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
History
University of Birmingham
Music
University of Birmingham
Musician, educator and composer researching international music-making in local communities and schools, inspired by her work with the 'Multicultural Music Making' music education project.
Classics
University of Birmingham
Robin is a third year PhD researcher in classical reception and children's literature. She looks at adaptations of sexual violence in children's anthologies of Greek myth.
Philosophy
University of Warwick
First-year PhD in Philosophy. Background in Politics, International Relations, and Continental Philosophy. Specialising in Nietzsche's conception of freedom.
Drama and Theatre Studies
De Montfort University
James Cull is a multidisciplinary artist based at DMU exploring interactivity, horror, video games and installation art. I completed my BA and Masters at DMU, and continue to collaborate, research and develop alongside other artists at the university.
De Montfort University
I am a Collaborative Doctoral Award student workin with Leicester City Council to find new ways of measuring and articulating the value of hidden culture.
Languages and Literature
University of Leicester
Prize-winning author of short stories. Debut collection of stories, Looking Out Of Broken Windows, shortlisted for the Scott Prize and longlisted for Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and the Edge Hill Prize.
Music
Birmingham City University
Roxanne is an opera singer, librettist and science disseminator. She has an MMus (Dist) Vocal Performance (RBC) and BSc (1st) Physics and Philosophy KCL. in 2017 she cofounded www.infiniteopera.com .
Languages and Literature
Nottingham Trent University
First-year: creative-critical project exploring paper affect and literary innovation. Writer and occasional visual artist. Influenced by multilingualism and previous work in Film & Media.
History
University of Nottingham
Archaeology
University of Nottingham
History
University of Nottingham
History
University of Nottingham
My research explores the portrayal of Matthew the evangelist in the writings of the Venerable Bede.
Media
De Montfort University
I am a third year doctoral candidate at De Montfort University, writing a thesis on killer bug films.
History
University of Warwick
Linguistics
University of Nottingham
Languages and Literature
Nottingham Trent University
Classics
University of Birmingham
I am a second year PhD student whose research focuses on graffiti in the late antique east. My ultimate goal is to produce a catalogue of graffiti, as well as an analyses of the trends found within.
Classics
University of Nottingham
I specialise in the Latin poetry of the early Roman empire, especially Virgil, Lucan and Statius.
Philosophy
University of Nottingham
Development Studies
University of Nottingham
My research looks at the contribution of African American women photographers to the long civil rights movement in the United States. I am interested in feminist networks, visual analysis, and intersectional histories.
Languages and Literature
University of Leicester
Natasha Stoyce is an AHRC-funded M4C doctoral researcher investigating the Great War work of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for the Serbian Army. She is fluent in English & Serbo-Croatian.
Music
Birmingham City University
Chris is a bass player, improviser and composer living and working in Birmingham. His work falls somewhere between composition and improvisation, using sound, music and electronics to satisfy his own sonic curiosity.
Theology, Divinity and Religion
University of Nottingham
History
University of Nottingham
I am a building and historic site historian who concentrates on 'people and place'. MSt Building History (University of Cambridge), MA Heritage Education (Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln). I previously worked for the National Trust for 11 years.
Visual Arts
Nottingham Trent University
Cultural and Museum Studies
Nottingham Trent University
Visual Arts
University of Birmingham
Music
Birmingham City University
I am a musician, arts programmer and presenter, and doctoral researcher from Derby. My research interests cover jazz and improvised music studies; practice research; and practice research methodologies.
Media
University of Nottingham
Music
De Montfort University
Sound artist using craft to investigate music, technology and textiles in participatory settings.
Cultural and Museum Studies
University of Leicester
I am a second year PhD student at University of Leicester studying restaged participatory art exhibitions. I also work at Derby Museums as a Project Coordinator, alongside acting as Co-Edtor in Chief for the Museological Review Journal in Museum Studies.
History
University of Leicester
Development Studies
University of Nottingham
Final Year PhD Student looking at Transatlantic Slavery commemoration at heritage sites. Co-supervised across Geography, History and American Studies (PhD formally in American Studies and History).
Drama and Theatre Studies
De Montfort University
Sophie is a third year full time PhD student that uses feminist performance art practice to interrogate and uncover the potentials in subverting Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze.
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
Visual Arts
University of Warwick
My research focuses on the presence of fine art objects in Swedish domestic settings around 1900, and investigates the role assigned to this type of visual art by means of considering contemporary discourses on the home, nationhood, and cultural reform.
Political Science and International Studies
University of Nottingham
Imagining Independence: The United States, Public Diplomacy, and Philippine Freedom in the Age of Decolonization, 1945-1960 (working title)
University of Birmingham
Law and Legal Studies
Nottingham Trent University
I am a third year PhD researcher at the Nottingham Trent University with an interest in international trade and commercial law as well as contract law.
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
I am an experienced cultural leader with a proven track record of management in the arts, predominantly music. I’ve spent the past decade working as a director in the creative industries and higher education and voluntary sectors.
Music
Birmingham City University
My PhD explores how we perceive sound and to what extent technology may be used to support musical performance for people with a hearing impairment. I am completing my studies part-time, while also lecturing in Music Technology.
History
University of Birmingham
The majority of my career has been in IT, until twelve years ago when I decided on a lifestyle change and became a part-time firefighter. At the same time I read for a Degree and then Masters in History.
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
University of Nottingham
Archaeology
University of Leicester
Archaeologist looking at the impact of new materialist philosophy on our understaning of change in prehistoric Britain.
