Digital media PhD | Digital cultures PhD

As a PhD research student in the areas of digital media, digital culture and digital innovation, your research will help us understand how society, ourselves and our communities are transforming through digital media, digital arts, digital business and the many facets of communication technologies.

Digital culture encompasses a range of themes and methods if inquiry, such as the ways in which our relationships change with social media, how artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are changing the ways we move in the world, or how virtual reality is changing the creative sector. Exploring these themes and more, Digital Culture is a key area of research expertise at the University of Brighton.

The university supports students in this area through its Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence, notably the Centre for Digital Cultures and Innovation.

Expert academics work in both the School of Art and Media and the School of Humanities and Social Science, either of which will provide a supportive academic home for students in digital media. We welcome applications for theory or practice focused research. Our expertise relates to industry developments and practices, as well as community activism in local and global contexts, and changes in the nature of audiences and their engagements.

Academics in this area are also the lead academic delivery partner of the Digital Catapult Centre Brighton, creating links between the university and businesses to generate research impact.

Apply to 'Arts and Media' in the portal

Our registration system collects several programmes under the strand 'Arts and Media.' Please choose this option in the portal.

Apply with us for funding through the AHRC Techne Doctoral Training Partnership

Key information

PhD students across digital culture, digital media and digital innovation benefit from a supervisory team with two or three members of staff, allowing them to draw directly on staff’s engagement in a wide range of research projects. Depending on your research area, you may also have an additional external supervisor from another School, another research institution, or from the industry.

Our postgraduate research students have the opportunity to be engaged in a range of activities, including involvements in research centres, organising research events, and contributing to aspects of media research culture. As a PhD student you will also receive training by the Brighton Doctoral College and have the opportunity to join an extensive network of PhD students across the University. You will be part of a vibrant research community at the heart of Britain’s digital and creative industry.

All students are provided with access to desk space and computers. You will additionally benefit from access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s online library, as well as to the physical book and journal collections housed within the Aldrich Library and other campus libraries. PhD students based in the School of Media also have access to cutting-edge facilities such as the Watts Lab, the Digital Catapult Centre Brighton and its projects such as the 5G Testbed and a forthcoming Data, Privacy, Ethics & Nudge Lab on campus, and the Screen Archive South East.

Recent and current PhD students have been successful in obtaining studentships covering both fees and living costs through the University of Brighton’s involvement in the AHRC TECHNE, the ESRC SCDTP and the EPSRC SEAHA. Please get in touch with your chosen supervisor to discuss your research project idea and possible ways to fund your Doctoral research.

Academic environment

The City of Brighton and Hove gives our PhD students access to one of the UK’s most lively media economies. We foster research that takes advantage of these relationships with a history of community-engagement and industry-based research projects.

You will be based with the academics of specialist Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence and/or Research and Enterprise Groups. These give both supervisory opportunities and the chance to network with both theorists and practitioners.

Our researchers explore how digital media impacts upon everyday life, such as its contribution to future cities through intelligent/sustainable services such as transport and social care, and ubiquitous surveillance. We also pay attention to emerging technologies and social change, exploring social media and activism, science and technology, digital health, digital citizenship, policy, governance and education, as well as the arts and the creative industries. Our focus is on matters of exclusion, inclusion, identity formation, specifically through the analytical lenses of ageing, class, disability, gender and sexuality.

The role of digital culture and digital media in political, social and environmental activism, and in the creation of online/offline communities are also a focus of our research. The nature of audiences and their engagements with digital media are explored through podcasting, news, and feminist- and inclusion-oriented approaches to gaming cultures. Researchers at the University of Brighton use a range of methodologies and theoretical approaches in their research but we pay close attention to qualitative research, ethnography and everyday life, audience research, informed by feminist, LGBT and queer theory, and contemporary theoretical debates in digital media and data technologies.

Creative media practice is another focus of research in the School of Art and Media. This includes both theoretical and practice-based research around Digital Transformation Design, Digital and Interactive Arts/Music/Sound, Photography, Immersive Media (AR/VR), Creative Industries, and many more. As a PhD student, you can draw on staff expertise in both critical creative media practice and theoretical perspectives.

PhD students could pursue research in a wide range of media and communication topics. The following areas of digital and media culture research indicate some of our areas of research expertise.

Blockchain, cloud computing, the sharing economy
Cultural informatics
Data technologies and digital culture
Digital humanities
Digital media and activism
Game studies
Immersive media/AR/VR
Innovation and media/Creative industries
Interactive and digital arts/music/sound
Screen cultures
Selfies and identity
Smart mobility and intelligent Transport
Social media
Sound and music practices

For more detail about these research areas please check the following links and also the supervisors' profiles below:

Some of our supervisors

Prof Karen Cham

I am interested in Supervising practice based work that contributes to the development of Industry 4.0 transformational, parametric and/or generative systems, particularly with regards human factors, ethics and instance of the singularity. Applications of cognitive systems design, machine learning, computer vision for new technologies such as BCI, 5G MEC, IoT complex deployments, in Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous scenarios particularly welcome.

