Challenging Precarity
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The board and members of this network are dedicated to exploring the concept of precarity in various fields and using their academic work to bring about meaningful change. They understand that precarity is a pressing issue affecting individuals worldwide, and they are committed to thinking critically about its implications.
Through their research, analysis, and collaborative efforts, they aim to shed light on the different aspects of precarity and its impact on various communities. By sharing their findings and engaging in dialogue with others, they hope to raise awareness, provoke discussions, and ultimately inspire action. Whether it is through innovative research projects, thought-provoking publications, or impactful presentations, their collective efforts strive to contribute to a more inclusive and equitable world.
Two Interesting Research Opportunities for Upcoming Doctoral Dtudents at NTU
‘Dirty movies’: Towards an interdisciplinary understanding of cinema, soil, and sustainability
This project responds to a crisis with an image problem. A quotidian reminder of decomposition and defecation, soil struggles for ambassadors. These reminders also suggest that this is simultaneously a crisis that is perhaps too hard to confront, for the outcome of soil collapse would inevitably also be the collapse of civilization. All life on Earth is bound to earth. Bringing together film studies and soil science, this project aims to cultivate better press for the earth beneath our feet by developing novel methodological approaches that meaningfully integrate science communication into a humanities-led project.
By integrating film studies alongside soil studies, this project aims to tackle the indifference and invisibility that contribute to soil’s image problems by encouraging audiences to look at it anew via cinema. This project will interrogate what is happening to 'British soil'–a phrase freighted with jingoism, and which variously functions as nationalistic or protectionist. Here it will be resignified to highlight that it is British soil in the most literal sense that is under threat. In England, for instance, the amount of undeveloped land used for building has more than tripled since the turn of this century, sealing off the soil. When it comes to the security of British soil, we should not be looking to the skies or the sea, but to our own front lawns, which are being paved over at an alarming rate (28% in 2001; 48% in 2011). These concerns intersect with a wave of British rural films being intensively produced, with nearly 70 released since 2010. This activity indicates a fertile imaginary and the opportunity to extend existing, significant work on British rural landscapes on film (Newland 2016), alongside breaking new ground; specifically, by using ‘British soil’ as a lens to address questions of visibility, labour and stewardship. Countering the abovementioned cross-sector and disciplinary tendencies, this project will aim to narrativise what is happening in and to twenty-first century British soil on- and off-screen. There is also scope for the successful candidate to embark on a comparative study that compares British soil with films taken from another national context.
Entry qualifications
Please see our applications page for guidance and eligibility criteria.
How to apply
Please see our applications page for guidance and eligibility criteria.
The closing date for applications is Friday 14 February 2025.
The NTU Doctoral School continues to build an inclusive culture that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our researchers. We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring and we encourage people from underrepresented communities and backgrounds to apply for a studentship.
Fees and funding
This is a fully funded PhD studentship opportunity, open for both UK and International applicants.
Guidance and support
Find out more about Nottingham Trent University's fully funded PhD studentships.
Find out about guidance and support for PhD students.
The Role of Literature and Creative Practice in Acclimating Urban Dwellers to Nearby Nature
This project investigates the role of literature and creative practice in increasing people’s connection to nature near urban development. The areas that conservationists call ‘nearby nature’ are known by writers as ‘edgelands’, and by the public as ‘wasteland’. People often view animals within city limits as pests. One third of households in England lack access to green or blue spaces within a fifteen-minute walk; of the ten local authorities in England by percentage of households without close access to nature, six are in the East Midlands (Wildlife and Countryside Link, 2023). Researchers attest to environmental generational amnesia, in which every generation accepts the state of the environment and forgets past degradation (Xing et al. 2017; 2024). This project will explore how enhanced attentiveness to creative practices related to nature will create cognitive and emotional bases for protecting nearby nature.
The candidate will investigate whether nature writing cultivates people’s responsibility to nature within city limits; how nature-based solutions can aid in urban regeneration; and how reinterpreting what counts as nature writing might diversify people who care about nature. Key deliverables include an interdisciplinary analysis of the concept of ‘nearby nature’ across urban planning, architecture, and literary studies; workshops with external beneficiaries to examine how these groups might engage the public effectively around the human-nature connection; and proposals for how to foster a more inclusive language of nearby nature, drawing on case studies of the management and interpretation of East Midlands sites like Nottingham’s Green Heart, Hogshaw (Buxton’s former tip), or canals through cities and towns.
This will be a cultural practice and policy PhD. The successful candidate will conduct a literature review of scholarship on the concept of nearby nature in planning, architecture, literary studies, and the environmental humanities. They will investigate local literary magazines past and present for examples of nature writing about nature near urban developments in the East Midlands. They will liaise with environmental advocacy organisations to determine how they can use literature to engage more effectively with the public and develop a more inclusive language of nearby nature. They will conduct interviews and hold workshops assessing and developing people’s perceptions of the value of nonhuman nature near people’s residence.
Upon completion, the candidate will be equipped with different disciplinary traditions. By fostering an inclusive language of nature, the candidate will align with UKRI funding policies such as the recent AHRC call for Locally Unlocking Culture through Inclusive Access.
Entry qualifications
Please see our applications page for guidance and eligibility criteria.
How to apply
Please see our applications page for guidance and eligibility criteria.
The closing date for applications is Friday 14 February 2025.
The NTU Doctoral School continues to build an inclusive culture that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our researchers. We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring and we encourage people from underrepresented communities and backgrounds to apply for a studentship.
Fees and funding
This is a fully funded PhD studentship opportunity, open for both UK and International applicants.
Guidance and support
Find out more about Nottingham Trent University's fully funded PhD studentships.
Find out about guidance and support for PhD students.
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