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RWCMD launches PhD programme focused on innovative cultural and social impact
The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is launching a new PhD programme, offering postgraduate researchers the opportunity to develop interdisciplinary, practice-based doctoral work with significant cultural and social impact.
Connecting research with creative industries and communities
As the National Conservatoire of Wales, RWCMD combines world-leading, practice-based expertise in the arts with a strong network of industry and community partnerships. PhD students will benefit from working within this multi-disciplinary and outward-facing environment, enabling them to extend their work beyond the College campus and engage directly with the professional sector.
Through the College’s established industry partnerships with organisations including BBC Wales, Welsh National Opera, Bad Wolf, Sherman Theatre, Theatr Clwyd and Tŷ Cerdd, as well as community organisations such as Forget-Me-Not Chorus, National Youth Arts Wales, and Race Council Cymru, doctoral students can engage directly with the professional sector, integrating research, creative practice and real-world impact.
A dynamic hub for outward-facing doctoral research
RWCMD’s newest campus, the historic Old Library in the heart of Cardiff, will act as a dynamic hub for doctoral work that engages directly with local communities. Already home to many of the College’s community projects, the Old Library provides a unique space for RWCMD partnerships and residencies.
Together with the College’s new Open RWCMD strategy, this will support researchers to explore how the arts shape communities across different geographies, economies and cultural contexts, focusing doctoral research as an active force in cultural life.
'At RWCMD, our ambition is to create an integrated research and enterprise environment nurturing and empowering new work and innovation for the arts.
Our PhD programme champions new artistic work and professional practice across our disciplines, supported by integrated technologies and our focus on collaboration and sharing of knowledge.
Through enterprising student-led and graduate work embedded across our degree programmes, we see innovation as a driver of excellence but also a powerful way of connecting with new audiences and communities.’Professor Helena GauntPrincipal RWCMD
Unique research resources
Doctoral students will have access to a variety of rare archival collections cared for by RWCMD, including the Foyle Opera Rara Collection (an extensive collection of early scores, original manuscripts, costume designs, memorabilia, and artworks from the nineteenth century), the Drama Association of Wales collection (the largest lending collection of English-language scripts in the UK), specialist collections of composers' works (including Mervyn Burtch, Alun Hoddinott, Graham Whetham, Mansel Thomas, and David Harries), and rare Shakespeare editions from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. It also includes access to digital and physical folios and process work of Paul Brown and Pamela Howard, two of the UK’s most renowned designers.
For more information about studying for a PhD at RWCMD, contact: Dr Ella Hawkins (ella.hawkins@rwcmd.ac.uk) and Dr James Lea (james.lea@rwcmd.ac.uk)
