At the Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities, we encourage our students to cross boundaries. Great innovation and progress happens when together we learn from other cultures, disciplines and perspectives, and reach beyond our comfort zone.

We welcome applications for PhD research degrees. New postgraduate research candidates will be probationary until the candidate has undertaken, and passed, a formal assessment during their first year of study, known as the Probation Review. This review takes place around six to nine months from date of registration for full-time students.

Candidates have the opportunity to build their research career with support from academic colleagues from across the Faculty as well as within the Institute and explore themes and ideas that go beyond one single subject.

We also offer students valuable support in researching, writing and submitting their PhD thesis, as well as access to seminars, events, workshops, and conferences.

Research Expertise

Within the Institute you will find yourself part of a thriving community of scholars from a range of academic backgrounds. We offer the opportunity of fully funded AHRC doctoral studentships annually, which are provided through the CHASE consortium, as well as faculty-funded studentships.

Research students are fully integrated into both the research culture of the Institute as well as the opportunity to participate in specialist research seminars within their chosen fields. These attract visiting scholars, leaders in their fields, as well as the opportunity to discuss areas of interest with other colleagues from across the Faculty. 

We are also home to a number of facilities which span the disciplines within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. This means that we collaborate with staff and students from across the Faculty and beyond providing the facilities to allow innovative teaching, research and innovation activities to take place. These facilities include the East Anglian Film Archive, BLOC Media and the Publishing Project.

Research Culture

Medical and Health Humanities

Definitions of medical and health humanities abound, but at its core the field foregrounds examination of the social, cultural, historical, political and ethical dimensions of health experience.

Gender Studies

Understanding how and why gender matters is vital to the arts and humanities, whether our interests lie primarily in artistic, social and cultural questions or in historical and political perspectives.

Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies

Interdisciplinary Japanese Studies weaves together several areas: Arts, Cultures and Heritage; Japanese History; Japanese Film and Media studies, Japanese Diplomacy and International Relations, and Japanese Literature and Translation.

Research Resources

Studentship Funding

Applicants to our PhD programmes are eligible to apply for AHRC-funded CHASE studentships, and the Faculty of Arts and Humanities also offers eight PGR studentships each year. For information about these please consult the Arts and Humanities Graduate School page, which also outlines the training and support that

Enquiries and how to apply

We welcome enquiries from prospective students. Please contact individual academics or the Institute’s Postgraduate Teaching Director, Jenna Pitchford-Hyde, to discuss your proposal. 

 

People

Researchers