LIBRARY SERVICES

• Library website http://www.library.mmu.ac.uk/
• Subject Librarians can help you make the most effective use of the library and library resources including eBooks, journals, and databases and tracking down primary sources. You can arrange to meet your Subject Librarian for a 1-2-1 tutorial at a mutually convenient time. Find their contact details on the relevant subject guide
• New to the library? guide – an overview of MMU library services for new users
• Library Guide for Distance Learners –  http://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/usrdistance
• Finding resources – http://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/usrdistance
• Using other libraries – http://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/otherlibraries
• Library videos – https://www.youtube.com/user/MMULibraryServices
• Endnote and Endnote Web guide – http://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/endnote
• Information about InfoSkills at MMU Library – http://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/infoskills – includes a list of forthcoming workshops
• MMU Special Collections – http://www.specialcollections.mmu.ac.uk/
• The Archive for the ‘Calls for Papers’ Category – on the MMU Library’s ‘Researchers’ Weekly Bulletin: the Blog’ includes calls for papers.
• The Library Workshops site – The Library runs workshops throughout the year covering a variety of topics including referencing, information searching and Endnote.

FACULTY RESEARCH CENTRES

PLEASE NOTE: Research within the Manchester School of Art has recently been restructured. Information about the new research centres and groups will be updated in due course.

The Humanities Research Centre (HRC) brings together over 90 researchers from the Departments of English, History, Politics and Philosophy, and Languages and Linguistics. The centre works in partnership with many cultural institutions, from theatre companies, museums to libraries, archives and galleries and places great emphasis on communicating research beyond the University to local, regional and international audiences.

The Research Centre in Applied Social Sciences (RCASS) has been established to produce critically-engaged, high quality research that challenges common-sense ways about how we think about the world and our place in it. The Centre aims to provide an inter-disciplinary home for critical research that contributes to policy-making debates and decision-making, while genuinely impacting upon the work and strategies of local organisations and communities.

Sociology and Criminology at Manchester Metropolitan University is home to a vibrant group of academic researchers whose work helped Sociology researchers achieve outstanding results in REF2014. In the Sociology submission more than 2/3 of research was ranked either internationally leading or world-leading (3* and 4*) while Sociology is ranked in the top 10 of Sociology submissions for Impact. Meanwhile, in the Social Policy and Social Work submission 60% of research was also ranked of 3* or 4* star quality. Areas of particular research expertise include Youth, Urban Cultures, Sexualities, Quantitative Methods and Big Data, and Criminal Justice and Policy Innovation. The department is also home to The Policy Evaluation Research Unit (PERU), The Manchester Centre for Youth Studies (MCYS). Postgraduate Research opportunities (for the degree of PhD) are available across the discipline of Sociology, reflecting the strength and diversity of academic research within the Department. We are also very keen to encourage research that is inter-disciplinary in its approach.

• Research in Sociology
• Sociology and Criminology Research Degrees
• Postgraduate courses

In the Research Excellence Framework 2014, the English subject group at MMU was ranked 30th out of 89 departments in the UK with 78% of our research activities and outputs judged to be world leading (4*) and internationally excellent (3*). The social and cultural impact of our research was rated 8th in the UK, with 100% of our activities in this area judged to be 4* (63.3%) and 3* (36.7%). English is engaged in a dynamic expansion of its postgraduate programmes. On registration all new research students in English become affiliate members of The Centre for research in English, Languages and Linguistics (CELL), which was established in 2014 as part of the Faculty’s new Humanities Research Centre (HRC). CELL currently comprises 35 research-active staff and over 25 research students across two sites working in the areas of literary studies, creative writing, film studies and aspects of cultural theory. The department has an impressive publication record, including not only critical studies but also novels, plays and volumes of poetry. We have a vibrant, rapidly-expanding postgraduate student culture, which is fully integrated in the Institute’s research environment. Staff offer supervision in the following closely interrelated areas of expertise, including: fiction from C17 to the present, poetry in theory and practice, especially twentieth-century and contemporary, literature and science/medicine/theology, Gothic studies, British, German, Japanese and US cinema, LGBT / Queer film & culture , horror film, gender theory and sexuality, feminism and queer theory, masculinity studies and Deleuze studies.

