Research Studentship – Popular music and radio in the digital age

We’ve just announced a Research Studentship worth £16,680 per year. Working closely with Prof. Tim Wall & Andrew Dubber (newly conferred as a Reader), the research student will be part of the Interactive Cultures team and work on projects that continue our work in popular music, radio and how they are changing in a digital age.

Here’s the ad:

The Birmingham Centre for Media & Cultural Research is a rapidly developing centre of research excellence based at Birmingham City University with a community of over thirty academics and research degree students. Centre staff conduct research into all aspects of the media and popular culture, but have a particularly strong reputation in work about the changing form of popular music and radio media.

The research would form part of the work of the Interactive Cultures group, and you would be supervised by Prof Tim Wall Dr Paul Long and Andrew Dubber. Their work in popular music, radio and cultural politics is internationally recognised with both academic and media communities, and you would have the opportunity to be involved in a number of major research and knowledge transfer initiatives including the Music and Radio Innovation and the Music Consumption in the Digital Age projects.

We are offering a three-year, full-time research studentship, linked to our doctoral programme.

The studentship is open to both home and overseas students, although you would be responsible for any fee or living expenses beyond the value of the studentship.

Applications can be made to undertake research degree work in a study relevant to one of the following themes:

  • The music industry in the digital age
  • Music culture in the digital age
  • Radio in the digital age

Applications from any academic background are welcome, but the successful candidate must be able to demonstrate familiarity with the music or radio industries, and the implications of new technologies. We will select the successful candidate primarily upon the quality of their research proposal.

Normally we would look for applicants with a masters degree which included research training, but we welcome non-traditional applications from those with strong industrial backgrounds and experience in research and written communication.

A willingness and ability to contribute to our research community is particularly desirable.

The studentship period will start in March 2010 or as soon as possible thereafter. The studentships will attract a bursary of £13,290 per annum in addition to a waiver of the tuition fees up to the home student rate of £3,390. Successful candidates will usually be expected to participate in the wider activities of the research centre, and there may be opportunities for an additional paid research assistant or teaching role for up to 180 hours per year.

How to apply

Complete and submit the ‘Application for Research Degree Course’ form which should include a research degree proposal of no more than 600 words. We may ask you to supply more information if you are selected for interview. Please indicate that you are applying for the research studentship in popular music and radio in the digital age, or we may inadvertently treat your application as one simply for our research degree programme.

The final closing date is Monday 1st March 2010 but we will select appropriate candidates for interview as applications arrive.

You should return the completed application form to:

Dr John Mercer
Research Degree Coordinator, Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research, Birmingham City University, Perry Barr, Birmingham B42 2SU

Or via email to:

Please do forward this link on.

This entry was posted in jobs, Radio and tagged music industry, Radio, , studentship by Jon Hickman. Bookmark the permalink.

About Jon Hickman

Jon researches and publishes work on digital culture and creative industries, specifically exploring social media. This work is applied to his role as the Degree Leader for Web & New Media within our undergraduate programmes, and his teaching on the MA Social Media. His industry experience in new media also makes him a key member of our knowledge transfer team.

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