Photography and Uncertain Landscapes: anxiety and the politics of climate change, environmental transformation and uncertain futures in a just transition

Summary

The proposed research will explore the relationship between photography, landscape, and the politics of the future, with particular attention to how practice might respond to places shaped by uncertainty and anxiety as they face threat, change, and contested futures. It should consider how photography can move beyond straightforward documentational representation to become a means of contemplating, evoking and critically understanding uncertain realities.

At the centre of this topic is also a question about photography's particular relationship to the real. Photography is typically understood primarily as a type of representation attached to documentation, evidence, witness or trace. While these dimensions remain important, the proposed research should consider what else a photograph can do.

Landscape should likewise be approached in an expanded and critical sense: as historical, cultural, political and social space, but also as an emotional and temporal space. Landscape may be understood as something changing, threatened, contested, technologically transformed, imagined or yet to come.

Anxiety is understood here not primarily as a psychological condition, but as a broader emotional structure through which the idea of the future is experienced.

Possible contexts and approaches:

The research may engage with questions of climate change, energy production, green transition, technological transformation, industrial change, conflict, territorial contestation, or a changing relationship between human agency and landscape.

It may be situated in the present, or draw upon historical contexts, or bring past and present – and by extension future – into relation. It might address landscapes that are or have been threatened, contested, transformed or disappearing, but also landscapes that exist primarily as projections, simulations or possibilities.

The research may employ photography alongside text, installation, performance or other expanded photographic forms. It may also engage with virtual or immersive environments as ways of constructing, imagining or simulating possible futures.

Essential criteria

Applicants should hold, or expect to obtain, a First or Upper Second Class Honours Degree in a subject relevant to the proposed area of study.

We may also consider applications from those who hold equivalent qualifications, for example, a Lower Second Class Honours Degree plus a Master’s Degree with Distinction.

In exceptional circumstances, the University may consider a portfolio of evidence from applicants who have appropriate professional experience which is equivalent to the learning outcomes of an Honours degree in lieu of academic qualifications.

• A comprehensive and articulate personal statement demonstrating interest in the subject area
• Research proposal of no more than 2000 words detailing aims, objectives, milestones and methodology of the project

Desirable Criteria

If the University receives a large number of applicants for the project, the following desirable criteria may be applied to shortlist applicants for interview.

• International applicants should hold, or expect to hold a relevant Masters Degree at a level equivalent to a distinction at Ulster
• Applicants should hold, or expect to hold a relevant Masters Degree at a level equivalent to commendation or distinction at Ulster
• Practice-based research experience and/or dissemination
• Experience or knowledge of research methods or other approaches relevant to the subject domain
• Work experience relevant to the proposed project

Equal Opportunities

The University is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applicants from all sections of the community, particularly from those with disabilities.

Appointment will be made on merit.

Funding and eligibility

This project is funded by:

• Department for the Economy (DfE)
• Vice Chancellor's Research Scholarship (VCRS)

PhD scholarships are available for this project to all applicants worldwide, regardless of residency or domicile, and will cover:

• Tuition fees.
• A maintenance allowance of approximately £22,000 (exact rate is to be confirmed) per annum for three years, subject to satisfactory academic performance.
• A Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) of approximately £900 per annum.

Applicants who already hold a doctoral degree or who have been registered on a programme of research leading to the award of a doctoral degree on a full-time basis for more than one year, or part-time equivalent, funded from any source, including self-financing students, are NOT eligible to apply for an award.

Students in full-time employment are not eligible for an award.

Part-time PhD scholarships may be available at a 0.5 pro rata rate of the full-time scholarship, which would require a six-year registration period.

Due consideration should be given to financing your studies.

The University will award a successful candidate one of the following scholarships for the project, depending on the funding available at the time an admissions offer is made:

1. Department for the Economy (DfE) PhD Scholarships
2. Vice Chancellor’s Research Scholarships (VCRS)

Please note that the Terms and Conditions for scholarships are subject to change for 2027/28.