PhD studentships - major AHRC TV drama project

AHRC Three-Year Research Project:
Spaces of Television: production, site and style

Two fully-funded PhD studentships are available as part of a major new AHRC project
‘Spaces of Television: production, site and style’ – a collaboration between the
universities of Reading, Leicester and Glamorgan. The project concerns television
fiction produced in the UK from 1955-94. It will analyse how the material spaces of
production (in TV studios and on location) conditioned the aesthetic forms of
programmes, and how fictional spaces represented on screen negotiated the opportunities
and constraints of studio and exterior space, film and video technologies, and liveness
and recording. The PhD students will join a research team comprising the directors of
the project (Professors Jonathan Bignell, James Chapman and Stephen Lacey) and two
Postdoctoral Research Assistants.
The PhD studentships are available at the University of Leicester and the University of
Glamorgan. They are to begin on 1 October 2010 and cover fees and bursary at the
standard AHRC rate for three years. Information about eligibility for AHRC studentships
can be found at: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/Eligibility.aspx

Studentship 1: ‘The spaces of British telefantasy’ (University of Leicester)
This will be supervised by Professor James Chapman and will examine form and visual
style in relation to the production economics and institutional context of British
‘telefantasy’ (broadly defined). It is expected that the student will examine a range of
programmes including (but not limited to) the Quatermass and Andromeda serials, Doctor
Who, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Doomwatch, Blake’s 7 and Invasion Earth. The parameters
of the PhD will be refined in consultation with the students but may focus on key
periods such as the 1960s and/or the early1990s.

Informal enquiries should be made to James Chapman
jrc28 AT le.ac.uk
Applications should be made to the University of Leicester Postgraduate Admissions
Office. Guidelines can be found at:
http://www.le.ac.uk/pgprospectus/applying.html
Closing date for applications: 16 July 2010.
It is expected that interviews will be held on Friday 30 July.

Studentship 2: ‘the Spaces of Live and Recorded Studio Drama’ (University of Glamorgan)
This will be supervised by Professor Stephen Lacey and will focus on the aesthetics of
television studio drama, especially performance, and on how studio spaces functioned as
actual and fictional spaces in the era of live drama and then of studio video
production. To complement the emphases of other researchers within the overall project,
the main case studies will be drawn from popular drama series and from single drama
anthology series across the period (such as Armchair Theatre, Play for Today, Second
City Firsts, the BBC’s Performance strand) from both London and the Regions. Whilst the
student will be expected to work within the broad project brief there will be an
opportunity to develop particular interests. These might include, but are not limited
to: design and art direction, actors and acting, directorial practices, production
cultures.
Informal enquiries should be made to Stephen Lacey
(swlacey AT glam.ac.uk). The studentship will be based in Centre
for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations in the Cardiff School of Creative
and Cultural Industries ( http://culture.research.glam.ac.uk/about/ ).
Application forms can be downloaded from:
http://www.glam.ac.uk/apply . (Please follow the
instructions for ‘postgraduate courses’).
Closing date for applications: 2 July 2010.
It is expected that interviews will be held on 16 July 2010.

Professor Stephen Lacey
Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries/Ysgol Diwydiannau Creadigol a
Diwylliannol Caerdydd
University of  Glamorgan/Prifysgol Morgannwg
ATRiuM
Adam St/Heol Adam
Cardiff/Caerdydd CF24 2FN
tel: 01443-668611 (direct line)
     01443-480480 (university switchboard)
swlacey AT glam.ac.uk