For example :

digital transformation of values / policy / ideology / law
commercial applications of biometric interfaces
psychometric hypernetworks in MNOs
social and cultural applications of Blockchain & Cryptocurrencies
5G native user experience
human centred Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)
HCD and network slicing applications
cognitive / neural networks
behavioural Internet of Things (IoT)
causal AI
intelligent personas
digial immortality
Internet of Mind (IoM)

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou

Dr Aristea Fotopoulou welcomes PhD projects examining: arts and health; art and science; AI and society; big data & society; critical public health communication and health promotion; gender, sexuality and technology; feminist STS; robots and society; young people and digital technologies; mental health and technology; innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies; digital inclusion; activism; participatory action research; citizen data.

Current PhD Students

Hannah Shelby (ESRC South Coast DTP Scholarship in the Population Change, Health and Wellbeing pathway) (2017-2020). Theme: Mental health and Reality TV.
Jun Haelin (2018-2021). Theme: National identity, gender and use of YouTube in South Korean.
Sijuade Olanihun Yusuf (International PhD Studentship) (2019-2022). Theme: Social media and negotiation of identity by African Women in Sub-Saharan African countries
Alex Yousif (ESRC Artificial Intelligence and Society PhD Studentship, South Coast DTP) (2020-2023). Theme: Algorithmic bias, gender and health and social care

Indicative Masters and Undergraduate projects supervised:

The role of social media influencers in the promotion of sports and wellbeing
Representation of gender in Disney films
Audience perceptions of privacy and data collection on Facebook
Understandings of bisexuality in social media
Feminist activism and Twitter: #Metoo hashtag
Representation of queer characters in Call the Midwife.
Gender in reality TV: The case of Only Way is Essex

Dr Olu Jenzen

Dr Jenzen has supervised several doctoral students to completion across topics such as Queer visual activism; Queer filmmaking and learning disability; and Social media and LGBTQ+ mental health support. Currently she supervises projects on Feminist social media activism; LGBTQ+ kinship practices; Gender creative parenting; Gender diverse youth and citizen equality; Climate justice discourse in the media; Gypsy, Romany, Traveller trans and gender-diverse youth in the UK & participatory heritage as a vehicle for empowerment; and Heritage, participation and technology. She welcomes applications for projects interested in digital media and visual activism, activism and issues of gender and sexuality, and youth empowerment.

Dr Ewan Kirkland

Ewan is looking to supervise doctoral projects on digital games, particularly Gothic and horror genres, which represent a particular research speciality. In addition, Ewan is interested in working with students exploring children’s culture, including film, television, digital games, toys, and the intersections between different media aimed at young people. Another supervisory interest is the representation of identity, including gender, race and sexuality, with an emphasis on dominant formations such as masculinity, whiteness and heterosexuality. Ewan is also keen to supervise projects on Hollywood cinema, science fiction film and television, and fandom.

Dr Douglas McNaughton

Political economy of television production. Aesthetics and narrative in television. Historical development of British television. Representations of space, place and identities in British screen cultures. Science fiction, fantasy and horror, in particular, British folk horror. Telefantasy, world cinema, screen technologies, the sociology of space. Screen acting and performance.

Dr Maria Sourbati

I am interested in supervising doctoral students on a range of topics and themes including smart technologies, age relations, ICT access and mobility, digital inclusion, digital literacies, digital inequality and transport-related exclusion.

My past PhD supervision includes projects in media diversity, media regulation, e-government.

Current PhD supervision

Sijuade Olanihun Yusuf (International PhD Studentship) - Social media and negotiation of identity by African Women in Sub-Saharan African countries.

Vicki Painting - How might the ‘orphaned body’ of my mother living through the fourth age be represented other than within the prevailing construct of abject, unproductive and ultimately unsuccessful ageing?

Dr Marcus Winter

I am interested in supervising postgraduate research students in ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction and applied machine learning in the contexts of education, cultural heritage and public engagement.

For further supervisory staff including cross-disciplinary options, please visit research staff on our research website.

Making an application

You will apply to the University of Brighton through our online application portal. When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of Brighton staff. We recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistance during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2022–23

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
	Full-time	Part-time
UK	£4,596	£2,298
International (including EU)	£15,282	£7,641
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£13,464	£6,732

PhD by Publication
Full-time	Part-time
N/A	£2,298 (UK)

Contact Brighton Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of Brighton we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the Brighton Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.