Doctoral students and supervisors

an innovative research community

LARC is home to more than sixty doctoral students. Under the supervision of our experienced and supportive staff they pursue a wide range of research topics across the creative arts. One of the most innovative features of the doctoral programme at Leeds Beckett University is that many students are working on PhDs where practice is the central part of their work. To see the topic areas covered for doctoral study within LARC please look at our staff research profiles where you will get a sense of the subjects where we can offer supervision.

If you want to discuss your ideas for a PhD then please contact Professor Robert Shail (r.shail@leedsbeckett.ac.uk). Please contact Nikos Stavropoulos (n.stavropoulos@leedsbeckett.ac.uk) for Music, Theatre and Performing Arts, Live Arts, Dance, Film, and Creative Tech. Please contact Mary Ikoniadou (m.ikoniadou@leedsbeckett.ac.uk) for Art & Design. 

Please contact Renee Tobe (R.Tobe@leedsbeckett.ac.uk) for architecture, Urban Design, Interior Design and Landscape Architecture.

If you would like to apply to study with us for a PhD please visit The Graduate School where you will find more details of the application process.

complete list of current phd students and their subjects

Eleanor Brown

From Publication to Publishing: An investigation into the fluidity of artist publishing activities and spaces.
Harry Meadley 
How can the role of the artist be utilised in the reclamation of civic and public space?

Dayna Heaviside
How to write without an ending: an investigation into digital practices of écriture feminine.

Darren Neave
Trompe-le-nez - Sensorial re-purposing as method - A way of making art for a cluttered planet?

Tom Rodgers
Without Pictures: Finding Personal Significance in Communities of Practice.

Naoko Takahashi
From Text to Sound: Textuality of Spoken Word and Participatory Authorship in Contemporary Art.
Kate Langrish-Smith
Fashioning Forms: a dialogue in sculpting bodies.

Samuel Mitchell
Electronic Music by Generative/Procedural Methodology.

Adam Chodzko
The Dreamshare Seer; A tool for visualising the dream ecologies of a community and its place, using AI and guided by Malaysian indigenous dreamwork.

Kirstie Gregory
Conceptual Architecture and its Migration from Fiction to Contemporary Sculpture.

Paul Tranter
[No title yet]

Timothy Blackwell
Developing creative approaches to documenting live performance in the age of digital mediatization.

Elizabeth Churton 
Animation and the Act of Remembering. 

Laurence Hall
Empowering Voices: Exploring the Lived Experience of Obesity Through the Co-Production of Short Films.

Philip Robertson
[No title yet]

Amanda Allen
Does transmedia work for the family audience?

Alex Ashcroft
The Pictureless Film.

Andreas Antonopoulos
Visual Rhythm in Filmmaking: Analyzing Body, Movement, Dance, and Frame Composition within the Historical and Cultural Context of Trinidad and Tobago.

Che John
Experimental Film & Mixed Reality Screen-Based Technologies.

David Bebbington
The creative practice of the professional keyboard player as musical director in the contemporary popular music performance industry.

Daniel Craddock 
Using Parody, Participation and Principles as a Strategy to Create a New Method of Performer Training.

Stuart Burke
Play Grounds: The Gallery and Beyond as a Site of Play.

Nichole Dodds
All routes lead to infatuation: An investigation into collection practices, spillage and waste in global Anime Otaku culture.

Nicholas Shearon
How Can Zines be Used to improve Mental Well-being?

Michael Ward
DIY Music: Creative counter-culture communities; a practice between artists and labels.

Hannah Butterfield
Cultures of Welcome: Facilitating Socially Responsible Theatre-making with Sanctuary Seekers.

Lizzie Coombes
How can photography as social practice and process empower individuals and communities and communicate beyond the artefact and the image saturated world?

Christopher Nicholls
Can Modern Action Games Do More in Terms of Accessibility?

Zaid Alawamleh
BEHAVIOR SETTING APPLICATIONS ON BEHAVIOR CHANGE IN RESIDENTIAL AND SOCIAL SPACES OF REFUGEE CAMPS.

Sophie Dixon
Issues and strategies in co-devising live art performances by mothers and autistic children.

Harry Mackrill
Using queer dramaturgy as a research tool to understand the impact of Section 28 through actor training.

Julius Ayodeji
[No title yet]

Melody Blackmore
Madness in Post-Millennial British Horror Film: The Portrayal of Psychosis and the Psychoanalytical Symbolic Space that it Represents.

