Welcome to the Arts and Creativities community
Arts and Creativities Research Group has a distinctive doctoral community of scholars, researching professionals (EdDs) drawing from a wide range of professions, and artist-researcher-educators who participate in, and contribute to the development of transformative doctoral research practices.
Our community contributes to:
- the Arts and Creativities Seminar Series which also feature regional, national and international guest speakers
- our internationally affiliated BIBACC conference
- our nationally affiliated BERA SIG ‘Creativities and education’ day conferences
- our related network Creativities Intercultural Arts Network (CIAN)
We also explore a wealth of distinct practices and unique journeying in collaborative workshops, performative research installations, project development and collaborative authoring – which are listed on our Publications page.
Doctoral opportunities
For Doctoral opportunities please contact:
Cathy Burke is an historian of education. Her research focuses on 20th and 21s tcentury progressive education with a particular interest in material contexts. She collaborates with architects designing schools today who are interested in drawing useful knowledge from past efforts to design schools to fit the child. She is currently working on transatlantic transferences of knowledge about the design of education during the ‘open learning’ era of the 1960s and 70s. Profile with regard to Doctoral Students
Pam Burnard is Professor of Arts, Creativities and Educations at the Faculty of Education. She co-convenes the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Special Interest Group, Creativities in Education , and co-edits the international journal Thinking Skills and Creativity. She has published widely with 12 books and over 100 articles which advance and expand the conceptualization and plural expression of diverse creativities across sectors and settings. Her research interests include young children’s creativity in early childhood settings bringing intercultural perspectives to bear on arts practices along with the creative methodological and interconnected possibilities of practice-as-research. Profile with regard to Doctoral Students.
Tyler Denmead is accepting applications from doctoral students that critically examine the discourses of youth and creativity, urban arts education, community-based arts education, as well as the pedagogic affordances of contemporary art, arts-based research, social practice art, and the Black Arts movement. Profile with regard to Doctoral Students.
Bill Nicholl taught in two inner London Comprehensive Schools between 1991-2000 (six years as head of department). He became a lecturer at The Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge in 2000, where he helped establish the Design and Technology PGCE course. His research interests are centred around socio-cultural approaches to creativity and in particular the role of the teacher and design pedagogy. To this end he has been involved in several research projects, both within the UK and beyond – see Research-Project-Details.pdf. His work has informed policy and practice within the UK where he has trained hundreds of teachers via CPD courses across many local education authorities.
Morag Morrison-Helme has taught Drama and Applied Theatre across a range of settings in Australia, the United Kingdom and Sweden; and she has been involved in on-going research in Conflict Management, Pupil Voice and Democratic Teaching and Learning through the Arts and Embodied Learning. Most recently Morag has been developing an understanding of the role Applied Theatre pedagogy can play across diverse educational contexts and international settings. Profile with regard to Doctoral Students.
The Faculty of Education provides access to visual arts and dance studios, as well as a black box theatre, and performance auditorium, for those who are interested in incorporating their artistic practices into their educational research.