Anglia Ruskin University

We offer PhD research programmes in a range of topics encompassing international-level scholarship across a broad spectrum of topics, including creative music technology, music therapy, composition, musicology, dramatherapy and drama and theatre studies (including contemporary theatre practice & critical theory, performance and interdisciplinary arts practice). Our staff are recognised as experts
in their fields and have produced a number of influential books, journal articles, edited collections, compositions, recordings and creative artefacts.

Our faculty boasts a vibrant and diverse research culture, and the interdisciplinary nature of our research interest creates a rich and stimulating environment for staff and students. Our programme hosts and participates in a variety of research-oriented events, including the Faculty and Departmental research seminar series, performance events and international conferences. We also enjoy links within the wider community, including The Junction, the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse, Kettle's Yard, the University of Cambridge's Centre for Research into Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), and various NHS health providers.

We have our own Music for Health Research Centre and we are key contributors to other research groups, including ArcDigital (Anglia Research Centre in Digital Culture) and CoDE Research Institute (Cultures of the Digital Economy).

Supervision and support

You will be allocated a supervisory team, which will consist of a first and second supervisor, with additional members added if necessary.

Academic supervision is available in most areas of music, music therapy, dramatherapy and theatre, including practice-based research.

We have a particularly strong concentration of expertise in the areas of 20th-century musicology; composition; the human-machine interface in digital music composition and performance; music therapy; theatre, live art and critical theory.

Facilities

We have a range of excellent facilities, including: a large Recital Hall housing a range of orchestral percussion and 12 music practice rooms, each equipped with upright or grand pianos; our Mumford Theatre - a fully equipped professional theatre, with large orchestral pit capable of housing full orchestras; three dedicated and fully-equipped drama studios; an extensive suite of computer music studios, including two recording studios, a digital editing studio and a workstation laboratory; and, a fully-equipped Music Therapy Clinic. You will also have access to our outstanding library resources, as well as to the Cambridge University Library.

Funding

There are a number of ways in which you can obtain external funding for doctoral research, from the full-time awards granted by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to smaller grants available from a range of grant-awarding bodies. We periodically offers fully-funded and fees-only fellowships and, from time to time, Departmental bursaries are awarded to students showing exceptional potential. In addition to these, our programme has a Postgraduate Fund to which you can apply for help with travelling expenses, conference fees, and other research needs. We offer advice on external and internal funding to any interested prospective candidate for our PhD degree.

Career development and training

We are committed to offering training and career development opportunities for all research students. Many of our PhD students hold teaching responsibilities in our programme and have been involved in the organisation of international conferences recently held at our University. Within our Faculty, we also offer sessions on a range of subjects, including:

• writing up a paper for publication
• placing an academic article
• giving a conference paper
• style in the doctorate
• updates on research methods and literature searches
• internet training
• editing skills for doctoral research
• subsequent monograph publication
• dealing with festivals, agents, and publishers

We welcome proposals from students wishing to work in the fields of Music, Music Therapy and Theatre, including practice as research. Below is a list of current staff and their research specialisms:

Music: Composition, Musicology, Sonic Arts and Technology

Dr Jon Banks , BA, MA, DPhil (Lecturer): World music and ethnomusicology; Music of the Middle East; Temperament and tuning systems; Music and science; Historical music.

Dr Kevin Flanagan, Mus, MA, PhD (Senior Lecturer): Composition; Improvisation combined with composition; Afro American Music (jazz, blues, roots); Contemporary American Composers; Composition and spoken word (collaborations with poets, in both composed and improvised settings)

Dr Tom Hall, BA, MA, DPhil (Senior Lecturer): electronic and algorithmic music; computer-aided composition; pitch-class approaches to post-tonal tonality; the music of Morton Feldman; immersive sound art and Hörspiel

Dr Richard Hoadley, BA, PhD (Senior Lecturer): Algorithmic composition; The human computer interface and development

Paul Jackson , BA, MA, PGCE (Principal Lecturer): The Music of Percy Grainger;
Modernist Music; Contemporary Music Theatre; Music Performance Studies

Dr Sue Miller, BA, MA, PhD (Senior Lecturer): Improvisation; Analysis of Popular and 'World' Music; Cuban music; Caribbean and Latin American Music; Performance Practice (Popular and 'World' Music Styles); African American musical forms; Intertextuality in Popular Music Forms

Dr Paul Rhys, BA, Dip, PhD (Senior Lecturer): Composition; Microtonality; Nineteen-note equal temperament; Live performance with computers.


Drama and Performing Arts
Dr Gianna Bouchard, BA, MA, PhD (Principal Lecturer): Contemporary theatre practice & critical theory; Live art ; Performance and Interdisciplinary arts practice ; Medical discourse and performance

Dr Eirini Kartsaki, BA, MA, PhD (Senior Lecturer): Contemporary theatre practice and critical theory; Live art; Repetition in Contemporary Performance; Collaborative theatre practices

Dr Amanda Price, (Senior Lecturer): the application of Reflective Performance in Healthcare Training; Victorian Melodrama

Dr Nigel Ward, MA, PhD (Senior Lecturer): Directing; Intercultural performance; Digital performance; Antonin Artaud; Performance theory; Intercultural theatre

Rebecca Warner, MA, Mmus (Lecturer): musical theatre and music in theatre

Dr Sue Wilson, BA, MA, PhD (Senior Lecturer): Twentieth-century drama and literature; Samuel Beckett's plays and prose; Postmodernism in performance, drama and literature; Critical theory.

Music Therapy and Dramatherapy
Mandy Carr, BA, MA (Lecturer): the use of dramatherapy to facilitate intercultural dialogue; dramatherapy with children

Dr Ditty Dokter, PhD, (Senior Lecturer): trauma in adult and childhood; inclusion and migration; the relationship between the arts and therapy in intercultural practice.

Professor Jörg Fachner, PhD, (Professor of Music, Health and the Brain): Music, therapy and the brain; Music and consciousness states; State dependent cognition and recall; Music therapy and addiction treatment

Helen Loth, BA,RMTh, PGDip Counselling (Senior Lecturer): Music therapy and mental health, eating disorders, children and families; Cultural issues in music therapy; The use of non-western music; Music and language.

Professor Helen Odell-Miller, BA, LGSM, RMTh, MPhil, PhD: Music therapy and dementia; Music therapy and links with diagnosis in adult mental health; Music therapy and personality disorders; Psychoanalytically Informed Music Therapy; Arts therapies and mental health.

Professor Amelia Oldfield, RMTh, PhD, LGSM (Senior Lecturer): Music therapy with children with autism; Music therapy with families; Music therapy diagnostic assessments; Orchestral instruments in music therapy improvisation.

Eleanor Richards, BMus, MA, ARCM, SRAsT(M) (Senior Lecturer): applications of attachment theory; relational models of psychoanalysis to music therapy; the contribution of group analytic theory to group music therapy practice

• MPhil: candidates must hold a BA or equivalent in a related subject area.
• PhD: candidates should normally hold an MA, or equivalent, in a related area subject area.
• For candidates whose first language is not English, a minimum IELTS score of 7 or equivalent is required with a minimum score of 6.5 achieved in each of the four language skills. We welcome applications from EU and international students.