PhD Scholarship - Sheffield Hallam University - Dept. Media, Arts and Communication

Cultural, Economic, and Community Impact of Independent Cinema

Exhibition: A Case Study of the Showroom Cinema and its Audiences

1994-present

About the Project

Applications are invited for a funded PhD scholarship, in collaboration

with the Showroom Cinema in Sheffield with experience of and/or a

background in film, media, or cultural studies, or a background in

cinema and the exhibition sector.

This PhD is a case study of the independent Showroom Cinema in

Sheffield, tracing its history and audiences from its opening in 1994

through to the present day. The project’s aim is to investigate the

cultural, economic, and community impact of the Showroom through

archival research, interviews, and public outreach activities. The

project will contribute to wider debates on policy making within the

independent cinema exhibition sector in the UK and the urgent threats

facing it.

The Showroom is an internationally significant cinema. It is one of the

largest independent cinema in Europe and has been the host of the

Sheffield DocFest since 1995. Its importance to the cultural economy of

Sheffield, the UK, and Europe was reflected when it received the second

largest grant from the BFI’s Culture Recovery Fund in 2021. Audiences

have always been at the heart of the Showroom’s mission. Sheffield City

Council initiated the project in the 1980s, forming the Sheffield Media

and Exhibition Centre to lead the project. Following the closure of the

independent Anvil Cinema, the Showroom was to be a cultural space for

the benefit of all Sheffield citizens offering alternative, independent,

and international cinema. But it was intended to be more than just a

cinema: it would be a ‘media centre’, an industrial hub for the wider

film industry in the region and would serve as the centrepiece of the

newly designated Cultural Industries Quarter. The Showroom, and the

wider UK independent cinema exhibition sector, faces ongoing challenges

from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; increased competition from

streaming services; and rivalry from a revived cinema circuit in

Sheffield – Sheffield city centre alone now has four commercial cinemas.

The BFI’s Screen Culture 2033 strategy places audiences and outreach at

the heart of its funding strategies and so the Showroom seeks to develop

local strategies to engage new audiences from Sheffield and South

Yorkshire’s diverse communities. The Showroom, like other independent

cinemas, has had to navigate the tension between serving its community

through alternative programming and educational activities, with the

need to ensure a commercially viable business. The project’s objectives

are to:

1. Examine the Showroom’s audiences and community outreach in Sheffield

and South Yorkshire to ascertain its cultural and economic impact and

how this has changed and how it could evolve.

2. Trace the evolution of the Showroom’s business and programming

strategies to understand its development against changing local and

national cultural, economic, and political contexts.

3. Investigate past, present and future opportunities and threats to the

Showroom, and the wider independent cinema exhibition sector.

4. Contextualize the study with reference to other independent cinemas

in the UK and internationally.

Research environment and training

The successful candidate will be a member of the Centre for Culture,

Media & Society and be encouraged to participate in the activities of

the Film and Media group. They will join a vibrant PhD programme with

excellent student satisfaction scores. There are opportunities to

participate in seminars, workshops, and conferences, including SHU's

innovative interdisciplinary postgraduate research conferences on the

topics of research impact and research method. We offer training in

research methods via modules on the M. Res in Social Research and access

to specialist media and film production facilities including recording

studios, edit suites and VR studio and screening facilities at 'The

Void' film lecture theatre. You can read more about the PhD community

and some past and current PhD projects here. There will be opportunities

to get involved in developing the community, academic, and industrial

outreach of the Showroom through a collaboration to digitise a selection

of its past cinema programmes, to arrange a public history event to

celebrate the cinema’s 30th anniversary, and to co-organise a workshop

on audiences and independent cinema exhibition.

The Showroom will support the project by providing a supervisor and

external advisor from the cinema. It will also facilitate interview

contacts and archival access, and support public history engagement

events for the student to disseminate their research to a wider audience

as part of the cinema’s 30th anniversary in 2025.

How to apply

Please see the prospectus entry for PhD Media & Communication for course

information, entry requirements and the online application form. This

project is not suitable for a Distance Learning arrangement.

For your research proposal we would like you to a) set the project

enquiry into a context that includes examples of relevant research

studies and policy b) discuss some of the practical research challenges

and opportunities for this project c) outline how your skills and

experience have prepared you to embark on this project. For further

guidance see Culture & Creativity Research Institute PhD application

guidance

Sheffield Hallam welcomes applications from all candidates irrespective

of age, pregnancy and maternity, disability, gender, gender identity,

sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or belief, or marital or civil

partnership status. We strongly recommend you contact Dr James Fenwick

(j.fenwick@shu.ac.uk) to discuss your application. Other supervisors

include Dr Emmie McFadden (SHU), Dr Rinella Cere (SHU); Ian Wild

(Showroom Cinema Chief Executive).

Start date for studentship: 1st October 2023

Interviews are currently scheduled for: week beginning the 26th June 2023

Closing date for applications: noon 26th May २०२३

Funding Notes

The scholarship is available for 3.5 years (full-time) or 6 years

(part-time) and includes:

• Tuition fees at Home rate

• A maintenance bursary at the standard Sheffield Hallam PhD stipend

rate. This is aligned with the net Real Living Wage; the current rate

for full time study in academic year 2022/23 is £18,178 per annum.

Part-time is paid at 50%

• Up to £1500 total project costs

• The scholarship is open to Home and International candidates but

please note that International applicants will need to have funds in

place to pay the difference between Home and International tuition fees