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PhD Activities Autumn 2026

Below you will find our schedule for the Winchester School of Art PhD weekly meetings, which will generally run from 2-4pm on Wednesdays, in person (PGR Office at WSA) and on MS Teams. The series consists of (guest) speakers, workshops, trainings, and other research- and practice-led events.

The working schedule will be updated here regularly.

For other Faculty and University wide events please see the central University events calendar: https://events.soton.ac.uk/ 

PhD Seminars will resume on 7th October 2026, but don’t forget to catch The Playful Monster conference, coordinated by WSA PGR Ruikang Wu, which will run in person and online Thursday 24 September and Friday 25 September 2026.

TUE WED THU
October 7 October 14:00-16:00 PhD Social and Town Hall – discussing important business for the coming year [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online.

INDUCTION AND CAMPUS TOUR FOR NEW PGRs IMMEDIATELY BEFOREHAND.
14 October 14:00-16:00 Radical Friendship Reading Group / Workshop with Marie Theresa, Mara González González and Marina Castledine, building on from Japan partnership activities in 2025-26 [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online.
Tuesday 20 October PhD Crit (TBC) 21 October 14:00-16:00, The Great PhD Infrastructure Troubleshoot 2026 (talking about and taking questions on university systems from Pure to PGR Manager) with Megen de Bruin-Molé [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online.
28 October 14:00-16:00, WEDNESDAY MAKING / NO FORMAL SESSION
November 4 November 14:00-16:00, Life After the PhD: Joint Session with Early Career Colleagues [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online.
11 November 14:00-16:00, Progression Review Preparation with Megen de Bruin-Molé [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online. 
Tuesday 17 November PhD Crit (TBC) 18 November 14:00-16:00, WEDNESDAY MAKING / NO FORMAL SESSION
25 November 14:00-16:00, WEDNESDAY MAKING / NO FORMAL SESSION
December 2 December, Potential PhD Symposium day
PhD Crit (TBC) 9 December, Potential PhD Symposium day

Winter graduation will take place between Tuesday 15 – Thursday 17 December 2026. After graduation we traditionally have a PhD social. This TBC pending the exact date and location of WSA graduation ceremony.

The winter closure period will be 24 December 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027 (teaching and some university services will be suspended).

PhD Seminars will resume in late January or early February 2027.

The Playful Monster (Conference, 24-25 September 2026)

Monsters are often figured as objects of fear, disgust, and threat. Yet monsters can also be playful, pleasurable, cute, and comforting. Join us and explore how the monstrous becomes playful across games, media, and everyday culture, and what happens where horror, games, toys, and
play meet!

Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September 2026
 British Summer Time (BST, UTC+1)

Winchester School of Art, Harvard Lecture Theatre (63A / East Building, Level 3) and MS Teams. Full programme below.

Thursday 24 September — Harvard Lecture Theatre (WSA 63A / East Building, Level 3) and Online

09:30–10:00  Welcome and opening

10:00–11:00  Keynote Address

Ewan Kirkland

Monstrosity and Modernity: Contained, Categorised and Captured Monsters in Video Games

10:00–10:40 Presentation  |  10:40–11:00 Audience Q&A

11:00–11:30  Tea break

11:30–12:45  Horror Icons, Nostalgia and Monstrous Attachment

11:30–11:45  David Edwards — How Mother’s Boy Jason Reinvented Himself to Be the Horror Genre’s Cosy Companion

11:45–12:00  Gabi Garcia — How You Never Outgrow Vampires: Childhood Media, Nostalgia, and the Affective Afterlife of the Vampiric Figure

12:00–12:15  Jordi Martín Pons — Why We Keep Monsters Close: Bes, Grogu, and the Affective Life of Grotesque Bodies

12:15–12:45  Panel discussion and audience Q&A

 

13:00–14:00  Lunch

 

14:00–15:15  Monstrous Play, Performance and Desire

14:00–14:15  Ruikang Wu — Ludic Zombie: The Playful Monster

14:15–14:30  Anna Mangnus — Collaborative Fear: Horror, Performance, and the Pleasures of Terror in Tabletop Role-Playing Games

14:30–14:45  Klemens Franz — Beyond Monster Combat: Ludic Structures of Monstrosity in Analogue Games

