Graduate School

Film, Media, Theatre & Creative Writing research overview

The Centre for Creative and Cultural Research (CCCR) is based in the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media (SCAFM) within the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries. Our thriving post-graduate research culture offers opportunities in the areas of Film, Media, Theatre and Creative Writing.

We have an excellent track record in postgraduate research degrees success and established routes of progression from Masters to Doctoral study. Direct entrant Doctoral candidates are required to follow a structured programme of post-graduate research training and to participate in a university-wide post-graduate teaching course . CCCR offers full-time bursaries (which include tuition fees and a stipend) to quality PhD candidates with appropriate qualifications and experience.

For more information about how to apply please contact the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries using the Contact us page.

If you have any questions about studying for a research degree at the University of Portsmouth, please complete our enquiry form.

Key Facts

RAE rating: Film and media researchers were entered under the European Studies Unit of Assessment submission made by the Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR). 70% of the research was judged to be of international standing.

Academic staff: 33, please see link to staff list webpage.

Postgraduate research students: 13

Internal links: Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR), Centre for Cultural and Industrial Technologies Research (CiTECH) and Centre for Art, Architecture and Design, (CAAD).

External links:  Researchers within the School have been awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, and the Leverhulme Trust.

Resources

In the areas of film and television research, our University Library has full runs of Kinematograph Weekly and Film Weekly, and subscription access to the Paley Seminars, BBC Written Archives, Broadcast and Screen International. We have a significant Learning Resources Centre which holds a wide range of film and television texts on VHS and DVD . Performance space is located in Wiltshire Building and the department of Drama has strong links with the nearby New Theatre Royal.

Research Centres

Centre for Cultural and Creative Research (CCCR)
The Centre for Cultural and Creative Research (CCCR) advances research across the cultural industries and creative arts. Work within CCCR applies a wide range of analytic, critical and historical perspectives to the examination of creative writing, film, media, music, television, and theatre and performance. Innovation in creative practice is fostered through practice-led research and research-led practice. Membership of the Centre is drawn from the staff and research students located in the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media.

Research areas

Creative and Media Writing

Creative Writing Overview: our writers are all published authors whose subject specialisms include the contemporary novel, children’s writing, micro-fictions, poetry and prose for page and screen.

Media Writing Overview: from screenwriting to magazine and web journalism, our media writing staff have a wide range of practise-based skills and professional experience.

Profile: Dr. Steven O’Brien is a poet and editor of The London Magazine.

Film, Theatre and Television

Film Overview: our team of scholars, whose published work has gained international recognition, have expertise in the following areas of cinema research: Adaptation studies; American cinema; Archiving; British cinema history; Crime and film; European cinemas; Fashion and film; Film performance; Film industries; Film policy; Gender, sexuality and cinema; Latin American cinemas; Popular film genres; Race, ethnicity and cinema; Reception studies; Stars and stardom; Third and Transnational cinema; censorship.

Profile: Dr. Deborah Shaw is Reader in Film Studies and co-editor of the Intellect journal Transnational Cinemas.

Theatre Overview: our performance staff are theatrical practitioners and playwrights whose work is professionally staged on a regular basis. Research areas include: 20th Century British Political Theatre; Community theatre; Contemporary British playwriting; Intermediality; Music theatre; Musical theatre; Theories of acting.

Profile: Dr. Peter Billingham is Reader in Drama. He has just signed an 18 month contract with the celebrated London studio theatre White Bear for the production of his new play 'Gifte'. Dr. George Burrows and Dr. Dominic Symonds are co-editors of the Intellect Journal Studies Studies in Musical Theatre.

Television Overview: SCAFM scholars publish research in the following areas: British television drama; Race, ethnicity and television; Television genres; Television industries and policy.

Profile: Dr. Justin Smith and Prof. Paul McDonald are co-investigators on a four-year AHRC-funded project to assess the impact of Channel 4 television on British film culture.

Media Studies

Media Studies Overview: Members of CCCR have been successful in gaining funding to pursue cutting-edge research in areas such as Popular culture and the Holocaust, and Media and Conflict in Ulster. Other areas of research include: Adaptation studies; Audiences and fandom; Celebrity and stardom; Crime television; Cultures of consumption; Cyberculture; Gender, sexuality and television; Media and mental distress; Media and narratology; Media history; Media theory; Modernism; Reception studies.

Profile: Dr. Graham Spencer is Reader in Politics, Conflict and the Media and author of The State of Loyalism in Northern Ireland, Basingstoke: Palgrave (2008), which was nominated for the W.J.M Mackenzie Prize.