Midlands4Cities’ new collaborative awards offer chance to explore decolonisation, slavery and youth radicalisation alongside University of Birmingham academics.
Prospective PhD candidates are being offered the chance to help decolonise and digitise the Royal Shakespeare Company’s fine art collection and trace the links to transatlantic slavery of three Anglican churches in Birmingham, as part of a new round of Collaborative Doctoral Awards from Midlands4Cities.
The four awards – which open for applications on Monday 14 October 2024 – are co-designed by academics from the College of Arts and Law with other university and external partner organisations, including the RSC, Birmingham Cathedral, ConnectFutures and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Each one aims to respond to particular needs in the cultural, creative and heritage sectors, while giving the candidate first-hand experience of the partner organisation and the opportunity to enhance their employability and skills.
The RSC project will be the first sustained investigation of the organisation’s fine art and sculpture collection in Stratford-upon-Avon, analysing and digitising an internationally significant theatre collection through a decolonial lens. Uncovering hidden histories is also the aim for the nearby Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s project, making visible the presence of women in the trust’s extensive archive, library and museum collections and telling their stories and significance.
Birmingham Cathedral’s project focuses on three local Anglican churches, helping to address and communicate their connections to colonialism and enslavement, while also understanding more broadly how slavery and empire contributed to the formation of civic institutions and the Industrial Revolution. And the social enterprise, ConnectedFutures, is co-designer of a project examining how the arts and cultural sector contribute to youth resiliency against violent or hateful extremism and will involve travel to its initiatives across the Midlands to engage with youth and teenage boys on their non-radicalisation.
Search for these and other Collaborative Doctoral Awards at Midlands4Cities’ website.
