Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Postgraduate Studentships - Search for funding opportunities.
Deadline: The deadline for applications is 23:59 (UK time) on Wednesday 30 April 2025.
West Midlands, All England
A new PhD scholarship for Black British Researchers in the College of Arts and Law
PhD Project: Fanfic in the Archive: ephemera, ethics, engagement
This PhD project will be based in the Department of English Literature which is part of the College of Arts and Law.
The deadline for applications is 23:59 (UK time) on Wednesday 30 April 2025.
About the project
This project engages with a paradox: self-published and fanfiction communities and archives have historically been marginalised in academic research and library collection policies, yet also power Internet Search. Under-studied and under-archived in institutional contexts, the productions of fanfic online communities have nevertheless been accessioned into the datasets of Google Bert and other LLMs to optimise commercial Search and Generative AI technologies. This is often experienced as traumatic by communities who prioritise collaborative conceptions of authorship, compensation, attribution, etc. In this context, many fanfiction communities are reluctant to engage with institutional archiving or Legal Deposit, rejecting principles of ownership among mainstream publishers and cultural heritage collections, while remaining subject to voracious tech industry appropriation. Furthermore, fan archives are ephemeral entities, reliant on free labour for maintenance and subject to the notoriously swift obsolescence of technological platforms. This ephemerality is particularly stark for initiatives set apart from well-resourced archives such as AO3. For example, 'Remember Us?', launched in 2002 to tackle the dominant whiteness of much fanfiction, became defunct in 2009, while activist projects such as dark_agenda are fragmented across tags that fall from use as instigators move on. This project addresses under-representation of fanfiction archives within national collections and lack of formal recognition of communities’ expertise, practices and tools. It will explore the ramifications of ephemeral archives and appropriation in a case study of fanfiction by and about Black British people, develop engagement and deposit strategies, and acknowledge fans’ significance in powering commercial knowledge-production while their voices, practices, and legal claims are too often ignored in debates that shape national policy and law:
This project will utilise an interdisciplinary approach, engaging with disciplines such as Literary Studies, Digital Cultures, Black Studies, Media History, Library Science and Cultural Heritage. The project will be supervised by Dr Rebecca Roach and Dr Dorothy Butchard, based in the Department of English Literature, and supported by the Stuart Hall Archive Project and Centre for Digital Cultures at the University of Birmingham. The student will also have access to staff expertise and training at the British Library and undergo a placement there during the course of the PhD.
Who can apply?
These scholarships are designed to create opportunities and address the underrepresentation of talented Black or Black mixed heritage students in academia. Applicants who meet all of the following criteria are eligible to apply:
3. Not already enrolled on a PhD programme at the University of Birmingham
What does the scholarship provide?
Applicants will be expected to have a good Honours degree (First Class or Upper Second Class Honours degree) awarded by a recognised University in a relevant subject, or an alternative qualification, or experience of equal quality. In certain cases, a Masters degree or equivalent may be expected in a relevant subject.
After applicants have made contact with the lead PhD supervisor, you will then need to apply to the PhD project using our online application portal: you should select '125th Anniversary Scholarships (CAL)'. You will need to create an account for the online application portal and you will be prompted to sign-in upon your return to the portal.
You do not need to complete your application in one session; you can save your application at each stage and return to the portal at any stage before submission, particularly if you do not have all of the necessary documents when you begin your application.
As this is an 'advertised PhD', in which you will studying the above project that has already been provided by the academic supervisor(s), you do not need to submit a research proposal. Your personal statement will suffice for determining your suitability for the PhD project as well as your previous academic, professional and personal experiences.
The deadline for applications is 23:59 (UK time) on Wednesday 30 April 2025.
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