MPhil/PhD in Art

We are currently accepting applications for the MPhil/PhD in Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, starting in 2019–20.

The Department of Art at Goldsmiths is committed to supporting and developing art research of the highest quality through Fine Art, Curating, Art Writing and across disciplines. We consider all elements of the MPhil/PhD to be sites of rigorous experimentation and encourage you to develop your research through processes of making, thinking, collaborating, investigating, experimenting, analysing and speculating.

Particular areas of research explored and research clusters supported by the Department of Art include Art & Feminism; Artists’ Film & Moving Image; Art, Literature & Philosophy; Choreographic; Critical Ecologies; Infrastructural / Institutional Critique; Materialities; Nuclear Culture; the Women of Colour Index. 

Structure 
Within the overarching programme of MPhil/PhD in Art there are three different pathways for undertaking doctoral research, including:

Pathway 1: Thesis by Practice
Pathway 2: Thesis by Practice and Written Dissertation
Pathway 3: Thesis by Written Dissertation

Research is conducted independently, guided by a supervisory team. In support of this, the Art Research Programme runs a series of research-related events and activities including Installations, Skills Workshops, Art Research Seminars, Lectures, Public Events, Public Presentations, Study Groups and Annual Review Panels.

While events are scheduled throughout the year, all compulsory events fall into three intensive clusters, one in each term, and all MPhil/PhD Researchers enrolled in the Programme are expected to attend and participate in these three main intensives.

Support
All members of Staff in the Department of Art are available to supervise PhDs. Please see our Departmental Staff Page for more information about individual staff and their research interests. You may also seek second supervision in other Departments at Goldsmiths.

We also have a dedicated team of staff who work on the PhD Programme, including: 
Professor Kristen Kreider, Programme Director, Professor Michael Newman, Dr Edgar Schmitz

Applications
You will apply with a well-developed research project that you have begun to plan artistically.

 See our webpage for more information about how to apply.

There are two deadlines for applications for 2018–19, including:

Round 1: Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 5pm
Where applications are considered for CHASE funding.

Round 2: Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 5pm
Where applications are considered for Departmental Bursaries.

Please see our page on Funding for Postgraduate Research in the Department of Art for information about scholarships, bursaries and other financial support for postgraduate research.

MARs
Based in the Department of Art, and linked to the MPhil/PhD Programme, is the Mountain of Art Research (MARs). A bit like a research centre, except it’s a mountain, MARs supports and promotes the development of innovative art research across a range of practices including—but not limited to—studio, performance, film and video, curatorial, critical, art-writing, situated, participatory and interdisciplinary practice. 

Committed to rigorous formal experimentation, maverick conceptual exploration and socially-engaged articulation, MARs emphasises the material ‘stuff’ of art research as well as its speculative possibilities; its capacity as a space for reflection and its political imperative. As both platform and ethos, the aim of MARs is to challenge received ideas and habits; to promote new ways of thinking and being both in and out of this world.

A series of MARs Sessions running in 2017–18, and continuing in 2018–19, includes: Gesture; Materiality; The Political Body/The Body Politic; Fandom as Methodology; Radiological Deep Time; Liquidity.