Research degrees with the London College of Music
Research specialisms in the London College of Music
Staff and postgraduate students at the London College of Music are engaged in a range of research specialisms that combine practice-led research and advanced professional practice with theoretical and technical analyses of various types.
Find out more about our research specialisms below:
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Musicology
LCM has a highly diverse approach to musicology. We are concerned with the craft of creating, interpretating and manipulating sound through an engagement with and refiguration of different traditions that incorporates composition, musical historiography, theory and analysis, creativity/aesthetics, biographical studies, opera studies, hermeneutics, artistic research, pedagogy and performance studies.
Our work is engaged with evolving traditions and practices in western art music, jazz and popular music and contemporary electronic music, as well as topics such as gender, race and ethnicity, exoticism and the role of AI.
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Practice as research
LCM embraces difference forms of practice as research including composition/performance, improvisation, music-industry/events, audio engineering, recording/production and practices in theatre and dance.
The department is highly involved in the development of new approaches to documenting and analysing practice as research in a range of disciplines. One feature of this has been the extensive program of industry speakers invited to give guest lectures, workshops and masterclasses about their professional practice.
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Record production
LCM is a world leader in research into record production, and our staff have founded and continue to run several global research networks. Further details can also be found in the sections on 'Practice as research', 'Musicology' and in the 'Current research projects section', but we also have cutting edge research being conducted into recording and mixing practice, expert systems (including haptics), 3D audio, gender/diversity/creativity within music production and mixing.
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Sound Synthesis (Townshend collection)
Legendary musician Pete Townshend endowed his extensive collection of vintage instruments to UWL. This collection includes (amongst many others): EMS Synthi 100, Yamaha GX1, Moog: Model 15 and System 35, ARP 2500 and AS Colossus. The collection facilitates a large range of PhD research trajectories including performance, composition and synthesiser methodology and practice.
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Theatre and Performance research
Performance is the life blood of LCM, forming the base of the school. PhD students and staff are continuously conducting research into new performance techniques in order to push performance at LCM further, as well as to positively impact the teaching and learning process at the University.
Areas of research:
- Applied and socially engaged theatre (including community theatre and wellbeing)
- Performance Studies (dramaturgy, social justice, identity politics, casting politics)
- Improvisation and Gesture
- Space, place and environment
- Cultural exchange practices
- Translation and adaptation studies
- New play development and writing for performance
- Literature, Narrative and Music
- Music Theatre
- Opera
- Anglo-Spanish Musical Theatre
- Festival Studies
Research degrees
The London College of Music offers both DMus and PhD research degrees. The PhD can be either a thesis-based study or also involve practice as research. The DMus differs from the PhD by being more concerned with innovation in creative practice as opposed to a research PhD which is more focused on producing new knowledge and understanding about creative practice.
See our PhD research degree in Music:
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PhD Music (West London Campus)
West London Campus
VC PhD Scholarships
The London College of Music welcomes applicants for our full-time Vice Chancellor's PhD scholarships, which are open to all UK students (including EU students with settled status) who qualify and include:
- Waiver of UK PhD tuition fees
- Payment of a tax-free stipend of £22,000 per annum
- Annual allowance of £900 to support conference attendance
PhD scholars carry out teaching duties for a maximum of six hours per week. Scholarships are for three years (subject to satisfactory performance and academic progress).
You can apply for one of our Vice-Chancellor's PhD scholarships as part of your PhD application – please state on the application form that you would like to apply for the Vice-Chancellors Scholarship.
PhD opportunities
Applications are invited for bespoke topics across the range of disciplines supported by the below staff. In addition, there are several targeted projects as follows:
We are offering two industry-linked places supervised by Professor Justin Paterson and co-supervised by the CEO of the collaborating companies:
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Haptics and audio
Co-supervised by Dr Ally Barrow of Generic Robotics Ltd.
