Our student community is distinguished by breadth and diversity in the people and projects that make up M4C. Connecting across the Midlands, our students are part of a dynamic network of postgraduate researchers, with opportunities for collaboration throughout the doctoral experience.
This page offers a sample of student profiles, which are in development. A full list will be available in the coming months
Music
Birmingham City University
History
University of Nottingham
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
Philosophy
University of Warwick
PhD student in Philosophy of auditory Perception at the University of Warwick
Classics
University of Leicester
My research explores Ancient Greek warfare and the military tradition of individual poleis beyond Athens and Sparta
Languages and Literature
University of Warwick
Hi! My research focuses on Italian contemporary literature; it investigates the literary practices of irony displayed in several genres (e.g. autofiction) and by different authors (e.g. Wu Ming) in reaction to the exhaustion of postmodernism.
Linguistics
Birmingham City University
PhD researcher of English Linguistics based in Birmingham, UK
Music
University of Birmingham
Musicologist, pianist and clarinetist investigating opera and its complex merger of art forms in the 20th century: "death" of a genre or cultural transformation?
Visual Arts
Birmingham City University
Independent curator and writer
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
PhD student in Russian and Slavonic Studies at the University of Nottingham.
Music
Birmingham City University
Musicologist and pianist examining the life and musical legacy of the neglected early 20th century Russian composer Alexei Stanchinsky.
History
University of Nottingham
My research uses oral history methodology to consider the relationship between regional identity and football in Galicia, Spain.
University of Warwick
My collaborative doctoral study is with the University of Warwick and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The focus of my research is on the life and work of the prolific and pioneering theatre director Michael Bogdanov.
Philosophy
University of Birmingham
​My research develops a victim-perpetrator model of the moral responsibility of child soldiers. I explore how endorsement of action can establish a degree of moral responsibility under certain conditions, and use this to argue for the potential dual
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
History
University of Nottingham
Languages and Literature
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham based. Interested in queer everything - theoretically and materially.
Archaeology
University of Leicester
My research explores how women played a key role in the social and religious transformation of medieval Islamic Spain. For this I focus on the domestic spaces and activities through assemblage theory. I also dabble in public engagement.
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
I am a researcher of representations and responses to technology in culture. Currently I am investigating the overlap between accelerationism, the writing of J.G. Ballard, and the work of artist Eduardo Paolozzi.
Drama and Theatre Studies
University of Birmingham
Drama and Theatre Arts, Birmingham University
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
Philosophy
University of Birmingham
My research focuses on how we can best characterise psychopathy. I argue that people diagnosed with psychopathy lack the ability to care about their future selves. I investigate the connection between future self-interest and moral responsibility.
History
University of Birmingham
My research explores the significance of serpents and dragons in early modern Germany, and how these potent symbols were employed in the religious upheavals of the Reformation.
History
University of Birmingham
I have degrees in both history and biology and a history MA from Birmingham. I spent ten years running projects for street homeless people. I write poetry and have published a utopian novel.
Cultural and Museum Studies
University of Leicester
My project researches costume labour in the UK's film and television workforce, focusing on issues of equality and gender. I have trained and worked as a costume maker, and am embracing the new challenge of a PhD.
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
Medieval Arthurianist. Mother of Literary Dragons. 2nd year Doctoral Researcher.
Archaeology
University of Leicester
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
Visual Arts
Nottingham Trent University
Artist-researcher with an interest in bereavement theory it's application within contemporary fine art.
Visual Arts
Nottingham Trent University
Darren O'Brien is an artist Researcher, exploring post humanism and the animal turn, through the praxis of the Walkies as Method.
Philosophy
University of Birmingham
My research examines rising anxiety rates in UK young people aged 16-24. I consider current conceptions of anxiety and the relation between social media and anxiety rates in youth.
History
University of Leicester
My research considers the ways that letters, diary-writing, and drawing were at the heart of the imperial family. Using family collections from 1790-1920 it explores how families communicated when separated between Britain and India.
Languages and Literature
University of Leicester
My research focuses on women's contemporary and experimental life writing, touching upon themes of identity, feminism, autotheory, new media, and oversharing.
History
University of Leicester
I am a first year CDA student, studying the narratives of loss in the witness testimonies of war widows and maimed soldiers during the English Civil Wars and how they compared across England, Wales and Ireland
Archaeology
University of Leicester
Languages and Literature
Nottingham Trent University
History
University of Birmingham
Law and Legal Studies
Birmingham City University
Michael is a Midlands4Cities (AHRC) funded PhD student investigating the impact of the UN's Universal Periodic Review on human rights in the UK. He also teaches on the Constitutional and Administrative Law module at BCU.
Music
Birmingham City University
Resident composer and co artistic director of Infinite Opera, exploring how to create new opera that is relevant to society by interdisciplinary work and collaboration.
History
De Montfort University
Researching the built environment of Nazi concentration camps as deliberately created spatial experiences, linked with the modernist ideological drive for architectural efficiency, functionality and standardisation.
Law and Legal Studies
Nottingham Trent University
I am researching the extent to which aspects of the legal systems of the UK and Republic of Ireland uphold the rights of disabled persons
History
Nottingham Trent University
Media
Birmingham City University
Daniel is a PhD candidate in the Birmingham School of Media, funded by Midlands4Cities. He has written for Horror Homeroom and Screening Sex, presented at various international conferences, and is currently preparing essays for several edited collections.
Fine Art History, Theory and Practice
Birmingham City University
Sinologist interested in investigating contemporary Chinese artistic responses to the unprecedented urbanization in China to raise awareness of this phenomenon’s social implications and envision future urban imaginaries.
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
My research looks at male-male desire in the Gothic writing of William Godwin and his circle, including Mary Shelley, William Godwin Jnr, Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Joanna Baillie, exoloring how authors worked to critique homophobic politics of the time.
Political History
University of Leicester
Languages and Literature
De Montfort University
My project looks at whether short stories printed in British magazines during and in the aftermath of the First World War can be considered a therapeutic tool for readers suffering from the emotional or psychological effects of war.
Archaeology
University of Nottingham
My research explores the impact of lead use in medieval Britain from the environmental impact, social and medicinal impact through to identifying poisoning in the skeleton. I also research cave archaeology and palaeoanthropology.
Cultural and Museum Studies
Nottingham Trent University
My research looks at how video games are suited for use as an interpretative tool in museums. I’m focusing on game mechanics, narrative, emotion/affect, and how game structures can create and unpack arguments. I also dabble in coding. SAF rep for NTU.
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
My PhD in Portuguese & Lusophone Studies considers regionalism and regional identity in modern Portuguese fiction. I hold a B.A. in Modern & Medieval Languages (Cambridge) and an M.A. in Portuguese Literature (Porto).
