Subject overview

Programmes

• PhD in Creative and Critical Practice
• PhD in Media and Cultural Studies
• MPhil in Creative and Critical Practice
• MPhil in Media and Cultural Studies

We offer supervision across a wide range of media and cultural studies and creative and critical practice, with specialist focus on new media cultures, journalism and the public sphere, sound cultures, media histories, advertising and consumption, media audiences, identity and cultural space, feminism, lesbian and gay studies, popular and working-class culture, Hollywood and global cinemas, digital art, documentary, and questions of representation. Students proposing research projects in these fields are particularly encouraged to apply. 

Coursework

Each student has two supervisors who together will devise a detailed course of study tailored to the individual research project. All new research students will be required to participate in a programme of research training and to take other modules that may be recommended by their supervisors (exemption from research training modules can be granted to those who have already taken such modules at postgraduate level). 

The first term is devoted to developing the research plan – typically refining research questions, designing a methodology, engaging in a literature review. By the end of the first year, you will have written and presented your first research paper or project, and will be ready to pursue fieldwork or other primary research/creative practice in the second year, for analysis and completion in the final year. Progress is monitored by supervision meetings, annual reports, and an annual interview by a review panel. 

Throughout your studies, as part of your intellectual training, you are expected to take part in the research culture of the School of Media, Film and Music and research centres – reading and discussion groups, skills development training, research-in-progress seminars, etc. You will be expected to present your research both within the School and beyond. The School offers support for conference attendance and student-led symposia, and from the second year onwards, it encourages students to apply for teaching experience. There is a mentoring scheme within the School, and students will be joining a lively interdisciplinary research community. Also visit Routes to postgraduate study. 

Recent and current PhD thesis titles

Articulating dissent from the margins to the mainstream: the communicative strategies of protest coalitions 

Consumer sexualities: women and sex shopping 

Digital technologies, social media and the emerging alternative documentary production methodologies 

Murmuring in the waves – a rhythmanalytical study of contemporary British culture 

Representation, subcultures and memory: rethinking the 1950s in British popular culture since the 1970s 

Talking Torchwood: fluid sexual representation, identity and the audience 

The film of tomorrow: construction of self in videoblogs 

Entry requirements

MPhil in Creative and Critical Practice

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree with a Merit or equivalent in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

If you are an international student and wish to find out if you have the necessary qualifications for this degree, please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

MPhil in Media and Cultural Studies

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree with a Merit or equivalent in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

If you are an international student and wish to find out if you have the necessary qualifications for this degree, please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with not less than 6.5 in each section. Internet TOEFL with 95 overall, with 22 in Listening, 23 in Reading, 23 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

PhD in Creative and Critical Practice

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree with a Merit or equivalent in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

If you are an international student and wish to find out if you have the necessary qualifications for this degree, please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

PhD in Media and Cultural Studies

UK entrance requirements

Normally a Masters degree with a Merit or equivalent in a subject relevant to your chosen area of research.

Overseas entrance requirements

If you are an international student and wish to find out if you have the necessary qualifications for this degree, please refer to Overseas qualifications.

English language requirements

IELTS 7.0, with not less than 6.5 in each section. Internet TOEFL with 95 overall, with 22 in Listening, 23 in Reading, 23 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.

For more information, refer to English language requirements.

Related subjects

• Creative and critical writing
• Drama
• Film studies
• Gender studies
• Music

Fees and funding

Fees

MPhil in Creative and Critical Practice

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Creative and Critical Practice

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

MPhil in Media and Cultural Studies

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

PhD in Media and Cultural Studies

Home UK/EU students: £3,900¹
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £3,900²
Overseas students: £13,000³

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
³ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

Our internationally respected research explores questions around the materialities, technologies and politics of cultural forms and formations. Researchers work on, across and through a range of media: film, television, radio, photography, and ‘new’ and interactive forms. They specialise within three interlocking themes: 

Cultural histories/cultural politics

Research is focused on histories of journalism and the public sphere and the relationships between cultures, technological change and social and political change. It also encompasses an analysis of the construction of national identities and borders, and their institutionalised histories and marginalised others. 

Media technology, form and experience

The relationships between technology, form and experience are explored through studies of techno-cultural innovation, sense perception, and embodied experience. A key aspect, which builds on expertise in the Department, is the development of new critical frameworks for the exploration of new media forms and practices as they emerge in everyday life. 

The politics of representation

The Department of Media and Film has long been a centre of excellence for research on gender, sexuality and representation. We continue to build on this through a concern with the images, sounds and narratives of popular culture, and the ways in which these construct identities and play on pleasures, fears and desires. 

Individual research interests are briefly described below.

Dr Caroline Bassett New media technologies, most recently working on narrative and new media. Published widely on new media and gender. 

Dr Michael Bull Works extensively on the nature of auditory experience. Specialises in the work of The Frankfurt School. 

Wilma de Jong Researcher, scriptwriter, director and producer. Media and activism, independent production, documentary and news. 

Andrew Duff Production tutor. Specialises in exploring reactive and interactive multimedia, experimental digital and analogue audio. 

Melanie Friend Documentary photographer. Representations of conflict and trauma, asylum detention in the UK. 

Lee Gooding Senior production tutor. Has produced a range of programmes for a number of organisations. 

Adrian Goycoolea Filmmaker addressing issues of identity, exploring the intersections of personal memory with social and political histories. 

Dr Ben Highmore The culture of daily life. Author of A Passion for Cultural Studies (2009); Ordinary Lives (2009). 

Dr Gholam Khiabany Academic leader of the journalism degrees. 

Professor David Hendy Media and communication history, sound studies, modern mass media. 

Professor Ben Highmore The culture of daily life. Author of A Passion for Cultural Studies (2009); Ordinary Lives (2009). 

Dr Margaretta Jolly Oral history, auto/ biography, diary writing. 

Dee Kilkelly Production tutor. Co-runs APT new media, a collective responsible for art events and club nights in and around Brighton. 

Mary Agnes Krell Media artist whose work spans performance, digital media and narrative practices. 

Dr Kate Lacey Director of Doctoral Studies, writes on media and the public sphere. Author of Listening Publics (2013). 

Andy Medhurst Post-war British popular culture; media representations of masculinity and homosexuality. 

Dr Monika Metykova Lecturer in Media Communications/Journalism Studies. Transnational media; cultural and media policies. 

Dr Sharif Mowlabocus Digital cultures, gender, sexuality and representation. Author of Gaydar Culture (2010). 

Professor Sally R Munt Queer studies, cultural studies, identity and emotion. Co-author of Queer Spiritual Spaces: Sexuality and Sacred Places (2010). 

Dr Kate O’Riordan Cultural studies of science and technology. Author of Human Cloning and the Media: from Science Fiction to Science Practice (2008); The Genome Incorporated (2010). 

Dr Martin Spinelli Produces award-winning literary and experimental radio projects. Interests include radio art and sound poetry, and cultural studies. 

Lizzie Thynne Film-maker who has exhibited widely in broadcast, festival and gallery contexts. Interests include auto/biography and surrealism. 

Janice Winship Published on women’s magazines, advertising and consumption in the 20th century. 

Kirk Woolford Media artist who engages in practice-led research to explore concepts that defy textual representation. 

Careers and perspectives

Our graduates have gone on to pursue careers in academia, production research, broadcasting, and project and cultural management. Employers of our graduates include Scenestealer Interactive Video Solutions, Viasat Broadcasting, Autumn Publishing and Ofcom. 

School and contacts