This will build on the work of the HAPPIE project and will investigate the deployment of haptic feedback (touch) in audio production and/or music performance systems.
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Technology-enhanced learning for music production and performance
Co-supervised by Professor Rob Toulson of RT60 Ltd.
With a backdrop of RT60’s mobile app design, this work will investigate the intelligent, assistive and educational music technologies of the future, with a vision for identifying ‘technology enhanced learning’ opportunities in music production and performance.
We are also offering other specific projects:
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Artistic research and improvisation
Supervisor: Professor Robert Sholl
Research context:
Our department has a broad interest in artistic research concerning composition, performance, improvisation and the electronic manipulation of sound. We are particularly interested in improvisation to film (connecting to our PRISM Research Centre) and hybrid and interdisciplinary approaches that include hermeneutics, analysis, cultural studies and the use of AI.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Professor Robert Sholl: robert.sholl@uwl.ac.uk
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Cross-channel dynamics
Supervisors: Dr Daniel Pratt and Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas
Research context:
Also as part of ongoing collaborative research with a well-established plugin company we are looking for a PhD student to conduct research into the interaction between audio processing (particularly compression and transient design) on parallel streams of audio. The research would involve a range of music genres and the research aim would be to identify general principles which allow various musical goals to be achieved in the mix process.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Dr Daniel Pratt: daniel.pratt@uwl.ac.uk
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French music
Supervisors: Professor Robert Sholl and Professor Nicholas McKay
Research context:
We are particularly interested in topics in twentieth- and twenty-first century western art music. Interdisciplinary approaches that involve aspects of biography, analysis, cultural studies, psychoanalysis, gender studies and engagements with non-western music (including neo-colonial studies) are all welcome.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Professor Robert Sholl: robert.sholl@uwl.ac.uk
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Future Noise record label – immersive pedagogy
Supervisor: Dr Daniel Pratt
Research context:
In addition to UWL’s London Noise record label (in collaboration with AWAL), we are establishing a second inclusive arts project called Future Noise, run by undergraduate students, which will work with school sixth forms and further education colleges to develop new up-and-coming artists. This PhD student would document and analyse the process whereby the staff and students engaged with the label develop their knowledge and understanding of this community of practice.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Dr Daniel Pratt: daniel.pratt@uwl.ac.uk
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Harmonising history: A taxonomy of vintage synthesizers
Supervisor: Professor Justin Paterson
Research context:
Utilising the unique and extensive Pete Townshend synthesiser collection at UWL, this project will develop a extendable taxonomy to catalogue and analyse the sonic and functional properties of the synthesisers (and others) and develop a digital open-access archive that includes high-quality recordings and detailed analysis of each synthesiser’s capabilities. It will also investigate the role of these instruments in shaping various music genres and cultural movements, fostering a dialogue between past innovations and future creations.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Professor Justin Paterson: justin.paterson@uwl.ac.uk
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Keyboard studies
Supervisors: Dr Annie Yim, Dr Angela Shepherd, Dr Liz Pipe and Professor Robert Sholl
Research context:
LCM has strengths in keyboard studies – piano and organ – and we would be particularly interested to hear from students wishing to pursue a doctorate through practice (through recitals with partial thesis) on any element of 18th-21st century keyboard music, including repertoire, organology, culture, improvisation, pedagogy and extended techniques.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Dr Annie Yim: annie.yim@uwl.ac.uk
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The musical principles of mix preparation
Supervisors: Dr Daniel Pratt and Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas
Research context:
As part of ongoing collaborative research with a well-established plugin company we are looking for a PhD student to conduct research into the musical principles behind mix preparation. The project would involve an ethnographic study of the practice of professional mix engineers in order to establish a range of general principles about how they conceptualise various components of a mix, how they establish various forms of signal path and any structuring principles that they employ when preparing session files for mixing.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Dr Daniel Pratt: daniel.pratt@uwl.ac.uk
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Music and health, somatic studies
Supervisor: Professor Robert Sholl
Research context:
