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.
The PhD will be hosted by the University of Aberdeen under the lead supervision of Dr Jo Vergunst (University of Aberdeen), with Dr Jennifer Clarke (Gray’s School of Art, RGU) and Dr Andrew Whitehouse (University of Aberdeen) 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.
The current energy transition marks a broad social, economic and environmental shift from humanity’s use of fossil fuels to renewable energy. Decision-making on energy transitions takes place across many layers of governance and while the effects of climate change are felt everywhere, rural and coastal communities are often on the front line of energy transition infrastructure. This PhD at the University of Aberdeen, will draw on art and anthropology to explore the everyday experience of the energy transition in North Sea rural and coastal areas. While we expect the main focus of the research to be in north east Scotland including the Northern Isles, we welcome proposals that also broaden this geographic reach.
This PhD will investigate walking as a research method, an art form, and a somatic and relational practice through which changing infrastructures are felt as well as seen. The north east of Scotland has a rich heritage of walking from cattle drovers and Scottish Traveller communities to Munro baggers and diverse pedestrian practices today. Can walking open up the lived and shared experience of the energy transition in ways that other approaches cannot? What can encounters through walking art offer for community involvement in energy landscapes? Where histories of walking art have often emphasised a singular heroic approach to walking, we hope to explore alternatives in for example feminist, differently abled and more-than-human walking art. ‘Walking’ will encompass wheeled or any other kind of movement allowing for embodied landscape encounters. The PhD is therefore open to students with mobility support needs.
While the specific approach will depend on the candidate’s interests, the supervision team will offer expertise in anthropological and artistic research methods. Combining these will provide the chance for methodological innovation and novel non-academic impact. The PhD may include creative practice in walking art and collaborative, digital and/or material forms – could image-making, sound, performance, print or material practice produce different ways of knowing and engaging with transition? Our partner in the cultural sector is Peacock Visual Arts (Aberdeen). Peacock Visual Arts will help explore how encounters in walking can be translated into visual, material and public forms. Working with Peacock’s curatorial and community-engagement expertise that includes a series of energy-related projects, the student may develop print-based work, publications, exhibitions or participatory public programmes that bring different experiences of energy transition into conversation.
In Year 1 we will build connections with communities around selected sites, and explore how the anthropology, heritage and art history of walking might intersect and intervene with energy transitions. Year 2-3 will involve shared, collaborative or solo walks that generate encounters and explorations of changing energy landscapes, together with ethnographic research into aspects of the energy transition (e.g. a technology, landscape, or social / community grouping), depending on student interests. Year 3-4 will focus on creating outcomes from the PhD including the written thesis.
The PhD will have implications for planning and community involvement in energy landscapes through the arts. Impact could be developed through a range of stakeholders such as local and national government, energy organisations in the private and community sectors, and the heritage and arts sectors.
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, including anthropology, art history, creative practice or a related subject. If you do not have a background in anthropology you may be asked to attend relevant courses in anthropology in Year 1 of the PhD as part of your training. Relevant professional experience may also be considered.
While prior experience in art or creative practice is not a pre-requisite for this PhD, we would like to hear in your application how you would take advantage of the opportunities that this PhD offers, including connections with cultural sector partners and the wider potential for non-academic impact arising from the PhD.
Enquiries are encouraged, for further information please contact Dr Jo Vergunst (j.vergunst@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.
This project ID is NHT_UOA_JV
Funding Notes
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 for research activities.
Please note we cannot fund visa costs or healthcare surcharges for international students.
References
- Arnason, A., Ellison, N., Vergunst, J. and Whitehouse, A. (eds) (2012) Landscapes Beyond Land: Routes, Aesthetics, Narratives. Berghahn.
- Bubandt, N., Andersen, A. and Cypher, R. (eds) (2022) Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene. Doing Fieldwork in Multispecies Worlds. University of Minnesota Press.
- Careri, F. (2002) Walkscapes: Walking as an Aesthetic Practice. Editorial Gustavo Gili.
- Clarke, J. (2014) ‘Disciplinary boundaries between art and anthropology’, Journal of Visual Art Practice, 13(3), pp. 178–191.
- Gruppuso, P. and Whitehouse, A. (2020) ‘Exploring Taskscapes: an introduction’ Social Anthropology, 28(3), pp. 588-597
- Ingold, T. (2013) Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture. Routledge.
- Ingold, T and Vergunst, J. (eds) (2008) Ways of Walking. Ethnography and Practice on Foot. Routledge.
- Otchere-Darko, W. and Weskalnys, G. (2025) ‘Granite city sunset: Uncommoning the energy transition’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 43(6): 1056-1076.
- Peacock Visual Arts, selected projects:
- Earnst Logar ‘Invisible Oil’ - https://logar.co.at/e/invisible_oil_e.htm
- Hannah Imlach ‘Energy Objects’ - https://peacock.studio/showing/hannah-imlach-energy-objects
- ‘With the North Sea’ programme - https://peacock.studio/showing/with-the-north-sea
- Rachel Grant ‘Oil’ - https://communityeconomies.org/publications/reports/oil
- Maja Zećo ‘The Attuning Zone’ - https://peacock.studio/showing/the-attuning-zone
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