Why study for a PhD at Leicester?

Study with us and you will become part of an internationally-renowned research community. In addition to encouraging high quality research, we support our students in developing the skills and the knowledge they need to pursue their chosen career, whether in universities and research organisations, or in the museum, gallery or heritage sectors.

PhD study offers a unique opportunity to undertake intensive and original research in a topic of your choosing. You will work independently on your project with the close support of two academic supervisors. Studying at Leicester is very popular - we are home to the largest community of museum and heritage focused PhD researchers in the world. We attract high numbers of applications for a limited number of places.

You can study full-time on campus (3 years) or part-time by distance learning (up to 6 years). Here are some examples of research undertaken by our current PhD students and here are some examples from our completed PhD students.

Museum Studies research

Museum Studies is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary field which embraces in its subject matter and methodologies aspects of most other academic disciplines. A PhD student working in this area operates in an unbounded intellectual space where it is possible to fuse different disciplinary perspectives. It is equally non-discriminatory in the range of methodologies it can deploy. These different approaches coalesce around an interest in museums, galleries, heritage, collections, material culture and representation. We have researchers working on contemporary art, palaeontology, urban planning, theatre, social justice, memory, emotion, and so on.

Be part of a thriving research community

As a research student you will become part of a thriving and friendly research environment. Students are encouraged to take part in and contribute to the research community through a range of activities including our well-attended 'Brown Bag' seminar programme, our annual Research Week, which brings together campus-based and distance learning students to discuss their research, and the Museological Review, a journal that is written and produced by our students.

There will also be opportunities to communicate your research to a wider audience and in recent years students have planned, developed and held successful conferences at the School, including:

• Museums Alive! (2014)
• Museum Metamorphosis (2013)
• Museum Utopias (2012)
• Curiouser and Curiouser (2011)
• Materiality and Intangibility: Contested Zones (2009)

See the full list of PhD student-led conferences and events.