The University of Huddersfield has recently announced a call for applications for their Richie Hawtin Scholarship scheme which funds PhD researchers interested in electronic music cultures or production.
Full details on the scholarship and how to apply are detailed below:
Call for Applications: The Richie Hawtin Scholarship
The Department of Music and Design Arts at the University of Huddersfield is pleased to invite applications for the Richie Hawtin Scholarship and for full and partial fee-waivers for PhD studies, for new UK, EU and International PhD students, starting in September 2023.
The scholarship is open to applicants engaged in research on any subject related to electronic music cultures or production, including studies on electronic dance music or club cultures. Projects may be practice-based with a reflective commentary, analytical, theoretical, socio-cultural, or empirical. Relevant topics might include but are not limited to:
• popular electronic music cultures;• creative practice involving composition or production;• festival and events cultures, clubbing, raving, and socio-sonic aesthetics;• ethnographies;• audiences and listeners;• DJ cultures and electronic music performance;• a focus on a specific electronic music subcultures, scenes, movements, genres or artists;• techno, as well as other genres such as psytrance, house, hip hop, dubstep, drum’n’bass, hardcore, industrial, ambient, chillout, electronica, or other forms;• trends in electronic music production business and marketing;• other business and legal aspects including copyright and royalties;• music and dance, trance, altered states of consciousness, liminality and entrainment;• societal aspects of electronic music cultures, such as inequalities (gender, race, geography) and other ethical concerns (labour unions, ecology and nature).
The successful candidate’s primary affiliation will be within the Popular Music Studies Research Group (PMSRG), which is part of the Centre for Research in Music and its Technologies (CRMT). The PMSRG is a hub for practice-based, practice-led and text-based research around popular music. It has a track record of international research events such as the Practice Based and Led Popular Music Studies Re-search Symposium in 2017, the Crosstown Traffic Conference (a joint event with academic societies specialised in the art of record production (ARP), popular music (IASPM), and electronic dance music (Dancecult) in 2018, the Ambient @ 40 symposium in 2018, the symposium Afro-Futurism, Arena Rap, The Self-Producer in 2021, and the industry-focused day Creative Sampling, Sound Design, Artificial Intelligence in Mixing in 2022. The PMSRG aims to support research on areas focused around areas such as club cultures, music event cultures, and electronic dance music cultures, as an extension of its research in this field.
The department is publisher of Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture, and Dr Graham St. John, a staff member at the University, founded the journal, as well as Dancecult Research Network. A number of other staff also have research expertise in this field.
The successful candidate can expect: • Full waiver of tuition fees. • Automatic consideration, for appropriate research projects, for the Creative Music Production Scholarship and/or the Nitin Sawhney Scholarship in Popular Music (both of which provide an annual stipend of £17,668 in addition to a fee-waiver).• Full-time PhD study for three years beginning in September 2023. • Supervision from internationally renowned staff, including, if appropriate to the subject of the research project, some tutorial support from Richie Hawtin. • Opportunities for creative production work, collaborative projects, publication, and the expectation to gain teaching experience. • Access to the Teaching Assistant Preparation Programme (TAPP), which can lead to the qualifi-cation of Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). • Access to additional financial support through the Postgraduate Support Fund of the School of Arts and Humanities. • If not successful, consideration for a partial fee-waiver or full-fee study.
The successful candidate is normally required to be resident in/near Huddersfield during the period of registration.
With over 100 students representing numerous fields of study and more than 20 nationalities, our postgraduate community is a vital, diverse and vibrant part of the department. The University features one of the UK’s leading electronic music studios, including a 24-track SSL-based recording studio, the SRIF-funded SPIRAL 25.4-channel digital spatialisation lab, one 8-channel studio, four 5.1 studios with video editing facilities, three stereo studios, an interactive sound lab and the 50-channel Huddersfield Immersive Sound System. All studios are equipped with top-of-the-line hardware, software and plug-ins, and we offer an impressive collection of industry-leading microphones and recording equipment, including a 26-track lo-cation recording setup with class-A preamps. The University of Huddersfield is ranked 25th in the world for Performing Arts in the QS World University Subject Rankings, and in the Times World University Rankings Arts and Humanities at the University of Huddersfield is ranked in the top 300. Huddersfield was ranked 5th for Music in the recent 2021 Research Excellence Framework results ranking UK Higher Education Research, one of only four departments to achieve a 4* ranking for its research environment. Additional information: https://research.hud.ac.uk/music/
To apply: https://www.hud.ac.uk/postgraduate/how-to-apply/
Closing date: 10 February 2023.
Applications should be accompanied by a proposal outlining the project, samples of written work, examples of creative production work or other products relevant to the scope of the scholarship. Please indicate clearly on the online application form that you are applying for the Richie Hawtin Scholarship.
Enquiries:
Prof. Rupert Till (Professor of Music); r.till@hud.ac.uk
Dr Steven Jan (Music and Music Technology Research Coordinator); s.b.jan@hud.ac.uk