About the Project
This fully funded PhD project is part of the North-Sea Heritage in Transitions ( NHT ) AHRC Doctoral Focal Award between the University of Aberdeen, University of the Highlands and Islands, and Robert Gordon University, which addresses the role of art history, visual arts and creative practice in a region undergoing cultural transition. NHT supports place-based doctoral research to strengthen and empower a regionally-significant cultural workforce for a national and international creative…
economy.
This PhD will be hosted by the University of Aberdeen under the lead supervision of Dr Catriona McAra (University of Aberdeen), with Dr Shane Strachan (University of Aberdeen) and Dr Antonia Thomas (UHI Orkney) as co-supervisors. The successful applicant will be part of an interdisciplinary cohort of North-Sea Heritage in Transitions students based in Aberdeen, Orkney and Shetland.
Mermaids in the Basement explores the myriad ways in which Scottish literature has informed and reimagined contemporary street art and its audience identities. Drawing inspiration from KMG’s recent mural for Nuart Festival, Unseen, Unheard, Yet All Beside Us (2026), the selected doctoral candidate will advance the cause for gender diversification in street art. The resulting thesis will be the first art history of the North-East’s contribution to such heritage.
Working at the text/image intersection of storytelling and mural painting, this project is envisaged as explicitly queer-feminist, articulating a critical-creative space for non-normative participants who have chosen to base their practices in the North-East, including Speyside and Orkney. While charting the political histories of such vibrant, intersecting media, the project will deliver impactful ways forward for northern creative campuses and their constituents into the 2030s. It positions the existing University partnership with Nuart Festival conference as a generator of research as well as a showcase, while also opening up possibilities of international collaboration (and gender comparison) with Nuart Aberdeen’s sister festival in Stavanger, another former “oil city”, contributing to conversations around the role of public art in urban spaces that are going through industrial and economic transition – as a former strap line for Nuart Aberdeen put it: art is the new oil.
Despite recent progress in the realm of contemporary literature, where women and non-binaries are now firmly in ascendance, the heteronormative platforming around street art is yet to be adjusted so equitably. KMG’s art, for instance, has been described as “catalytic” in her reclamation of oral histories via a highly stylized “glyphic” visual language, with Celtic warrior women such as Scáthach (2024) as a signature character. Given the institutional critique which is often core to the medium, this research will explore the revisionary public potential of the wall and the page. The project title, Mermaids in the Basement, comes from a collection of short stories by mythographer Marina Warner (1993) which like Angela Carter’s work (1983) seeks to revise ancestral myth for contemporary purposes. Such revision has, for example, been crucial to Aberdeen alumna, Ali Smith (b.1962), whose recent novel Glyph (2026), with its titular “imaginary friend,” provides another likely arena of investigation. Taking the hybrid, Celtic figures of the selkie (seal), the kelpie (horse) and the boobrie (bird) as wild totems or mascots, this project has a collaborative agenda. It seeks to revise structural biases by spotlighting the existing cultural leadership and carving out a space for future equity in street art curation.
To achieve this, the successful candidate will receive a thorough grounding in the ethics of artists-interviews and digital methods to visualise, document and share creative work-in-progress, including emerging technologies related to digital photography and photogrammetry. Their research will be supported by partners and colleagues including (but not exclusively) Nuart Festival and folklore and heritage experts at the University of Aberdeen’s Elphinstone Institute and Historic Environment Scotland. In addition to NHT cohort training, they will also receive training in literary and visual analysis and ekphrastic writing techniques (by an expert supervision team) towards a likely future career in curatorial programming, public engagement, festival management, criticism and/or journalism.
North-Sea Heritage in Transitions Training Programme
Each studentship will benefit from NHT’s bespoke training programme developed by the three partner institutions and in collaboration with international project partner, the University of Stavanger. Further information on the training on offer can be found on our website.
Candidate Background
Applicants should hold a first-class or upper second-class degree and/or master's degree in a relevant discipline such as Art History, Cultural Studies, Heritage Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, Folklore, Visual Culture, Museum Studies, Gender Studies, or a related humanities subject.
The ideal candidate will have a strong interest in literature, folklore, contemporary visual culture and public engagement. Experience of literary or visual analysis, archival research, interviewing, cultural programming, festival work, creative practice, or community engagement would be advantageous but is not essential. An enthusiasm for interdisciplinary research and willingness to engage with cultural partners such as Nuart Festival will be important.
Enquiries are encouraged, for further information please contact Dr Catriona McAra (catriona.mcara@abdn.ac.uk).
Promoting equality, diversity and inclusion is core to the AHRC North-Sea Heritage in Transitions Doctoral Focal Award. We actively encourage applications from diverse career paths, backgrounds, and all sections of the community, regardless of age, disability, race, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation and transgender status, amongst other protected characteristics.
We also invite applications from those returning from a career break, professional practice or other roles. We typically require a minimum 2:1 in your first degree (or equivalent), but exceptions can be made where applicants can demonstrate excellence in alternative ways, including, but not limited to, performance in master’s courses, professional placements, internships or employment experience – this will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and is dependent upon approval from the relevant host institution. We offer flexible study arrangements such as part-time study (minimum 50%), however this does depend on the nature of the project/research so will be assessed individually.
Application Procedure
The full application procedure can be found on our website.
Please ensure you follow the application procedure carefully, as we cannot consider incomplete or incorrectly submitted applications.
This project ID is NHT_UOA_CM
Funding Notes
Commencing October 2026, this fully funded, 42-month PhD project is offered through the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) North Sea Heritage in Transitions Doctoral Focal Award. The studentship provides an additional six months for placements, work experience, or writing up. It is open to UK and international applicants, but international recruitment via AHRC funding is capped at 30%. Funding covers tuition fees, a tax-free stipend at the applicable UKRI rate (£21,383 for the 2026/27 academic year), and access to a Research Training Support Grant. Please note we cannot fund visa costs or healthcare surcharges for international students.
References
- Andron, S. (2024). Urban surfaces, graffiti, and the right to the city (Routledge, 2024)
- Hale, A. (2023). Graffiti Some Times: Archaeology, Artefacts and Archives. GoINDIGO, 16–24. https://doi.org/10.48619/indigo.v0i0.700
- Nomeikaite, L. (2020). Street art and heritage conservation: From values to performativity. SAUC - Street Art and Urban Creativity (repository), 5(1), 6–19. https://doi.org/10.25765/sauc.v5i1.181
- Nomeikaite, L. (2023). Street art, heritage and affective atmospheres. Cultural Geographies, 30(4), 569-588.
- Nuart Journal, https://nuartjournal.com/
- Warner, Marina. Mermaids in the Basement (1993).
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