Film PhD

Your PhD at Lancaster could focus on one of a wide range of topics within Film Studies or on a subject that crosses different disciplines. As a PhD student you will normally be supervised by a team of two supervisors who will ensure that you receive focused critical feedback and encouragement throughout the programme. In some cases the second supervisor will be based in a different discipline within the School of Arts, or a different department within the Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in order to ensure that you have the most appropriate supervisory team for your chosen project.

We have supervised PhD projects on an exciting variety of topics that extends from global cinema history and cultural politics through to contemporary philosophy and film and media theory. These have included: the history of made-for-TV movies in the US; affect theory and first-person documentaries from the 1980s and 1990s; stardom, fandom and real-person fanfiction; distracted spectatorship and the franchise film; theatre and film in post-martial law Taiwan; terrorism, power and global media; cultural symbolism in Indonesian documentary; Gothic fantasy and the films of Guillermo del Toro.

You can take your Film Studies PhD at Lancaster either in the standard format of a written thesis, or as a project that combines the written thesis with creative practical work. Many of our academic staff are engaged with practice-based research in the fields of film, theatre, art and design, and we have a dedicated team of technicians to support you as well as workshops, editing suites and technical resources for our students.

As a PhD student based in the School of Arts, you will be part of a multidisciplinary community of research students, able to participate in seminars, reading groups, conferences, and research training courses. We also offer opportunities to study for a certificate in higher education teaching.

We encourage you to contact the School of Arts postgraduate coordinator at [email protected] or any member of the Film Studies staff team to discuss your ideas for PhD research.