Museums, Galleries and Heritage Studies Research at the University of Westminster is wide-ranging, with a strong emphasis on the combination of theory and professional GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) practice.
Our rigorous, ambitious, and outward-looking doctoral training programme is embedded within local, national and international heritage and cultural organisations, while also engaging with informal, community-led and individual forms of creative and heritage practice beyond traditional institutional settings. By fostering dialogue across these communities, we engage with the key issues and challenges facing the sector today and train our doctoral cohort to contribute to its future development.
Coordinated by the Heritage Connections Group, a leading hub for research into contemporary and historical intersections between the cultural, creative, and academic sectors, the Museums, Galleries and Heritage Studies Research programme provides a dynamic and supportive environment in which doctoral candidates can develop original and critically engaged work with academic, professional and public impact.
We provide expert supervision across a wide range of topics within the broad umbrella of museum and heritage studies, including but not limited to:
- Audience research and community engagement
- Curating, presenting and managing collections
- Decolonial methods and approaches
- Deep storage
- Digital humanities
- Education and learning
- Environmental sustainability
- Hidden histories
- Inclusion and accessibility with particular focus on LGBT+ and SEND
- Memory and heritage
- Participatory arts and research practice
- Photographic heritage
- Public history
- Tangible and intangible heritage
We welcome applications for projects that might be conducted through professional practice and in collaborations with organisations, as well as for theory-based projects.
Current and recent PhD projects
Take One Picture (1995-present): Children's Art, Creativity and Learning, and the Future of Museum Education (AHRC CDP with The National Gallery)
Collaborative Research as Pedagogical Method: Reinterpreting Photographic Collections at the RGS-IBG (AHRC Landscape Award with Royal Geographical Society with IBG)
Rethinking Family Interpretation in Museums: Trails, Play, and Neurodivergent Family Experiences (Quintin Hogg Trust studentship)
Volunteering for a Chance: Access, Entry and Volunteering in the UK Museums and Heritage Sector
The Museum as a Civic Space for Children: Representation and Inclusion Across Picture Books and Museum Self‑Narratives
‘Convinced Ambassadors of Empire’?: Exploring the Visual Record of Black Caribbean Men and Women Serving in the UK During the Second World War (AHRC CDP with Imperial War Museums)
Pride, Passengers and Personnel: Collecting LGBTQ+ Experiences in and on London’s Transport in the 1970s and 1980s (AHRC Techne CDA with London Transport Museum)
The Home Darkroom and the Freedom of Photographic Production in Britain, 1950s-present (AHRC CDP with the Museum of the Home)
Photography by Train: New Leisure Experiences of Heritage in Britain, 1880s-1930s (AHRC Techne CDA with the National Railway Museum and the National Science and Media Museum)
Examining the Impact of Multisensory Language on Perception and Experience: How can Botanic, Horticultural or Historic Gardens Use Audio Description to Enhance Access for All Visitors? (AHRC Techne with Chelsea Physic Garden and Edinburgh Botanic Garden)
Empire and Artefacts: The "Lost' Museum of the Royal United Services Institute, 1830-1962 (AHRC Techne)