STIP: PhD Scholarship: Global Impressionisms, Aberystwyth University (deadline: 8 Apr 2021)

Applications are invited for a funded Margaret Wooloff PhD Scholarship as part of the ‘Global Impressionisms’ project at Aberystwyth University.

Deadline for first-stage application: 8 Apr 2021
www.aber.ac.uk/en/postgrad/fees-finance/uk/research/margaret-wooloff-phd/

Project description:
Nineteenth-century art history is finally becoming as global as the 19th century itself. Impressionism – the quintessential art of 19th-century modernity – is being rethought from a global perspective and reinterpreted as a global phenomenon. Recent scholarship has established the globality of Impressionism through case-studies of its transnational mobilities and multiplicities: of artists, critics, and collectors; artworks, texts, and meanings. The ‘Global Impressionisms’ project will develop an original contribution to this emergent field by reaching beyond the Anglosphere; cultivating interdisciplinary links with postcolonial, African, and Latin American studies; and/or leveraging the analytical possibilities of quantitative analysis.

The project aims to
• Deepen our understanding of Impressionism as a global phenomenon. 
• Contribute to critical debates about ‘global art history’ and the ‘postcolonial turn’. 
• Change public perceptions about this much-loved style. Research questions may include: 
• How did the transnational circulation of Impressionist artists, artworks, and ideas in the 19th and 20th centuries shape artistic practices and meanings? How did concrete determinants (such as colonialism, the art market, mass media and publishing, collecting) shape this global traffic? What can quantitative analysis, econometrics, and network analysis reveal of Impressionism’s global circulation? 
• How were the tenets of Impressionism adopted, adapted, translated, resisted, and rejected by artists, critics, dealers, collectors, and art historians in global peripheries? To what extent did the global polysemy of Impressionism’s meanings reflect global power structures and colonial imaginaries? 
• Why is the global nature of Impressionism only now becoming visible again? How should we frame and display global Impressionism for public audiences today?

Application process:
Candidates are invited to develop a research proposal in response to the ‘Global Impressionisms’ project description. Research proposals should detail your research focus, proposed methodology and sources, relevant literature and background, originality and significance to scholarship, and potential impact beyond academia. In the first instance, proposals (maximum 2,000 words) should be sent with a CV (maximum 2 pages) to Dr Samuel Raybone (samuel.raybone@aber.ac.uk) by 8 April 2021. 

Funding & Eligibility:
The scholarship is open to applicants who qualify for Home (UK) fees status. Three full-time PhD scholarships are available, to be allocated one per Faculty on a competitive basis. Successful applicants will receive a grant for up to three years which will cover their tuition fees up to the UK rate of £4,407 per annum (2020/2021 rate), a maintenance allowance of approximately £15,285 per annum*, and access to a travel and conference fund (max. £500 per annum*). Scholarships commence in September 2021. (*2021/2022 figures subject to confirmation.) Please visit the Margaret Wooloff PhD Scholarship website for more information: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/postgrad/fees-finance/uk/research/margaret-wooloff-phd/

School of Art at Aberystwyth University:
The successful applicant will be part of the School of Art at Aberystwyth University. Housed in a Grade II*-listed Edwardian building, the School of Art is a place in which students and staff have worked together since 1917 to create, debate, and display art. The School also encompasses the School of Art Museum & Gallery, a permanent collection of European prints from the Renaissance to the present day, as well as drawings, paintings, photographs, and ceramics that is unique in Wales and of international importance. The successful applicant will also contribute to the Centre for the Movement of People (CMOP), a research centre within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences which encourages research, dissemination and engagement on different forms of human mobility, from fleeing persecution to travelling for leisure, using a wide range of methodological and disciplinary approaches. Aberystwyth boasts the RIBA award-winning Arts Centre, one of the largest in the UK and a major venue for touring exhibitions showcasing the work of contemporary artists. The National Library of Wales, a legal deposit library and art gallery located adjacent to the university campus, provides unrivalled resources for research in the visual arts and is custodian of internationally renowned art collections.

Further details of the application process can be found on the Margaret Wooloff PhD Scholarship website: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/postgrad/fees-finance/uk/research/margaret-wooloff-phd/