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 successful candidate will be based at the Centre for Island Creativity in UHI Shetland under the lead supervision of Dr Siún Carden (UHI Shetland), with Professor Roxane Permar (UHI Shetland) and Dr Rebecca Macklin (University of Aberdeen) as additional supervisors.
Scotland’s history of transition is, in part, a history of migration. Coastal communities in Scotland have long been shaped by the ebb and flow of human migration, with waves of people arriving on these shores and leaving indelible imprints on the cultural, economic, and social fabric of maritime life (De Lima 2012). Though in policy terms, migration has been seen as a means to bolster the economy and public services, a profound and long-term benefit of migration is the potential for positive impact on communities.
While migration research once neglected gender and agency (Christou and Kofman, 2022), recent scholarship has focused on female migrants actively transforming communities through 'homing'--creating belonging in new settings (Boccagni, 2017). Situated at the intersection of socially engaged arts practice, environmental humanities, and gender studies, this PhD project at UHI Shetland will use creative methods to examine how gendered migration experiences are remembered, represented, and embedded within Scotland's coastal and island heritage landscapes. It will explore histories of mobility, displacement, and settlement to understand how gender and identity shape approaches to placemaking and cultural heritage in Scotland’s coastal communities.
The project aims to make visible the ways that migrants have reshaped Scotland’s coastal communities, past and present, and to identify pluralistic and dynamic conceptions of place and identity in relation to understandings of coastal life. In particular, it will focus on gender and identity in the context of belonging, placemaking, and cultural heritage. Through place-based participatory research, the project aims to encourage dialogue between communities and expand ideas of local belonging in ways that will inform contemporary global challenges related to increasing global mobility, environmental and climate displacement, and rising cultural tensions in the 21st century.
This research will be practice-based and will be expected to employ approaches from creative practice and socially engaged art. Socially engaged art is characterised by its interdisciplinary character and can include participatory performance, storytelling or specific art forms that allow participants to share knowledge and experiences. This project will be broadly interdisciplinary and additionally is expected to draw on research frameworks and methodologies from a range of disciplines the specificities of which will emerge through the research, e.g., environmental humanities, migration studies, gender studies, heritage studies, and anthropology. Partnerships with local organisations will be supported, e.g., with the Shetland Museum and Archives and Shetland Arts Development Agency. Links with a range of groups and associations, e.g., linked to family history, local history, fishing, will also be relevant to the research, and the researcher will be supported in developing these relationships.
The supervisory team, combining expertise in anthropology, creative practice, island studies, the environmental humanities, Indigenous studies and gender studies, will ensure that the candidate receives robust and wide-ranging support and guidance across both all dimensions of the work.
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 good honours degree (2:1 or above) in a relevant discipline, e.g. Creative Practice, Anthropology, Cultural Heritage, or a related discipline. A Master's level qualification in a relevant discipline is desirable, but not essential, as well as a demonstrable understanding of the research area. A postgraduate degree in social art practice is desirable and/or experience of socially engaged art practice.
Enquiries are encouraged, for further information please contact Dr Siún Carden (siun.carden@uhi.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_UHI_SC
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
- Bishop, C. (2010). Participation. London: Whitechapel
- Boccagni, P. (2017). Migration and the Search for Home: Mapping Domestic Space in Migrants’ Everyday Lives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
- Christou, A. and Kofman, E. (2022). Gender and Migration. Springer Nature
- De Lima, P. (2012). Boundary Crossings: Migration, Belonging/‘Un-belonging’ in Rural Scotland. Translocal Ruralism, pp.203–217
- Fathi, M., & Nasimi, R. (2023). Art practice with migrant women: Three challenges to rediscovering home
- Gustavsson, M. (2021). Attending to the Rhythms of the Sea, Place and Gendered Cultures in Interviewing Fishers and Fishing Families. Springer eBooks, pp.47–70.
- Ingold, T. (2011). Being alive: Essays on movement, knowledge and description. Routledge.
- Kester, Grant. (2012). Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art. Theory in contemporary art since 1985.
- Lippard, L. R. (1997). The lure of the local: Senses of place in a multicentered society. The New Press. Massey, D. (1994). Space, place and gender. University of Minnesota Press
- Matarasso, F. (2019). A Restless Art
- Moss, P., & Falconer Al-Hindi, K. (Eds.). (2008). Feminisms in geography: Remeetings and directions. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
- Wessendorf, S. and Phillimore, J. (2018). New Migrants’ Social Integration, Embedding and Emplacement in Superdiverse Contexts. Sociology, 53(1), pp.123–138
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