• Research in English
• Creative Writing Research Degrees
• Postgraduate courses

History, Politics, Philosophy: The History section has a strong record of research and publication which encompasses a broad range of areas of expertise: Ancient History, Medieval History, Early Modern History, American History post-1860, Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century British History, Community History, Public History and Heritage. We house the Manchester Centre for Regional History, which gives our students the advantage of our strong links with historians and archives that extend beyond the University, and work in partnership with an array of public cultural institutions; museums, libraries archives and galleries. Staff have expertise in a broad range of geographic areas comprising British, Local and Regional, Western and Eastern European, Russian and Asian History. The Politics section comprises staff who conduct research in the fields of Politics, International Relations and Public Administration. Staff publish in a range of areas including US foreign policy toward the Middle East, European energy policy, football and communities, early twentieth century British political history, intentional communities, socialist thought, the governance of urban and rural regeneration and UK devolution. There is an extensive programme of postgraduate student seminars, and three series of departmental research seminars with contributions from distinguished political scientists, philosophers and historians from outside the University. The section hosts the very successful `Workshops in Political Theory’ and the `Alternative Futures and Popular Protest’ conferences on an annual basis. The Philosophy section is a centre of excellence, with advanced research in a number of areas including the history of philosophy, transcendental philosophy, and phenomenology. In the last UK research assessment (REF 2014) over 75% of our outputs were deemed to be of international or world leading significance.  The social and cultural impact of our research was rated 30th in the UK, with 50% of our activities in this area were deemed to be internationally excellent. Our most recent doctoral defences were theses by Dr Dominic Kelly (on Heidegger), Dr Nicholas Aldridge (on Jean-Luc Nancy), Dr Nicola Crosby (on Kant), and Dr Shandon Guthrie (on the Metaphysics of Demonology). Students are currently writing doctorates on the work of Hegel, on the work of Jean Luc Nancy, and on the work of Foucault. There are weekly meetings of the Human Sciences Seminar (HSS) in the autumn and spring terms, and a seminar for graduate students to present their work in the summer term.

• Research in History, Politics, Philosophy
• History Research Degrees
• Philosophy Research Degrees
• Politics Research Degrees
• Postgraduate courses

The Department of Languages, Information and Communications is made up of a vibrant community of researchers, representative of six key areas: Cultural Studies, Information Communications, Journalism, Languages, Linguistics and Media Studies. Particular research strengths within these areas include:

• Gender and race studies; youth culture.
• Information and knowledge management; information behaviour; internet politics; digital libraries; language processing and search technologies; technology-enhanced learning; user experience (HCI).
• (Alternative) political communication; computational journalism; digital creativity; importance of media in user engagement; interactive media; media law; public affairs; social media and protest, sports journalism.
• French; German; Hispanic; Italian; interpreting and translation.
• Applied linguistics; corpus linguistics; (critical) discourse analysis; forensic linguistics; intercultural communication; pragmatics; sociolinguistics; stylistics; syntax studies.
• Digital anthropology; ethnography; film/media pedagogy; languages, film studies and media; sociology of digital technology; social media.
• Research in Languages, Information and Communications
• Information & Communications Research Degrees
• Languages Research Degrees
• Information and Communications Postgraduate courses
• Languages Postgraduate courses

RESEARCH SUPPORT FUNDING

PAHC Research Degree Fund

Arts and humanities research degree students (MA by Research and PhD) can apply for help with research costs to the PAHC Research Degree Fund. This is a small fund and is restricted to activities directly related to the development of your research.

Eligible costs are:

• Research costs e.g. visiting archives; exhibition materials
• Conference attendance (fee, travel, accommodation). 
• Attendance at courses, workshops, residencies etc.

Contact Myna Trustram (m.trustram@mmu.ac.uk) for details on how to apply.

The Graduate School Research Support Award

The Graduate School also provides funding to support research students with the costs of research and research-related activities. For details of their Research Support Award contact: research.students@mmu.ac.uk.