14:45–15:15  Panel discussion and audience Q&A

15:30–16:00  Tea break

16:00–16:50  Locating Monsters: Code and Liminal Space

16:00–16:15  Samuel Pegg — “It’s There! But Where?” The Monster Under the Code and the Hunt for AI

16:15–16:30  Amonie Song — The Relief of Being Hunted: Monsters as Locators in Liminal-Space Horror

16:30–16:50  Panel discussion and audience Q&A

Friday 25 September — Online

09:30–11:00  Monstrous Bodies, Childhood and Material Culture

09:30–09:45  Jacinta Dietrich and Tess Ezzy — Monstrous Children: The Monster as Neuronormative Transgression

09:45–10:00  Tianni Xu — Topophilia, Topophobia, and Monstrous Embodiment: The Kowloon Walled City in Paranormal HK

10:00–10:15  Ece Arıhan and Balım İslamoğlu — Cute Has Teeth: Fugglers and the Semiotics of Kimo-Kawaii

10:15–10:30  Dalia Mostafa Abdulrahman — Playable Death: Mummies, Safe Corpses, and Children’s Literature

10:30–11:00  Panel discussion and audience Q&A

11:00–11:15  Tea break

11:15–12:30  Game Systems, Miniatures and Playable Monstrosity

11:15–11:30  Wenqing Nan (Selina) — Growing Decay in Your Palm: Playing with Nurgle Monsters from Warhammer 40,000

11:30–11:45  Yaraslau I. Kot — Interactive Exorcism: The Grotesque Transformation of Aggressors into Playful Monsters and Monster Metaphors as Trauma Processing in Ukrainian Wartime Games

11:45–12:00  Thomas Apperley, Will Hill, Ville Kankainen, Jukka Särkijärvi and Ian Sturrock — The Art of the Monstrous: The Divided Visual Cultures of Early Tabletop Role-Playing Games

12:00–12:30  Panel discussion and audience Q&A

 

12:30–13:30  Lunch

 

13:30–15:00  Digital Horror, Intimacy and the Uncanny

13:30–13:45  Jiang Luyin — Why We Need the Monster at Arm’s Length: Playful Intimacy and the Afterlife of Horror

13:45–14:00  Christina Fawcett — Cozy Horror and Playing the Uncanny

14:00–14:15  Gregory Blomquist — Confronting the Unknowable: The Reapers and Sublime Monstrosity in Mass Effect

14:15–14:30  Elena Martín-Gil — Enemies to Lovers: Evolution of Vampire Tropes and Emergence of the Charismatic Vampire

14:30–15:00  Panel discussion and audience Q&A

15:00–15:15  Tea break

15:15–16:45  Domestic Monsters: Family, Desire and Affect

15:15–15:30  Kristine Ask and collaborators — Fear, Thirst, and Fan Culture: The Erotic Appeal of Game Monsters

15:30–15:45  Scott Ennis — From Closure to Play: The Emergence of the Playful Monster in Modern Children’s Literature

15:45–16:00  Noah Borgen — Playing Angry Dad: Dysregulated Fatherhood, Safe Fear, and the Family Practice of Declawed Reactivity

16:00–16:15  Phoebe Santillan — When Monsters Become Desirable: Erotic Attraction and the Pleasures of the Monstrous

16:15–16:45  Panel discussion and audience Q&A


Please contact conference organiser Ruikang Wu with any questions: rw1m22@soton.ac.uk

Curating the Brent Biennial 2025: Site, Community and Alternative Knowledge

The Southampton Institute for Arts and Humanities, together with Winchester School of Art’s PhD Programmes, is excited to present ‘Curating the Brent Biennial 2025: Site, Community and Alternative Knowledge’, a talk with independent curator and visiting PhD researcher Annie Jael Kwan.

This talk will take place on Friday, 17th July from 10:00-12:00 in the WSA PGR Room (East 3024) and on MS Teams, in hybrid format. All welcome.

This lecture offers an in-depth account of the curatorial methodology underpinning the Brent Biennial 2025, examining how a commitment to place, process and collective imagination can shape an alternative model of biennial-making. Responding to specific sites across the London Borough of Brent, the curatorial framework draws on the four classical elements — earth, water, fire and air — as generative lenses for exploring material, metaphor and methodology, and for centring plural and non-Western knowledge systems.

