PhD Opportunity- Fashion, Costume and Visual Cultures: Identities On and Beyond the Screen
PhD Opportunity
Fashion, Costume and Visual Cultures: Identities On and Beyond the Screen (Advert Reference: RDF21/ADSS/DES/GILLIGAN)
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
Funded PhD Project (UK Students Only)
Dr S. Gilligan
Deadline: 29th January 2021
About the Project
Fashion and costume design perform distinct, yet symbiotic roles on and beyond the screen within contemporary visual cultures. The fashion, costume and visual cultures project examines the multifarious ways in which clothing, the material body and performance intersect in the construction, transformation and performance of gender, sexual, ethnic, class and national identities. These cultural representations are central to the meanings, pleasures, processes and patterns of consumption by fans which fuel the processes of ‘tactile transmediality’ (Gilligan 2012). From media consumption to copying the look and cosplay, fashion and costuming enables a plethora of points of identification, aspiration, devotion and desire for audiences.
The interconnected and shifting roles of fashion and costume within and beyond screen based media texts means that further interdisciplinary research is required to explore the diverse and rapid shifts which are taking place within contemporary visual cultures. The boundaries between film, television, music videos, performance art, advertising and editorial photography, art installation, retail, social media and fandom have become ever increasingly fluid. In a context of digital media, star-celebrities not only have transnational appeal and can reach ever more diverse segments of fans and subcultures, but can transcend time and mortality through their enduring representations and consumption through video-on-demand, streaming services and social media platforms. Fan communities constantly shift and adapt, responding to the constraints of life during the COVID-19 restrictions through an indulgent, conspicuous and often nostalgic consumption of media texts which offer new opportunities to analyse pleasures, interactions, consumption and user generated content.
The proposed interdisciplinary study seeks to combine the close textual analysis of case studies of the fashioning of star-celebrities and performers, with archival and ethnographic research. The project aims to examine and more fully understand both the representational and specific technical processes, practices and discourses involved in the design, production and consumption of fashion and costuming on and beyond the screen. Through collaborating with practitioners, curators and archivists, the study will amplify the often marginalised voices and working practices of those working in the creative industries (as performers, designers, makers, photographers and production crew) to be more clearly heard within theoretical academic work on costume and fashion.
The ideal PhD candidate will have an interdisciplinary background, with an underpinning knowledge of theoretical work in Fashion, Costume, Film and Cultural Studies. They will be interested in exploring case studies which disrupt hegemonic notions of gender, sexual and ethnic identities and who may to date have received comparatively little academic attention in terms of the role of fashion and costume in constructing their look. The candidate will have a strong interest in developing skills in ethnographic and archival research and collaborating with creatives in a range of contexts. The candidate will have strong oral and written communication skills and be keen to develop an active research profile through conference presentations, publications and public engagement activities.
The supervisor for this project is Dr Sarah Gilligan.
Eligibility and How to Apply:
Please note eligibility requirement:
• Academic excellence of the proposed student i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities [preference for 1st class honours]); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
• Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
• Applicants cannot apply for this funding if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.
For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/
Please note: Applications that do not include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words (not a copy of the advert), or that do not include the advert reference (e.g. RDF21/ADSS/DES/GILLIGAN) will not be considered.
Deadline for applications: 29 January 2021
Start Date: 1 October 2021
Northumbria University takes pride in, and values, the quality and diversity of our staff. We welcome applications from all members of the community.
Funding Notes
The studentship is available to Home students and includes a full stipend, paid for three years at RCUK rates (for 2020/21, this is £15,285 pa) and full tuition fees.
* please note: to be classed as a Home student, candidates must meet the following criteria:
• Be a UK National (meeting residency requirements), or
• have settled status, or
• have pre-settled status (meeting residency requirements), or
• have indefinite leave to remain or enter.
References
Gilligan, Sarah (ed.) (2020), Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture 6.1 /6.2. FCVC Network guest edited special double issue (in press).
Gilligan, Sarah (ed.) (2020), Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion. 7.1 /7.2. FCVC Network guest edited special issue (in press).
Gilligan, Sarah (ed.)(2019), Clothing Cultures. 6.1. FCVC Network guest edited special issue.
Gilligan, Sarah and Collins, Jacky (2019), ‘Suits and Subcultures: costuming and masculinities in the films of Pedro Almodóvar’ in Film, Fashion and Consumption. 8.2.
Gilligan, Sarah (2017), ‘Sun, Sex and Style in Smart Cinema: Tilda Swinton in A Bigger Splash’ in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress Body and Culture. 21:6.
Gilligan, Sarah (2017), ‘Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion’ in Journal of Asia-Pacific Popular
Culture. 2:2.
Gilligan, Sarah (2012) ‘Fragmenting the Black Male Body: Will Smith, Cinema, Clothing and Desire’ in Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body and Culture. 16:2.
Gilligan, Sarah (2013), ‘Long coats, flowing fabrics: Fashioning masculinity and desire in film and television’ in Glenn Adamson, Victoria Kelley (eds.) Surface Tensions: Surface, Finish and the Meaning of Objects. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Gilligan, Sarah (2012) ‘Heaving cleavages and fantastic frock coats: gender fluidity, celebrity and tactile transmediality in contemporary costume cinema’ in Film, Fashion and Consumption. 1:1.
Gilligan, Sarah (2011), ‘Performing post-feminist identities: gender, costume and transformation in teen cinema’ in Waters. M (ed.) Women on Screen: Feminism and Femininity in Visual Culture. London: Palgrave.
Co-supervisor for interdisciplinary music and fashioning identities projects.
McLaughlin, Noel and Braniff, Joanna (2020) How Belfast got the blues: A cultural history of the 1960s. Bristol: Intellect.
McLaughlin, Noel and Braniff, Joanna (2017) ‘How Belfast got the blues’: Towards an alternative history. Popular Music History. 10:3.