LCM has a strong interest in strategies that increase performance potential and well-being to enhance and sustain careers. We are particularly interested in topics concerning music and health and somatic techniques (including development of the Feldenkrais Method and the Alexander technique) and topics that make interdisciplinary connections that expand the horizons of theory and practice in these areas that concern issues of longevity, public health and specific conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Professor Robert Sholl: robert.sholl@uwl.ac.uk
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Music business/industry
Supervisor: Dr Danny Hagan
Research context:
LCM has a substantial depth of knowledge in the music business and music industry practices. We have cutting edge research being conducted into:
- artist management and mental health
- political economic and social structures
- the importance of popular music practices on identity and place
Research topics on both recorded and live music are equally valued and supported. We would welcome enquiries and proposals into all related areas.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Dr Danny Hagan: daniel.hagan@uwl.ac.uk
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Practical musicology methods
Supervisor: Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas
Research context:
As part of his work with the 21st-Century Music Practice network and his forthcoming monograph on Practical Musicology, Simon Zagorski-Thomas is looking for one or more PhD students to explore methods of documenting and representing tacit knowledge and developing an aesthetic approach through their own practice research.
The student will explore documentation and analysis of practice and aesthetics through four types of representation: temporal, spatial, deconstruction and internal narrative. The research aim is to match various principles of representation with types of knowledge and contexts.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas: simon.zagorski-thomas@uwl.ac.uk
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Self-production, creativity and identity
Supervisor: Dr Paula Wolfe
Research context:
Given the continuing rise in students who are looking to higher education to develop skills as self-producing artists, there is a need to explore the many and interconnecting creative, technical and cultural facets associated with the art form. In addition, the growth in awareness of how creative processes and outputs, afforded by the practice, are influenced by issues of cultural identity and societal positioning, highlights the need for research.
We would welcome enquiries and proposals in any of these related areas.
Further information:
Questions regarding academic aspects of the project should be directed to Dr Paula Wolfe: paula.wolfe@uwl.ac.uk
Theatre and performance practice
Performing arts research covers a range of thematic interests in contemporary performance practices, global performance cultures and histories and collaborative research projects with the Music team. We are keen to support applications in any of our research areas:
- Applied and socially engaged theatre (including community theatre and wellbeing)
- Theatre in and for the workplace
- Performance studies (dramaturgy, social justice, identity politics, casting politics)
- Improvisation and gesture
- Space, place and environment
- Cultural exchange practices
- Translation and adaptation studies
- New play development and writing for performance
- Literature, narrative and music
- Music theatre
- Anglo-Spanish musical theatre
- Festival studies
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We would also be pleased to receive enquiries regarding the following specialisms:
- Anglo-Spanish musical theatre (Dr Alejandro Postigo)
- Applied and socially engaged theatre (including community theatre, corporate theatre and wellbeing) (Dr Cathy Sloan, Dr Gavin Baker)
- Composition and medievalism (Dr Litha Efthymiou)
- Composition for opera, musical theatre and experimental opera, orchestration, interdisciplinary approaches to composition (Dr Litha Efthymiou, Dr Simone Spagnolo)
- Phenomenology of music, popular music analysis, collaborative creativity, 4E cognition and music, audience research (Dr Remy Martin)
- Film music & Italian post-WWII opera (Dr Simone Spagnolo)
- Festival Studies (Dr Danny Hagan)
- Instrumental composition (Dr Litha Efthymiou, Prof David Osbon, Dr Simone Spagnolo)
- Messiaen and twentieth-century French music including Spectralism, twentieth-century music and religion/spirituality including the music of Arvo Pärt (Prof Robert Sholl)
- Music of the African Diaspora (Dr Tim Hughes, Prof Sara McGuinness)
- Music production, self-production, songwriting, creativity, gender, representation (Dr Paula Wolfe)
- Performance studies (dramaturgy, social justice, identity politics, translation and adaptation, casting politics, gender in Shakespeare) Dr Giselle Garcia, Dr Isla Hall, Dr Cathy Sloane, Dr Gavin Baker, Dr Alejandro Postigo
- Performance studies/practice research, somatic and embodied practices and music, improvisation (Prof Robert Sholl)
- Popular music analysis, songwriting, soul, funk, R&B, hip-hop (Dr Tim Hughes)
- Popular music performance and gesture, music education (Dr Liz Pipe)
- Recording, record production, audio technology (Prof Justin Paterson, Dr Dan Pratt, Prof Simon Zagorski-Thomas)
- Twentieth-century music, Stravinsky, music semiotics, music theory and analysis, opera, music theatre (Prof Nicholas McKay)
Please feel free to contact potential supervisors directly via email to discuss the details of your proposal before submission.
