News

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowships 2026 – expressions of interest invited for fellowships hosted in the Faculty of Arts

The Faculty of Arts at the University of Warwick encourages outstanding postdoctoral scholars to apply to the Leverhulme Trust’s Early Career Fellowships scheme, for Fellowships starting in the 2026/27 academic year. The scheme offers three-year Fellowships for early career researchers within four years of submission of their PhD, and Fellows are expected to complete a significant piece of original, publishable research during their tenure.

The Faculty is running an internal selection process to identify a small number of truly excellent candidates to put forward to the Leverhulme Trust.

Prospective applicants must submit an Expression of Interest containing the following information to the Faculty of Arts Research Strategy, Funding and Contracts team (artsprojsupport@warwick.ac.uk) by 5pm on Friday 21 November 2025:

· A short description of their proposed project (maximum 2 A4 pages).

· A copy of their CV (maximum 2 A4 pages).

· The names of three referees. Please note that referees will not be asked to provide a statement at this stage.

· Applicants may indicate interest in being hosted by a particular Department, School or Centre in the Faculty, or interest in working with a particular academic mentor, as part of their EOI. However, they should note that in the first instance the selection process will be led at Faculty level in order to identify the strongest candidates.

Candidates should consult the Guidance for Applicants on the Leverhulme Trust’s website prior to submitting an Expression of Interest.

The University will support successful candidates in the development of full applications, the deadline for which is 19 February 2026. For any queries about the scheme or internal process, please contact Alan Ashton-Smith (Alan.Ashton-Smith@warwick.ac.uk).

Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick are delighted to be partnering with the Pod on a new collaborative research project: ‘Using Film to Affect Change: Mental Health, Social Advocacy and the Moving Image’.

New study of a Roman ash chest at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent.

The University of Warwick, in collaboration with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, invites applications for a fully funded 3.5-year PhD studentship to explore co-creation in civic theatre. The project investigates how co-creation, as an emergent method and process, seeks to build reciprocal partnerships between arts workers and local communities for the purpose of promoting social justice and challenging notions of who has knowledge, expertise, and the right to be seen and heard in cultural organisations.

The Belgrade has placed co-creation at the heart of its role as a civic theatre, with an ambitious aim to "make the local community part of every show at the Belgrade." Spotlighting four productions—Big Aunty (2023), I, Daniel Blake (2023), Romeo and Juliet (2025), and Nanny of the Maroons (2027)—the project will discover how this commitment to co-creation shapes the values that drive the theatre's culture. It will particularly address Nanny of the Maroons, a retelling of Jamaican revolutionary leader Queen Nanny's history involving over 1,000 community participants drawn from the West Midlands Black Creative Network, Coventry Caribbean Centre, and other local groups. Employing mixed methodologies such as participant observation, interviews, and surveys, the project will ask: What does co-creation mean for artists, participants, audiences, and locals? How can co-creation offer alternatives to models in which creative professionals exclude or exploit the local communities in which civic theatres are embedded? What challenges and learnings arise from co-creation, and how might the Belgrade's experience inform wider arts policy and practice?

The student will be supervised by Dr Matthew Franks (English and Comparative Literary Studies) and Professor Nadine Holdsworth (Theatre and Performance Studies), and benefit from integrated support within Warwick's arts and humanities research environment and the Belgrade's professional networks, including Creative Director Corey Campbell and other staff members. The student will be able to determine whether to receive their doctorate from the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies or the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.

People without History Are Dust: Queer Desire in the Holocaust is the new book by Dr Anna Hájková, Reader of modern European continental history, translated by William Ross Jones and published by University of Toronto Press. It is the first book to explore queer Holocaust history, that is, same sex desire and gender variance in the Shoah.

Queerness remains one of the most stigmatized and overlooked aspects of Holocaust history, often erased due to the lingering homophobia of survivors. People Without History Are Dust challenges this silence, weaving together compelling stories of German, Dutch, Czech, and Polish Jewish Holocaust victims and survivors – including Anne Frank, Molly Applebaum, Margot Heuman, and Gad Beck – whose experiences help illuminate the hidden history of queerness in a time of genocide.

Drawing on extensive archival research, this ground breaking book uncovers the lives of those who were doubly marginalized, not only persecuted as Jews but also as queer individuals. In doing so, it confronts the ways in which history has excluded or minimized their experiences, urging us to question normative accounts of the Holocaust.

