Opportunities

To The Streets: effective interventions in the community arts ecology of the West Midlands

As part of an AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD opportunity, supervised jointly by the University of Birmingham and the University of Warwick, China Plate is giving unprecedented access to our work to investigate how new modes of practice enable creative communities to work together to make positive change.

The AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (M4C) brings together eight leading universities across the Midlands to support the professional and personal development of the next generation of arts and humanities doctoral researchers. M4C is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham, Birmingham City University, University of Warwick, Coventry University, University of Leicester, De Montfort University, Nottingham Trent University and The University of Nottingham.

We are looking for someone who is interested in rehearsal and performance processes and making work in applied and community contexts. You could be an artist, a producer or an academic. You could be working in engagement, as a community leader, an emerging theatre maker or working with young people. We are very open to conversations with individuals who may not have conventional academic experience but are excited by the prospect of undertaking this research.

The research will be rooted in tracking the development and results of forthcoming projects which may include: To The Streets! by Tim Sutton & Roy Williams, exploring the 1963 Bristol Bus Boycott; Please Do Not Touch by Casey Bailey, a new piece for the theatre and heritage sectors about the legacy of colonialism; Trash by Urielle Klein-Mekongo, a grime musical about ‘sugar’ relationships; training programmes The Optimists and People-Focused Producing.

The researcher will have opportunities to feed into the development of projects, especially through engagement activities and by disseminating findings to a wide range of local and regional stakeholders. There will also be opportunities to benefit from China Plate’s training programmes, including The Optimists (annual ten-week training programme), People Focused Producing (year round training events) and Young Producers (co-curated training programme with young people at Warwick Arts Centre).

We have created an FAQ’s document, which can be downloaded below. For a full overview about the PhD, please visit the Midlands4Cities website.

Click here to watch a BSL & captioned introduction about the PhD.

Click here to listen to an audio described introduction about the PhD.

There will be a Q&A and application writing workshop with the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University, taking place online on Saturday 11th November from 11.00am-16.00pm UK time. This session will provide more information about writing a PhD project proposal and the M4C application process. The link to register to attend is available on the M4C website here (scroll down to the bottom).

To apply, please visit the Midlands4Cities website here to submit an application via their online recruitment portal – applications opened on Monday 16th October 2023.

Applications close on Wednesday 10th January 2024 at 12 noon (GMT) – this deadline is externally set and all application materials must be submitted by then.

At the same time as applying to M4C, candidates should apply to the University of Birmingham for PhD study, in order that a University of Birmingham applicant number can then be stated on the M4C application. This site and the video will guide you through the steps: birmingham.ac.uk/schools/calgs/postgraduate-research/index.aspx

If you are interested in applying, you are encouraged to contact Lead University (HEI) Supervisor Prof Adam Ledger on [email protected], in the first instance.

If you have any questions with regards to China Plate, you are welcome to get in touch with our Co-Artistic Director Ed Collier on [email protected]

If you have any questions specifically regarding funding or encounter any issues with the online recruitment portal / application process, please get in touch directly with Midlands4Cities. Contact details are available on their website here.