General enquiries about the scholarships can be addressed to postgraduate.admissions@uwl.ac.uk
Current research degree projects
Below are the research degree projects currently being studied by our postgraduate students.
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Phenomenological music performativity within networked spheres
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Haptics for extended audio realities
Research student
- Andrew Visser
Research supervisor/s
- Professor Justin Paterson
- Dr Ally Barrow, Generic Robotics Ltd.
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Is there a feminist or gender narrative within Debussy’s flute music? How do we as performers share these themes with audiences today?
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How do mix engineers conceptualise the various mix components when preparing session files for mixing?
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Human resource theory: Organisational learning within the UK music industry
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Performance in the grime studio: How it’s done in the ‘endz’. Creative interactions in the collaborative composition of contemporary UK hip hop in London
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Development and evaluation of immersive audio and haptics production approaches to enhance the understanding of visual features in cinematic virtual reality for blind and partially sighted audiences
Research student
Cesar Portillo
Research supervisor/s
- Professor Justin Paterson
- Dr Ally Barrow, Generic Robotics Ltd.
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Strategies for improving the bidirectional relationship of expressivity between electronic musicians and complex sound generating systems
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The influence of the Spanish cassette rap aesthetic: How Spanish rap producers redefined rap's aesthetic signature from 1992 to 1996
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"Negro spirituals" and their influence on 20th century African American composers
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What are the ways for piano students to use pattern recognition and chunking to improve sight-reading skills?
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The development and sustainability of piano folk song arrangements to grow awareness around their significance and inspire social interaction
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Symptoms of hydrocephalus and their impact on a sufferer's ability to convey emotion during music, vocal performance
Research student
- Francis St John
Research supervisor/s
Project synopsis
The fields of music, disability and performance are well established in acknowledging disabled musicians as part of a vibrant subculture of art and expression. They accept that impaired musicians, even those with impairments that are severely affecting, can be of great talent and worthy of inclusion in the field of music performance.
However, these fields characterise musicians with impairments that effect their behaviour (such as autism, Williams Syndrome and physical impairments such as blindness) as ‘disabled musicians’ that create ‘disabled performances’, of note but only when in isolation to others. This project seeks to clearly identify the typical emotional symptoms (displaying emotions at their extremes rather than engaging in a full emotional range) of hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and the effect this has on emotional conveyance during musical, vocal performance.
From this, it can be determined which musical genres and individual pieces of musical writing are most suited for people with hydrocephalus to perform given their typical emotional behaviour and how this emotional behaviour can be successfully incorporated into musical genres and pieces that don’t have this as part of their original writing, thus bringing this form of ‘disabled performance’ into mainstream contexts.
This will allow greater equality in the field of music performance and will demonstrate that emotional conveyance at its extremes need not be a barrier to musical engagement, encouraging vocalists with conditions of similar emotional symptoms to engage with music performance in any genre and style, mainstream or otherwise.
