Birmingham City University: Fully-funded PhD Scholarship in International Responses to Shakespeare

Birmingham City University, in partnership with The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, is seeking to appoint a suitably qualified applicant for a full-time collaborative PhD studentship, focused on the international collections at the Trust, commencing September 2017.

Closing date for applications is Sunday 9 July.

Interviews follow applications. There is also an Applicant Visit Day on Saturday 24 June.
Apply here: http://www.bcu.ac.uk/research/research-students/steamhouse-studentships/bcu-projects

For informal enquiries: islam.issa@bcu.ac.uk and paul.edmondson@shakespeare.org.uk

Funding:
£14,553 per year plus UK/EU fees of £4,195.

Project Title: International Responses to Shakespeare in the Collections of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Supervisors:

  • Dr Islam Issa (Birmingham City University)
  • Rev. Dr Paul Edmondson (The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust)
  • Professor David Roberts (Birmingham City University)

Project Description:
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s international collections contain papers, books and objects relating to global responses to Shakespeare. The proposed research will mark out the territory of this under-researched part of the collections (a UK Designated Outstanding Collection, also included on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World list), as well as develop a critical and historical approach to its holdings. As its fundamental basis, the project will construct a scholarly, analytical overview of the range of the Trust’s international collections (artistic objects, translations, creative writing, souvenirs, and commemorative items) in addition to the Trust as an archive of international cultural responses (celebrations, special projects, and Shakespeare societies). From this initial, analytical overview, the project will explore cultural responses to Shakespeare within the collection. This might be progressed in one or more of the following ways:

    • by looking at the different kinds of media;
    • by taking a geographical approach;

by taking a chronological approach.

The project will focus on the following objectives:

  • To construct the first scholarly, analytical overview of the Trust’s international collections, thereby helping the Trust to understand more about its international holdings and to develop its future international collecting strategy.
  • To present and explore the varied cultural responses to Shakespeare within the international collections, while also engaging numerous stakeholders (through developing an event at the Stratford-upon-Avon Poetry festival, liaising with SBT Trading Ltd to develop a new commercial product, and working towards a public-facing creative project and online exhibition).
  • To create new and vital subject knowledge about Shakespeare’s reach, appropriation and legacy, thus foregrounding cultural and international heritage as key branches of current and future research, while creating new solutions for the societal challenges of diversity and representation in academic research and cultural activity.