Film: Practice as Research - PhD

With access to specialist supervision, excellent resources and a vibrant research community, your time at Kent will be enjoyable and stimulating. You conduct original research under the guidance of a team of specialist supervisors. We welcome enquiries on any topic, and provide you with excellent research resources to enable you to complete your research.

You produce a piece of film practice, which may be a digital film, a screenplay, a series of exploratory audio-visual works, audio-visual documentation of creative processes relating to film or a combination of these, and a written thesis of up to 40,000 words. You will have a minimum of two supervisors who support and guide you through your academic and professional development throughout your studies. You meet regularly with your supervisors, who not only supervise your research project but help you to identify parts of your research and development where you may require further training or support.

A series of reviews take place throughout your studies in order to ensure that your research project stays on track and that you have all the necessary support and resources required to successfully complete it. Recent and ongoing research supervision projects include 'Creating Imaginary Media’, ‘A Sense of Place: Identity and Cinematic Representation of Britain’s Forgotten Towns and Non-Places’, ‘Essaying Place: Landscape, Time and the Journey in the Essay Film’, ‘To Observe, to Interfere or to Collaborate: Reframing the Notion of Home Through Documentary Film’, ‘Images of the Future: Interpreting the Ballardian World through Film’ and ‘Intimate Cinema: Techniques, Conventions, and Aesthetics of Screen Performance in Digital Film'. You may be eligible to apply for a fully funded PhD scholarship.

Scholarship opportunities may include the Vice Chancellor’s Research Scholarship (GTA) and the Consortium of the Humanities and the Arts South-East England (CHASE) collaborative doctoral award. For further information and eligibility requirements, please see our scholarship website. Film at Kent is a vibrant and supportive international community of academics, practitioners and students, connected through our shared passion for film and digital media.

Our staff are able to support a wide range of research covering histories, aesthetics and theories of film and digital media, while at the same time fostering an inclusive and welcoming culture. We also partner with the Gulbenkian Cinema, part of the University of Kent’s Arts Centre, to offer innovative, engaging and high quality arts activities for the public, staff and students. The School of Arts also has the Lupino, a 62-seat cinema named after the pioneering female filmmaker Ida Lupino, which Film students can enjoy as part of their experience during their studies.

The Lupino has state-of-the-art digital projection and sound, and has been created to provide an intimate atmosphere for film viewing. Film at Kent students also benefit from our fantastic location. Based in the cultural city of Canterbury, we are less than one hour from London by train and forty minutes from the Eurotunnel, making us close to both London and Europe.