Biography
Francis St John is a singer, teacher and researcher with key interests in music performance and disability studies. Born in West London, Francis has been a classical singer for many years. Beginning his musical training as a singer at the Hillingdon Music Service under Jo McNally, Francis has performed as a member of some of the most celebrated choirs in the country, including the National Youth Choir, the Vasari Singers, the London Youth Choir and the London Youth Chamber Choir.
Francis began his operatic career as a character baritone at the University of Chichester whilst studying for his BA (Hons) in English and Creative Writing. Since then, Francis has performed many leading operatic roles, including Figaro, The Marriage of Figaro; Don Alfonso, Cosi Fan Tutti; Eisenstein, Die Fledermaus; and Aeneas, Dido and Aeneas.
Francis is also a frequent soloist for great choral works and his past performances include solos in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony; St John’s Passion; Schubert’s Mass in G; Faure’s Requiem; and Brahms Requiem.
As a researcher, Francis is keenly interested in the effects of singing on the brain and the inclusion of disabled vocalists in mainstream musical culture.
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An autoethnographic exploration of processes and games used in ensemble music creation and their potential effect on musical outcomes
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How can we develop a typology of vocal synthesis to better understand vocal synthesis as an instrument?
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The digital audio workstation as a mediator of the electronic music production process
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Exploring new ways of presenting sound in popular music exhibitions
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Music and meaning: Empathy in musical narrative and self-understanding through conceptual metaphor
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Real-time interactive technology within distributed creativity in string quartet performance
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Welcome to the future: Rewriting the paradigm of and creating new multimedia music for a post-internet world
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Development of compositional methods based on sound/noise as a public/private expression
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Combining music and visuals in contemporary music theatre: Dance and drama applications
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Modular production in metal music
Research student
- Konstatinos Koumpiades
Research supervisor/s
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Breaking the content of emotions: autoethnography as an art-making process
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The thriller gesture - a gestural approach to the analysis of thriller music
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A way with words. The art of negotiation and collaboration in the age of the ‘New Woman’ on Broadway as seen through the careers of Anne Caldwell, Dorothy Donnelly and Rida Johnson Young, 1906-1928
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How can the Theatre of Yes constitute a methodology to encourage practitioners to create standard quality performances from personal stories?
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New modalities: Twenty-first century compositional methods and transcendental aesthetics
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Jazz improvisation and interpretation within contemporary composition: An auto-ethnographic study from the composer/performer perspective
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Music as structure for meaningful interdisciplinary and multimedia relationships
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An orchestra of athletes: How an interdisciplinary understanding of the functions of space and time in the contexts of improvisatory performance and training can enrich the creativity of group musicians and team athletes
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What is the viability and value of structuring tonal music using rotational arrays as the primary method for note choice?
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Romantic fantasy in contemporary culture and sound. How are romantic ideas of fantasy and the uncanny expressed in contemporary sound, sonic arts, and the integrated soundtrack and what effects can these have on the listener?
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Strategies for use of modular synthesisers as agents of music creation
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Developing movement skills in performing arts: an investigation to stimulate a more creative, imaginative and sensitive movement skill engagement through a democratically orientated approach
Research student
- Paula Scales
Research supervisor/s
- Professor Francis Pott
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Economic racism in the music industry: Exploring the experience of Black and Minority Ethnic executives working in the UK music industry
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Groove is in the heart: Exploring the relationship between popular music education and social-emotional development
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How might a taxonomy of composing and performing with modular synthesisers be contrasted with extant understanding of broader electronic music practice, and to what extent can works made with modular synthesisers manifest, articulate and inform discussion
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What is the optimal music talent contest model that genuinely supports the artists’ development, while remaining a viable investment for music entrepreneurs?
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In what ways do speech therapists and music therapists in Cyprus utilise musical activities to help people with speech and language disorders? And how can they be adapted to create a co system of musical interventions?
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Music by the sea: An examination into the popular music histories of the town of Hastings from 1960 to 1985 and the influence of popular music performance on the cultural identity of the local community
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In what ways have guitar player's tools come to shape the playing style, compositional approach and recording methodology of noise rock music from the 1970's to present?