Media
De Montfort University
Jennifer Voss is a part-time PhD candidate whose research focuses on actresses’ performance of emotion during the transition from silent to sound cinema in Britain and America.
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
PhD student working on modernist medical humanities at the University of Birmingham.
Music
Birmingham City University
Ed McKeon is a producer of experimental music, lecturer and researcher.
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
Novelist, medievalist, Anglo-Saxon and Norman specialist, creative writing tutor. Author of four novels, published in the UK, the US, Germany and the Czech Republic. PhD in Creative Writing candidate at the University of Nottingham.
History
University of Leicester
I am a historian of early modern Mexico, focusing on the relationship between indigenous Nahua alcohol producers and the early colonial state.
Dance
De Montfort University
My artistic doctoral research in dance evolves from my 20 years of professional practice as an artist, choreographer and performer. Please visit http://www.matthias-sperling.com/about.html for more details.
Languages and Literature
Nottingham Trent University
Practitioner of hip hop lyricism under the performance name of Cappo. My research aims to explore and artistically illustrate the occurrence of literary intertextuality in the rap lyrics of artists such as Rakim, Nas, Black Thought, and Kendrick Lamar.
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
History
Nottingham Trent University
Visual Arts
Nottingham Trent University
Visual Arts
Birmingham City University
Practice-based researcher in painting practice. Harriet's research is situated between the School of Art and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire with focus on moving between the auditory and the visual.
Design
Nottingham Trent University
Archaeology
University of Nottingham
Historical archaeologist from the UK currently working on the material culture of early modern apothecaries. I am interested in the archaeology of medieval and post-medieval science, technology, and medicine.
Languages and Literature
University of Nottingham
Art and Design and Arts and Humanities
Nottingham Trent University
History
University of Birmingham
Visual Arts
Nottingham Trent University
Artist queering praxis as order from noise, non-representational power and sensuousness in photographic production.
History
University of Nottingham
I am in the third year of my PhD in American Studies researching the memory of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth through visual culture in the twentieth century.
Linguistics
University of Nottingham
I'm a sociolinguist currently researching how British media (namely newspapers and charities) depicts dementia, and exploring how this relates to the experiences and views of people with dementia and their supporters.
History
University of Nottingham
My research explores how a belief in the coming apocalypse may have impacted religious thought, culture and society in fourteenth-century England.
Cultural and Museum Studies
University of Leicester
History
University of Nottingham
The Distribution of Royal Patronage to the Gentry in the Minority of Henry VI, 1422-1437
Music
University of Birmingham
Archaeology
University of Leicester
Dance
De Montfort University
Jess is a professional rhythm tap performer, teacher and tap jam host. She works collaboratively with musicians to create original performance work.
Cultural and Museum Studies
University of Leicester
My research focuses on analysing acquisitions of Brazilian art by public museums and art galleries in the UK
Cultural and Museum Studies
Nottingham Trent University
Classics
University of Birmingham
Drama and Theatre Studies
De Montfort University
Kerryn Wise is a movement-based artist, researcher, lecturer and performer based in the East Midlands, making work across dance, physical theatre, contemporary performance and digital technologies.
Music
University of Birmingham
Nottingham Trent University
PhD Researcher based at Nottingham trent University. I use scientific imaging techniques and AI to study Maritime Southeast Asian manuscripts in partnership with the British Library.
Classics
University of Birmingham
Doctoral researcher of Roman gardens, domestic space and identity.
Cultural and Museum Studies
University of Leicester
History
University of Birmingham
Music
University of Birmingham
Wildlife sound recordist and composer.
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
Researching women's art networks in the African contemporary art world. Interdisciplinary work combining Anthropology/ Art History/ African Studies/ Sociology. Field research: Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal and South Africa.
Philosophy
University of Warwick
My research examines which psychological capacities moral rights are based on, in order to develop a new account of the moral status of humans and animals.
Visual Arts
University of Leicester
History
University of Leicester
Project Manager and PhD student passionate about supporting survivors of sexual violence and finding ways to make oral history more trauma informed
History
University of Leicester
I am a second year PhD student in the School of English at the University of Leicester, studying the history of the Medical Women's Federation (MWF).
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
Historian and Language tutor
Cultural and Museum Studies
University of Leicester
I am an archaeologist and museum professional. I am very interested in objects, their multiple stories, and the relationships and interactions between objects and people in the museum space.
Languages and Literature
University of Leicester
History
University of Birmingham
History
University of Birmingham
I’m a medievalist working on the representations of East Asia in European world maps. My research draws on narrative, spatial and postcolonial theory to explore how maps incorporated the space, time and agency of Asia into a Latin Christian worldview.
Music
Birmingham City University
Laura Farré Rozada is an award-winning pianist and mathematician, deemed a 'Rising Star' by BBC Music Magazine. Classical Music Magazine considered her debut album ‘The French Reverie’ (2018): 'a model for young artists making their recording debuts'.
History
University of Nottingham
Languages and Literature
University of Birmingham
Philosophy
University of Warwick
Hi, I am a PhD student based at the University of Warwick. I work in philosophy of auditory perception. The aim of my actual research is explain how music perception is a special case of audition.
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
Examining national and transnational identity construction in Brexit Britain using corpus-based critical discourse analysis and qualitative interviewing.
History
University of Nottingham
Languages and Literature
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham based. Interested in queer everything - theoretically and materially. Thesis title - Queer Resistance(s): Contemporary Caribbean Communality - more info whithin profile.
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
Forensic anthropologist and M4C PhD student with an interest in skeletal trauma and violence in armed conflicts.
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.
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).
