Fully-funded PhD Studentship in Anglo-French Artists' Networks in late 19th-century British-Belgian Spaces of Exchange.

I am pleased to announce we are offering a fully-funded PhD studentship (3.5 years) commencing May 2025, on ‘Art Memory and Circles of Connection – Artists’ Networks in Late 19th-century British and Belgian Spaces of Exchange’, in the Centre for Arts, Memory and Communities, Coventry University in partnership with the Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven.

Candidates are invited in the following field(s) of enquiry:

The PhD project will explore the anglo-French-international artistic networks developed between late nineteenth-century Britain and Belgium, to extend understanding of their interacting sites of memory, production and creative exchange between the 1860s-1910s. Focusing on artist interactions between London, Brussels and other key loci of exchange, including in the art press and art criticism, this study’s key aim is to shed light on why and how interconnecting, transnational artistic visions and practices stimulated cultural arenas for new projections of modernity. A first area of consideration for this PhD is expanded contexts of art reception between key British and Belgian cultural sites; this may include international responses to Pre-Raphaelite circles, and to John Ruskin’s writings. Second, will be to examine interactions between these networks and gender in creating opportunities for women as artists, designers and craftswomen, operating within and beyond perceived constructs of ‘separate spheres’ of male and female artistic activity. A third, related area of enquiry will be to shed light on the significance and porous identities of cultural spaces in expanding circles of artistic exchange, and in their uses by artists across geo-cultural borders as sites of cultural memory, gender and identity-construction. As well as through exhibitions and other public spaces of display – notably museums and art galleries, this study will develop understanding of an expanded range of sites of art via private collections, intimate spaces of ateliers, workshops, artists’ homes or indeed, in letters, diaries and journals. Taken together, this PhD will open insights into pivotal artistic and geo-cultural ecologies between Britain and Belgium as arenas of artistic innovation and exchange to shape cross-cultural sites of modernity, gender and artistic agency. This PhD studentship is offered in partnership with KU Leuven. It is expected that the successful applicant will spend up to 12 months in Belgium.

For enquiries, please contact: Professor Juliet Simpson, Full Professor of Art History and Chair of Cultural Memory, CAMC, Coventry University, e: juliet.simpsoncoventry.ac.uk

To apply please follow the website link in this post to application portal: Art, Memory and Circles of Connection – Artists’ Networks in late 19th-British and Belgian Spaces of Exchange | Coventry University

Closing date for applications via Coventry University (link above):
15 January 2025, 12pm (GMT).
This PhD Studentship is offered for a start date: 1 May 2025.