Scholarships & funding

LKAS PhD Scholarship – Disability and expectations of the body in orchestral music higher education

Access to culture, including music, is considered a human right. Scotland is making significant progress towards human rights legislation that will incorporate economic, social, and cultural rights, but disabled people continue to face barriers to pursuing cultural professions. Orchestral music in particular is governed by restrictive and elite structures that often exclude skilled musicians with physical disabilities while also negatively affecting non-disabled musicians.

Orchestral musicians are required to ‘perform’ their bodies in certain ways to conform to consistent physical standards and appearance based on a normative, non-disabled body, such as using ‘correct’ positions and techniques, pushing through pain and injury, and having the endurance to complete intensive rehearsals and practice. These normative standards and resulting pressures can exclude people who do not conform and mean that musicians with physical disabilities can experience significant barriers to professional employment opportunities.

We are looking for an enthusiastic PhD student to work alongside a wider British Academy funded postdoctoral fellowship that is exploring the physical standards, pressures, and expectations involved in orchestral music and their implications for disabled people’s access to the profession.

The PhD project will focus on the pre-professional training for an orchestral music career within the university and conservatoire context in Scotland. The research will explore disabling barriers that impact on orchestral instrument performance students (both disabled and non-disabled), considering pain, injury, and access alongside impairments.

The successful student will be encouraged to shape the project, identifying the particular focus, in consultation with the supervisory panel (led by Prof Jo Edson Ferrie, with fellowship holder Dr Eleanor Brown). Such aspects could include, for example:

• Comparing experiences of and perceptions towards pain, injury, and impairment and/or disability among disabled and non-disabled students;
• Attitudes and practices surrounding injury and impairment and/or disability among educators (e.g. whether care is taken to minimise risk of injury and stress);
• Whether career expectations and opportunities differ for disabled and non-disabled students;
• The accessibility of entry and examination processes;
• How equality, diversity, and inclusion policies address disability and whether they translate into practice, for example exploring support for people challenged by intersectional disadvantage.

Aligned to the candidate’s interest and skillset, this project will have a qualitative methodological focus (e.g. human science method, grounded theory, ethnography, arts-based approaches) and may use methods such as interviews, focus groups/workshops, and ethnographic observation. Quantitative methods (e.g. questionnaires) may also be used as appropriate. The successful applicant will join the Centre for Disability Research within the Sociology & Culture Division, allowing opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange and methods development. 

The project will suit a wide range of applicants with prior training in sociology, disability studies, music, social policy, education, or other relevant subject areas. We particularly encourage submissions from disabled applicants and individuals with lived experience relevant to the project. Please reach out to Jo.Ferrie@glasgow.ac.uk if you have any questions or for an informal chat. 

Applicants must meet the following eligibility criteria

• This opportunity is only open to applicants who would be considered 'Home' or 'Rest of UK' students (see here for definitions)
• Applicants will usually have a good Masters degree (or overseas equivalent) although there is Methods Training available if the successful applicant does not have a Masters degree.
• Applicants will have a demonstratable interest in the topic under investigation.
• Applicants can study part-time or full-time
• Applicants will have a commitment to social justice research that aims to deliver lasting change and equitable futures.

Please note that all applicants must also meet the entry requirements for the Sociology, PhD. 

Number of Scholarships

1

Value

The scholarship is available as a full-time +3 (3 year) PhD programme only. The programme will commence in January/February 2025. The funding includes:

• An annual stipend at the UKRI rate
• Fees at the standard home rate
• Students can also draw on a Research Training Support Grant, usually up to a maximum of £940 per year

   

For more information contact: Jo.Ferrie@glasgow.ac.uk