By shedding light on these long-overlooked stories, People Without History Are Dust deepens our understanding of identity, survival, and memory, reminding us why an inclusive and complex approach to history is essential – not just for the sake of the past, but in service to the present and the future as well.

For more information and to pre-order the book from the UK in paperback or hardcover visit the MNG website. 

Autumn School for Postgraduate Students and Early Career Researchers

Venice, 30 September – 4 October 2024

Dr Bryony White, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Warwick, is set to participate in a conversation on her new book, "Dirty Queers" at the Barbican Centre with journalist Amelia Abraham on November 30.

The evening event, scheduled for 4:30 pm, will seek to explore the differing uses and evolution of the term "queer," as well as its relationship to dirt and dirtiness.

More details on this event, alongside the ability to purchase tickets, can be found here

Are you looking for funding for a PhD in Modern Languages (incl. Translation Studies)? The University of Warwick’s annual Postgraduate Research Scholarships competition (2026 entry) opens on Monday 15 October and closes on 11 December 2025. Course applications must be made by 8 December 2025. Warwick’s School of Modern Languages & Cultures invites PhD applications from students with an outstanding academic record, who are very well-equipped to undertake doctoral study and whose research proposal promises to make a significant contribution to the field.

Get in touch with us to discuss your proposal

In this blog series, we sit down with some of our GSD Masters alumni to discuss their experiences of the course and some of the ways studying GSD has helped benefit their career. Ubayd graduated from our MASc course in 2025 and is currently on the Operational and Environmental Leadership Graduate Scheme at Severn Trent. We spoke to him to find out more about his journey from GSD to employment and how his postgraduate studies help build his new career.

Please click here to read Ubayd's story

Dr Uribe Botta is an environmental historian whose work is deeply interdisciplinary, bridging history, cultural studies, and the material world. He specialises in the role of plants — particularly orchids — as actors in global and colonial history.

To click here to read more.

The University of Warwick and the University of Leeds have together secured one of only 10 prestigious Doctoral Focal Awards from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The Award will fund 20 PhD scholarships focused on the creative economy, with a specific emphasis on sustainability and diversity in the screen industries.

Led at Warwick by Dr David Wright, Director of Graduate Studies in the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies with Dr Sanjay Sharma (Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies) and overall by Professor Joanne Garde-Hansen, Head of the School of Media and Communication with Professor Anamik Saha (Professor of Race and Media) at Leeds, the Creative Bridges partnership will run from 2026 until 2033. It will train a new generation of interdisciplinary researcher-practitioners to work alongside – and within – the film, television, games and immersive media sectors.

The Centre for the Study of the Renaissance here at the University of Warwick, is absolutely thrilled to celebrate Dr. Eva Van Kemenade, who successfully defended her viva a couple of weeks ago! Eva’s commitment, perseverance and passion have led her to this incredible milestone, and we’re so proud to now call her Dr. Van Kemenade. Congratulations, Eva — what an achievement!

During a year of research leave, Prof. Beat Kümin has investigated the phenomenon of depositing chronicles and objects into tower spheres on top of prominent buildings like churches, town halls and fortifications. Documented from the Middle Ages to the present, seemingly only in and around territories of the erstwhile Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, the custom provides fascinating insights into how local societies saw themselves and what they wished to pass on to successive generations. The project, supported by the German Gerda Henkel Foundation, has so far identified over 1600 sites and thousands of separate deposits (at one Zurich church, there were no fewer than 20 between 1505 and 1996). The funder has just released a video series of six episodes (accessible in both English and German) documenting field work in Switzerland in autumn 2003.

[English Trailer] [Episodes] [Project Homepage]

Diversity in STEM is a set of GCSE Biology, Chemistry, and Physics resources that are designed to fit into existing lessons.

All the resources are curriculum-aligned and provide a simple, effective, and engaging way to highlight diversity in the STEM classroom.

There is an interactive website—Diversity in STEM: The Challenge—to get started: Diversity in STEM: The Challenge Interactive Website

As well as downloadable slides and lesson plans from both the website and the TES teachers’ resource portal: Diversity in STEM Slides and Lesson Plans

All resources are free to download, use and adapt. 

 They were developed by Dr James Poskett at the University of Warwick with funding from the History Department and the British Academy.