Outlines of current and archived Slade MPhil and PhD research are in the MPhil/PhD pages of our Research section.

Supervision

Doctoral research is independent and driven primarily through the work you do with your supervisors. Throughout the development of your project, you will meet regularly with your supervisors, either in group supervisions or with individual members of your supervisory team. You will be expected to complete and submit work ahead of time for consideration during each supervisory session, and to complete and submit a Supervision Report after each supervisory session. Progress throughout your research journey will be recorded on your UCL Research Log and discussed in yearly Annual Review Panels organised as part of the Slade Doctoral Programme.

Slade Doctoral Programme

As members of the Slade doctoral research community, you will participate in the Slade Doctoral Programme. This means attending and participating in the Slade Art Research Forums and, for those in Year 1 (FT) and Years 1-2 (PT), taking part in the Skills Workshops for Practice Research.

Term 1
4 x Art Research Forums (3 hours each)
2 x Skills Workshops for Practice Research (3 hours each)

Term 2
4 x Art Research Forums (3 hours each)
2 x Skills Workshops for Practice Research (3 hours each)

Term 3
2 x Art Research Forums (3 hours each)
Annual Review Panels (1 hour each)

You will be expected to present and exhibit your research in the Slade Art Research Forum three times in total throughout your active registration as a doctoral researcher. This means you will present and exhibit your research 3 x times across three years for full-time and 3 x times across five years for part-time research. One of these presentations will be your formal Upgrade presentation and exhibition, which normally takes place in Year 2 (FT) or Year 3 (PT) of your research.

As well as the Art Research Forum, Skills Workshops for Practice Research (Year 1 FT; Years 1-2 PT) and the Annual Review Panels, you will be encouraged to attend and initiate research activities in the Slade; attend the weekly all-School Contemporary Art Lectures and Staff Talks, and to engage in Slade cross-School events; seek out research events across UCL and LAHP that are relevant to your specific research; be active participants in exhibitions, performances, events, conferences, and publishing both within and beyond UCL.

Skills Training

The Slade will offer some subject-specific training for practice research; however, the majority of your research training will come through UCL’s Doctoral School.

The UCL Doctoral School Skills Development Programme offers a range of courses that address the following: research skills and techniques, management of the student’s research, personal effectiveness, communication skills, networking and team working and career management. This is the first port of call for any training needs and all training needed to complete your MPhil/PhD research can be found in this suite of training courses: UCL Doctoral School Skills Development Programme.

Slade Art Research Centre

There is dedicated space for doctoral researchers in the Slade Art Research Centre, which is in the Slade’s Woburn Square Studios – around a 7 minute walk from the main Slade building.

The Slade Art Research Centre space itself is currently divided into:

• Exhibition Space
• Discussion Space / Hot Desk Area
• Meeting Room / Communal Space
• Art Research Studio

This is an open-plan, shared space for making, exhibiting, and discussing art research. The Exhibition Space is used for the Art Research Forums where everyone is expected to exhibit their art as research/research as art. The Discussion Space can be used for the Art Research Forums or for any research-related discussions and activities. When not in use as a Discussion Space, this space functions as a Hot Desk Area. The Meeting Room can be booked out for supervisions or for meetings with colleagues and peers. When not used for this purpose, this room functions as a Communal Space. All the furniture can be moved and stored so that the entire space can be transformed into a public space for hosting symposia, conferences, workshops, etc.

All Slade doctoral researchers can make use of the spaces in the Slade Art Research Centre; however, only those enrolled full-time on the practice-led pathway have allocated space within the shared Art Research Studio. As this is not individualised studio space, the size of this allocated space is variable each year depending on how many people are enrolled as full-time, practice-led researchers and actively using the space.

Postgraduate Research Space in Slade Main Building

There is also dedicated office space for postgraduate researchers in the Slade Main Building that can be used by Slades’ Postgraduate Teaching Assistants as well as by researchers needing a quiet space to write or to have meetings with supervisors, colleagues and peers.

Slade Workshops and Facilities

As well as this the Slade Art Research Centre in Woburn Square Studios and the dedicated research space in the Slade Main Building, all Slade researchers (full-time and part-time; on any pathway) can access any of the Slade’s workshops and facilities in the Slade Main Building and book out equipment for research purposes.

Slade Research Environment

The Slade School of Fine Art’s practice-led research culture facilitates an ongoing commitment to individual excellence in art research while also supporting research with other artists, curators and researchers, which increasingly addresses pressing societal and cultural challenges.

• Our research aligns to five main areas of expertise:  
  Materials and Materiality comprises research into materials, in particular pigments and paints supported by the Materials Research Network.
• Histories and Cultures draws together researchers exploring the impact of historical perspectives on contemporary art practice and research.
• Media and Performance research explores analogue and digital Fine Art Media technologies, including moving image, sound, internet and installation researchers.
• Environments and Publics is concerned with research into place and publics, urbanism, sustainability, well-being and ‘the commons’.
• Dark Studies includes the Dark Universe Studies Centre (DUSC) where fugitive thinking and alternative forms of sociality draw on the black radical tradition and experimental practice. Research in this area evokes the dislocated subject of language and representation, channelled through performance, political writings, fictional provocations and processes of documentation.

See Research at Slade.

The Slade MPhil/PhD places great emphasis on interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary connections, and Slade researchers network regularly with doctoral researchers across UCL and the London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP). You will also be encouraged to join research centres and networks relevant to your specific topic within and external to UCL, and to organise research events using funding through UCL Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) and the Global Challenge Scheme.

Wider Research Environment

Doctoral researchers benefit from the Slade's situatedness in UCL as well as its central London location and proximity to other external research institutions, galleries and museums. All Slade doctoral researchers are encouraged to attend research activities in the Slade, UCL and externally, including.

Contemporary Art Lectures: Artists, art historians, critics, curators and writers visit the Slade to speak in the Contemporary Art Lectures, which are usually on a Wednesday evening. A comprehensive list of lectures available online can be found on the Contemporary Art Lectures page. 

Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS): The Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) harnesses UCL’s extensive expertise across the humanities and social sciences to investigate received wisdom and to address the most urgent ethical and intellectual challenges of today. It is a research-based community, comprising colleagues and doctoral students from across UCL, as well as visiting fellows and research collaborators from the UK and around the world. Based in the Wilkins Building, the IAS runs a vast and varied range of conferences, talks and seminars throughout the year. Visit the Institute’s website to discover more about upcoming events.

UCL Art History Lectures: The Art History Department scheduled events across the academic year. See: UCL Art History Lectures - Full Programme of Events.

Sarah Parker Remond Centre: For the study of racism and racialisation organises a regular PhD reading group.

Other UCL Faculties: You can find additional details about events going on across the faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social and Historical Sciences by referring to the events feed on each of the faculties’ websites:

Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences

London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP): LAHP was created in 2014 as an Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded Doctoral Training Partnership between King’s College London, School of Advanced Study (University of London), and University College London. Queen Mary University of London and the London School of Economics & Political Science joined the partnership as associate members in 2015 and 2016 respectively. LAHP runs a number of training events and research events that are both student-led and staff led. Please see details on the LAHP website under 'Training and Cohort Development'.

The Slade offers doctoral researchers the opportunity to work as postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTA) on the BA Fine Art, BFA Fine Art and the interdisciplinary BASc programme in UCL Arts & Sciences. These Teaching Assistantships are supported by training and mentoring at the Slade and UCL Arena. They are available to apply to on a competitive basis.