University of the Arts London and London Contemporary Dance School at The Place launch a new collaborative PhD Programme

Combining the efforts of two world-leading specialist institutions, University of the Arts London (UAL) and London Contemporary Dance School (LCDS) at The Place announce an exciting new dimension to our collaborative partnership focused on Postgraduate Research.

Building on our successful strategic partnership, this programme focuses on specialist Postgraduate Research (PhD) degrees, with the ambition to establish a cross-institutional and cross-college supervisor network, providing student-researchers with a distinctive sense of community whilst promoting dance, choreography, performance and movement research. 

Offering a progression route for MA graduates and artists active or with an interest in research, the collaboration aims at building a cohort of postgraduate research students in dance and related embodied practices within a cross-arts and interdisciplinary framework. Research projects will benefit from the interdisciplinary arts research of UAL and the professional environment, advanced training and artistic research culture of LCDS and The Place. 

The programme is of strategic importance to both organisations, as we seek to enrich and enhance our respective research cultures, with a shared focus on practice and experimentation, producing, art and social purpose. The PhD projects undertaken as part of this collaboration speak directly to both organisations’ strategic aims and strengthen opportunities for partnerships with other research institutions and arts organisations, including in areas of priority, such as health and wellbeing; science and technology, AI and digital innovation; social justice, equity and inclusion; sustainability and environmental studies. 

Professor Vida L Midgelow, Dean of UAL’s Doctoral School says of this initiative:

“We are excited to be extending our existing relationship with LCDS into the area of doctoral research. This relationship reflects the UAL Doctoral School’s ambition to provide innovative research degree environments and support PhD projects that make a difference in the world. The collaboration brings new opportunities for dance-based researchers, increasing the visibility and significance of their work at a time when dance in higher education is at risk. We are very much looking forward to welcoming our first co-supervised students!”

Dr Efrosini Protopapa, Director of Postgraduate Courses and Research at The Place, notes:  

“Our Board of Governors has recently approved The Place’s first Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Strategy 2024-29. In the next few years, we will be developing RKE activity that brings together our academic and industry know-how, expanding on, and maximising the impact of, our expertise in practice research, in areas such as dance pedagogy, making, producing, presentation and touring. Postgraduate Research is at the centre of this ambition, and I am delighted to be working with UAL’s Doctoral School to pursue this. We look forward to supporting PhD projects that seek to navigate some of the challenges of contemporary life through practice, in imaginative, outwards facing, ground breaking ways.”