The Research Institute for Media, Art and Design welcomes applications for post-graduate research.

It offers supervision for research degrees: Masters by Research (1 year), MPhil (2 years) and PhD (3 year)

Completed PhD dissertations include projects about UK news coverage post-9/11, Al-Jazeera Arabic, social media as a platform for activism in the Middle East, social media and political debates in the UK, media reporting of war crimes trials in Sierra Leone, post-1988 Anglophone Pakistani fiction, independent dancers and the choreographic process, narrative and ideology in radical crossover fiction, Nigerian modernism(s), gender politics in Russian fairy tales, late Victorian identity crisis, representations of punishment in the Hockliffe collection, and the fiction of George R R Martin.

Masters by Research

RIMAP runs a series of Masters by Research Awards across the range of its subjects and skills. You may work towards an MA in areas such as Art and Design, Film, Multimedia, Creative Writing, Radio, Journalism, or English Literature. You will work on a project within the subject area, supervised by a member of academic staff on a one-to-one basis.

The Institute will provide additional support lectures to acclimatize students to academic research, and there is a regular series of seminars presented by researchers and practitioners. There is a Research Student Room, equipped with Apple Mac computers, for private work and small workshops on the Luton campus, and study space on the Bedford campus.

This is a one-year full-time research degree (two years part-time). If you choose a practicse-based Masters by Research, you'll concentrate on a piece of practice-based work (a film, piece of art-work, or a creative text), which will be supported by a thesis of about 15,000 words explaining the context, methodology and research history of the project. If you choose to do a Masters by Research without a practice-based element, you'll produce a thesis of 25,000 words.

The assessment process includes a short presentation, plus viva-voce examination. The range and scope of the project will be discussed at the outset by yourself and your supervisor to ensure the correct balance between creative work and thesis if practice-based, and to make sure that the project is capable of completion within the time-scale of the course.

Entry qualification is usually a BA (Hons) degree 2:2 or above in a relevant discipline, although students with considerable practical experience in the subject area, and with a BA in a different discipline, should not be discouraged from applying.

The first stage will be to discuss your experience and proposed research with the Subject Leader in that particular area. To discuss your proposed area of research contact the Dr Nicola Darwood (the Director of RIMAP) or the relevant staff member from the Research Institute's Staff List before making a formal application:

Staff emails are: firstname.surname@beds.ac.uk. If you contact a member of staff by email please put 'Masters by Research Inquiry' in the subject line. You may prefer to telephone 01234 400400 and ask for the staff member by name.

When you are ready to apply, contact the Research Graduate School for an application form and return it with an outline of your proposed practice.