Thomas Bowerscarl
Tracking Creativity: A Study into Creative Practices within Audio Post Production.

Jennifer Chalkley
Play Iterations: Construction Toys in the Design Process.

Diane Barley
‘Social Stories’ in Contemporary British Ensemble Protagonist Television Drama Series. A screenwriting practice-based research exploration.

Marielle Reuser
AI Art as a Method to Visualise Lived Experience.

Cathianne Hall
Performing site specific hidden histories to illustrate how women communicated through female conduits, both anonymously and spiritually, in the late 19th century

Daniel Hutchings
One Laugh At a Time: Meta-Textuality, Performative Expression and Absurdity in Long Form Comedy.

John Miller
A Practice Based Enquiry into Screenwriting as a Tool for Emotional Growth

Anthony Oldham
Future of the British Caribbean Film Industry and seek to discover what impact it has had on the development of Caribbean Culture and Identity throughout the region.

James Rose
Survivance Horror: The Representation of Indigenous American and First Nations Women in Contemporary Horror and Science Fiction Moving Image Productions.

Mercury Rowe
The impact of American national identity on the visual language of horror cinema.

Elizabeth Evans
Film as Cultural Diversity…

Ellen Bell
How can drawing help us to understand loss in someone living with dementia?

Ashley Dean
How can an animation practice be enhanced by practical and philosophical applications of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of golden mending?

Clare Nattress
How can cycling be used as a performative art methodology to investigate, reveal and disseminate the problem of air pollution?

Fraser Wright
How does the military influence a ‘sense of place’, and how can this be researched and conveyed through lens-based media?

Evripidis Bekos
Compositional Techniques for Symphonic Ensembles & Electronic Sound.

Chris Hughes
Understanding contemporary Jordan through its soundscapes: a written thesis and portfolio of audio recordings, installations, and exhibitions.

David Aldred
No Time Like The Present.

Lisa Osborne Kendall
Embodied Knowing In The Living Archive: Considering The Potentiality Of Transfiguration In Performance Research.

Dermot Daly
[No title yet]

Kate Brangan
Investigating the Risograph printer as an accessible tool for collaborative graphic design

Aslak Gurholt
[No title yet]

Sam Hudson-Miles
That dress: soul shopping as a maker's methodology for post-growth fashion design practice

Jubal Green
[No title yet]

Gary Beresford
[No title yet]

Anthony Walker
Performative perambulation: the 'Coast to Coast' long distance walk as a series of live acts, or performances, with unknown and unique narrative.

Louise White
What is the function of presence and intimacy within online performance and how can these be elicited?

Alexandra Mueller
How does Motherhood my inform Artistic Practice?

Lee Stocks
The Relationship Between Digital Landscape Studies and Nostalgia, From A Concept Art Perspective.

Harriet Wadsworth
Future Possibilities in post-consumer textile waste.

Rebecca Denniff
Co-creation, collaboration, community: exploring the power, impact and potential of co-creating new musical works in place-based community contexts.

Beth Black
Where to next? The importance of an inclusive and meaningful, post-school music education for learning disabled students.

David Bebbington
The creative practice of the professional keyboard player as musical director in the contemporary popular music performance.
industry.

Carl Flattery
The evocation of memory and place in songwriting, research through practical enquiry.

Gangli Geng
[No title yet]

Thomas Bowers
Tracking Creativity: A Study into Creative Practices within Audio Post Production.

Kate Brangan
[No title yet]

Alex Ashcroft
The Pictureless Film.

Chris Brooke
What is the potential meaning of the unchosen? An investigation into the process of choosing. 

James Sewell
It’s only a matter of time: How time-based artwork can expand enquiry into the field of the perception of time.

Dermot Daly

Ladders and wedges: challenging marginalisation in the dramatic arts


Supervisors

We offer exciting opportunities to study for a doctorate in subjects right across the creative arts including by practice. Below is a list of our PhD supervisors who can offer support and guidance drawing on their expertise and experience within their own specialisms. If you are thinking about studying with us, please follow the links below to find out more about each supervisor and then please feel free to contact them to discuss your research ideas. We look forward to hearing from you.

Research degrees

Research student support

Study for a research degree at Leeds Beckett and you'll join a thriving academic community in an inspiring and supportive environment.

other links
Clock tower at Leeds Town Hall
Image of a male student sat down