European, international and comparative aspects including immigration and asylum, transitional justice, Indigenous people’s rights and human rights education
• Housing Law and Policy – the private rented sector, homelessness
• International Law – trade law, international migration law, transitional justice (including the legacy of the Holocaust), terrorism law
• Internet Law and Regulation – Intellectual property, privacy and surveillance, e-commerce, content regulation, child pornography and cybercrime
• Law and Popular Culture – film, TV and theatre
• Private Law – family law and domestic relations, medical law and ethics, trade and competition law
• The Legal Profession – lawyers and lawyering, professional ethics, the provision of legal services and access to justice, the judiciary

Law Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: Dr Saskia Vermeylen saskia.vermeylen@strath.ac.uk (Panel E)

 

Library and Information Studies

By UKRI/EU research funding and ISI ranked research output, the University of Strathclyde Department of Computer and Information Sciences is the leading information school in Scotland and one of the top in the UK. It is also a member of the iSchools group, a coalition of the world’s leading information schools.  In pursuit of a literate and informed society, much of our research is societal in nature, investigating human information need and use, and informing future interactive public information system service design. Working closely with industry and the Library & Information Science profession, we have active research partnership agreements with a number of public sector organisations encompassing PhD field research support. 

We welcome PhD applicants with particular interests in:

• Information behaviour: use of information in spiritual, health, or cultural heritage contexts; interactive information retrieval; Artificial Intelligence (AI) and information behaviour; Information behaviour of marginalised groups and users with special needs; information behaviour and low resourced languages.
• Digital Cultural Heritage: e-Infrastructures, decolonisation, digital preservation and curation, intangible cultural heritage, digital interoperability, digital libraries.
• Walking and digital technologies: information practices, technology use, and wellbeing on hiking or pilgrimage routes.
• Information and ethics: ethical use or misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and information systems.
• Information for sustainable development

CIS Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: Prof Ian Ruthven ian.ruthven@strath.ac.uk (Panel G)

 

Linguistics

We specialise in interdisciplinary connections between Linguistics and other areas, including Literary Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, and Ecolinguistics, as well as the overlaps between Linguistics and Modern Languages. We cover a range of languages, from English to Indigenous languages of Latin America.

We have led two SGSAH Catalyst events recently: an event on literature and linguistics in 2021, and a workshop on language and sustainability in 2022. We would welcome prospective doctoral applicants who wish to work in any of the above areas.

Read more about literary linguistics at Strathclyde.

Contact: Dr Charles Piggot c.piggot@strath.ac.uk (Panel F)

 

Marketing including Cultural Policy, Arts and Heritage Management

Our researchers are at the forefront of the increasing convergence between Marketing and the Humanities and Social Sciences. We look critically at the societal and commercial impacts of consumerism and often adopt historical approaches in the analysis of consumer culture within the globalisation discourse. The Dept. of Marketing has recently achieved success in attracting an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with the project “Cultural Heritage and Ancestral Tourism: reclaiming Scottish identity from "Highlandisation" in collaboration with Glasgow Life.

We offer particular PhD supervisory expertise in the following areas:

• Cultural Heritage
• Heritage marketing
• Destinations
• Ancestral tourism
• Community-based tourism
• Consumer Culture Theory

Current areas researched with the Department of Marketing that have yielded publications in high-impact journals include the interface between Diaspora markets and heritage practitioners through Ancestral Tourism in Scotland; the interpretation of Islamic cultural heritage in the international marketplace; the question of ‘Authenticity’ in the production and reception of heritage products; nostalgia as an influence on consumption in the 21st century as well as place identity and community heritage marketing.

We are also interested in the impact of poverty on consumption and the implications of consumer disadvantage and consumer poverty for wellbeing and social exclusion.

Contact: Dr Derek Bryce derek.bryce@strath.ac.uk (Panel B)

  

Modern Languages; Interpreting & Translating

We have an excellent track-record of successful supervision across the languages taught at Strathclyde. Many of our former students have advanced into academia or university-related jobs, while others have pursued careers in industry, engaging in practical professions or policy-related work in fields such as translation and language teaching. Our research spans various disciplines and methodologies, and, where relevant, we offer joint supervision with other departments and languages to support interdisciplinary studies.

• French Studies: Late 19th and 20th century history and culture, particularly the Second World War; French colonialism and legacies; contemporary Francophone literature; women’s writing; critical Medical Humanities; literary translation.
• Hispanic Studies: Spanish and Catalan history and culture (18th–21st centuries); comics, graphic narratives and visual cultures; Humour Studies; Gender Studies; minoritised languages and cultures; Latin American literatures; indigenous languages and cultures; Environmental Humanities; biocultural heritage; Trans-Atlantic slave trade; Spanish Empire; maritime history.
• Italian Studies: 19^thand 20^thCentury History and Culture, particularly Opera; Gender Studies; the Second World War; Terrorism; Protest Movements.
• Language Teaching: Theory and practice; multilingualism.
• Translation and Interpreting: (re)translation; personal and cultural memory; history of translators and interpreters; vocabulary acquisition; translator & interpreter training; multimodal translation; museum translation; translation and trauma.

Modern Languages Supervisors and Areas of Expertise

Contact: Dr Caroline Verdier caroline.verdier@strath.ac.uk (Panel H)