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How do contemporary composers incorporate Turkish art music’s tetrachords and micro-tonal elements in post-tonal compositions?
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Haptics for audio mixing
Research student
- Vangelis Katsinas
Research supervisor/s
- Professor Justin Paterson
- Dr Ally Barrow, Toia Ltd
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How can actor-network theory and ecological approach to perception be used to analyse creative mixing practice?
Awarded research degrees
Below are the research projects and degrees awarded each year.
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Research degrees awarded in 2019/2020
Creativity in new music for strings: under which circumstances does creative change occur in different types of performer/composer collaborations?
- PhD awarded to Agata Kubiak, October 2019
- Principal supervisor: Professor David Osbon
Identification and application in original composition of the devices required to construct and maintain a coherent musical form with a very slow distribution of structural sound events.
- PhD awarded to Bartosz Szafranski, June 2020
- Principal supervisor: Professor David Osbon
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Research degrees awarded in 2018/2019
Live popular electronic music: ‘performable recordings’
- PhD awarded to Christos Moralis, January 2019
- Principal supervisor: Dr Andrew Bourbon
How do the promoters of independent UK music festivals organise and implement events?
- PhD awarded to Danny Hagan, August 2019
- Principal supervisor: Professor David Osbon
The Embodied Feminine and the Sensory Self: Cross-disciplinary practice exploring the feminine ideal through sensors, transposition, metaphorical tools, embedded technology, performance and composition
- PhD awarded to Susan Thomason, May 2019
- Principal supervisor: Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas
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Research degrees awarded in 2017/2018
The role and gesture of non-verbal communication in popular music performance, and its application to curriculum and pedagogy.
- PhD awarded to Liz Pipe, August 2018
- Principal supervisor: Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas
How recording studios used technology to invoke the psychedelic experience: the difference in staging techniques in British and American recordings in the late 1960's
- PhD awarded to Anthony Meynell, July 2017
- Principal supervisor: Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas
Playing the changes: rediscovering the lexicon of electronic organ performance practice from 1943 to 2015
- PhD awarded to Christopher Stanbury, October 2017
- Principal supervisor: Professor Francis Pott
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Research degrees awarded in 2016/2017
How recording studios used technology to invoke the psychedelic experience: The difference in staging techniques in British and American recordings in the late 1960s
- PhD awarded to Anthony Meynell, July 2017
- Principal supervisor: Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas
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Research degrees awarded in 2015/2016
A long sell: The disproportionate appeal of Frank Bridge’s music to familiar listeners, and its impact upon his reception, 1912-36
- PhD awarded to David Weber, July 2016
- Principal supervisor: David Weber
A study, exploration and development of the interaction of music production techniques in a contemporary desktop setting
- PhD awarded to Justin Paterson, December 2015
- Principal supervisor: Professor John Howard
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Research degrees awarded in 2014/2015
Anne Frank in musical portraiture
- PhD awarded to James Whitbourn, July 2015
- Principal supervisor: Professor Francis Pott
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Research degrees awarded in 2011/2012
An analysis and evaluation of the concept of authenticity within popular music, using 'country rock' music as an exemplar genre
- PhD awarded to Anthony Simmonds, September 2011
- Principal supervisor: Prof John Howard
Applying for a PhD
If you are considering applying for a PhD, the first step is to contact a supervisor in a relevant research area - contact emails are listed against projects above.
Find out more about the funding we offer, the application process and other frequently asked questions.
If you have any questions please contact us by email: postgraduate.admissions@uwl.ac.uk
Find out more
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Research Centres
Find out about our multi-disciplinary areas of expertise, research, and teaching.
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Research impact
Learn how our research has helped communities locally, nationally and internationally.
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Research degrees
Find out more about PhD and Professional Doctorate opportunities and how we will support you within our active and interdisciplinary research community.