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Dear Colleagues,
Please see the full details of the studentship currently available at the University of Wolverhampton as part of the Black History of British Musical Theatre project. Please do share widely.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Black Performance Practice in the West Midlands 1900-1950 - Autumn Entry
The University of Wolverhampton is making available one fully-funded studentship for September 2021 entry for a Black researcher, to explore, document, and communicate the history of Black Performance Practice in the West Midlands: 1900-1950.
This studentship responds to concern about the lack of representation of Black students at doctoral level in performing arts, and the broader lack of doctoral funding awarded to Black students. Nationally, Leading Routes’ ‘The Broken Pipeline’ reported that over a three-year period, only 1.2% of 19,868 studentships awarded by all UKRI research councils went to Black or Black Mixed Students. This studentship responds to the University’s wider Inclusivity agenda as part of our Vision 2030. The University was awarded the Race Equality Charter Bronze Award in November 2020 and this studentship is well aligned to our commitment to positive action.
The context
The Black History of British Musical Theatre (BHBMT) project led by Sean Mayes and Dr Sarah Whitfield (Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre at the University of Wolverhampton) has explored the substantial presence of Black practitioners across variety, musical theatre and dance across the UK during this period, and drawn attention to the West Midlands. The West Midlands saw repeated performances by practitioners as well known as Paul Robeson, Johnny Nit, Mabel Mercer and Louis Armstrong, as well as hundreds of as yet under-explored performers and Black creatives from across the African diaspora.
The BHBMT project has worked at the intersection of digital humanities and archival research, creating datasets tracing and revealing the work of Black practitioners and the extent of Black creative practice. Many of these performances and practices have as yet unexplored archival traces in theatre and performance archives, and local and regional archives. The Black Country Studies Centre, a partnership between the University of Wolverhampton and the Black Country Living Museum, will support access to regional collections/archives and the dissemination of research through their research network and events programme.
The PhD project will explore this work, drawing on the strong heritage of this performance practice within the West Midlands region. The PhD student will work to disseminate hidden material to make it widely known, using tools from digital humanities to communicate and reveal the extent of Black performance and creative practices.
As such it will be co-supervised between Dr Desmond Case, at the School for Mathematics and Computer Science and Dr Sarah Whitfield, in the School of Performing Arts. Dr Case’s experience is in software development with a particular interest in artificial intelligence. Before working as a lecturer he enjoyed a career in software engineering for many years. The researcher will be based at the Centre for Creativity, History and Identity in Performance and supported by the School of Performing Arts and the School of Mathematics and Computer Science.
What your project might include:
Potential projects and approaches to this work could include (these are examples, and applicants are welcome to propose their own approach):
Visualising social networks of Black performers and practitioners in the West Midlands, to visualise connections between touring companies, producers and choreographers.
Investigating the role and importance of Black choreographers during this period in reshaping dance practices - in revealing how wider practices shifted and changed. Establish an online presence for this knowledge to disseminate information.
Creating specific datasets for theatres in the region that respond to regional archives, use tools to process, analyse and visualise the data.
What is offered?
The studentship is available for full-time or part-time doctoral research for commencement in 2021.
An annual stipend of £15,609 tenable for years 1, 2, and 3 of a full-time PhD, or fractionally for years 1-6 of a part time project, subject to annual review and renewal.
The university will also pay full-time tuition fees for years 1-3 (or part time equivalent).
A travel fund for archival research.
Training and skills development through the Doctoral College.
Mentorship by a senior University of Wolverhampton Black academic.
What is expected?
Essential:
Applicants must be Black British UK-permanent residents (i.e. UK fee-paying students) from the following ethnic groups: Black or Black British African, Black or Black British Caribbean, Black or Black British other or Mixed Black or Black British.
Applicants must not be currently registered as a doctoral student at the University of Wolverhampton or any other academic institution.
We are looking for a person with a good undergraduate and MA/MSc degree in a related subject (e.g. Musical Theatre, Computer Science, Dance, Music, Digital Humanities, Theatre Studies).
We require two references, one of which should ideally be an academic reference.
Applicants should be willing to contribute to community, national and international events to share knowledge and information that emerges from the PhD.
Desirable:
Knowledge/willingness to learn appropriate Digital Humanities tools as appropriate to the project (e.g. for data visualisation).
Willingness to contribute to the bhbmt.org blog and other dissemination of the work (as discussed with supervisors)
If you have any further questions please email Dr Sarah Whitfield, Senior Lecturer in Musical Theatre [log in to unmask] and Dr Desmond Case, Senior Lecturer in Computing [log in to unmask]
Next steps
Submit a 250-300 word proposal for a doctoral project that responds to the project as part of a cover letter. Submit this alongside your CV, with links to any relevant work or projects.
Send to [log in to unmask] by 23rd August 2021. Arrange for your referees to email their references to [log in to unmask] by the 23rd August 2021.
Key Dates:
Application (including references) due 11:59pm 23rd August 2021
Shortlisted applicants will be notified by 3rd September 2021
Interviews will be held on the 7th September. After the interview we will work with the successful candidate to finalise your full Research Proposal (a written documentation)
Studentship will begin after 1st October 2021.