Central to this approach is a two-stage structure: Divinations, a relational pre-programme phase that develops trust and shared vision with local organisations and communities, and Rituals, a public-facing series of live events, assemblies and collaborative encounters. The lecture critically reflects on how this model resists the logic of spectacle in favour of gathering and exchange, and considers the practical and ethical dimensions of fundraising across local and international contexts.

Annie Jael Kwan is an independent curator, researcher and educator whose exhibition-making, programming, publication and teaching practice is located at the intersection of contemporary art, art history and cultural activism, with interest in archives, feminist, queer and alternative knowledges, collective practices, solidarity, sisterhood and spirituality. She is currently undertaking PhD research in Liverpool.

Creating and narrating impact for doctoral researcher professional development (with Professor Dan Ashton) on 17th June 2026

 

Building from the May 2025 doctoral researcher workshop on impact and engagement, this workshop will focus on understanding and positioning your research impact as part of your professional development. As the ‘engagement, influence and impact’ section of PGR Development says:

Understanding how to communicate your research clearly, collaborate with wider communities, and generate meaningful impact is an essential part of doctoral‑level development.

We will explore how to understand, identify, and narrate the impact your research might generate, and how this connects with professional development goals and frameworks (including the Vitae Researcher Development Framework). The workshop will be structured around activities enabling you to understand contemporary research contexts and environments, reflect on your research and advance your professional development goals.

For those who did not participate in the May 2025 or would benefit from a reminder, the slides are available on the WSA Impact and Engagement site.

Professor Daniel Ashton

Prof Daniel Ashton is the Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries in the Department of Art and Media Technology at Winchester School of Art at the University of Southampton. His teaching and research focus on cultural and creative industries organisations, work and policy, and digital media technologies. Research in these areas has been presented internationally, published in academic journals, and shared in online videos and articles. He is a PhD supervisor and support postgraduate researchers with their teaching professional development. He has worked in partnership with a range of organisations on public exhibitions, teaching initiatives, and research projects.

PGRs’ VR Project Presented at Beijing International Film Festival’s Boundless Immersive Unit

A virtual reality (VR) project developed by WSA postgraduate researchers (PGRs) has been shortlisted at the Beijing International Film Festival, one of Asia’s leading platforms for immersive media.

 

“Echoes After the Last Breath: A Gamified Gaze-Driven VR Near-Death Experience” by Yimeng Li, Weigan Zhang, and Xinyu Zhang was selected for exhibition at the 16th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF) “Boundless ∞ Immersive Unit.” In April 2026, Weigan and Yimeng attended the festival in Beijing, where the project was exhibited and presented to audiences alongside a wide range of international immersive works.
Yimeng Li and Weigan Zhang attending the 16th Beijing International Film Festival in Beijing.

“Echoes After the Last Breath: A Gamified Gaze-Driven VR Near-Death Experience” is an immersive interactive experience that explores memory and emotional resonance through spatial storytelling and sensory interaction. Presented within the context of emerging immersive cinema and interactive media, the work invited audiences to engage with the experience in a personal and reflective way.

 

The “Boundless ∞ Immersive Unit” is one of BJIFF’s major immersive sections, focusing on VR, AR, MR, installation art, and spatial media experiences from around the world. Under this year’s curatorial theme, “Entering Cinema Through Play”, the exhibition explored how audiences can experience storytelling beyond the traditional screen through interaction, embodiment, and participation.

Exhibition views from the BJIFF Boundless ∞ Immersive Unit

Weigan and Yimeng said: ‘During the exhibition, we had the opportunity to connect with many other immersive media creators and projects, exchanging ideas about storytelling, technology, and audience experience. We were also very happy to see so many visitors engage with our project. The audience shared a great deal of thoughtful feedback, encouraging responses, and useful suggestions for future improvements, which were incredibly valuable for us as creators and researchers. This experience was a wonderful opportunity for our team, and we are especially proud that the work of PhD students from the University of Southampton could be presented to a wider international audience through the Beijing International Film Festival.’

PhD Activities Spring 2026

Below you will find our schedule for the Winchester School of Art PhD weekly meetings, which will generally run from 2-4pm on Wednesdays, in person (PGR Rooms at WSA) and on MS Teams. The series consists of (guest) speakers, workshops, trainings, and other research- and practice-led events.

The working schedule will be updated here regularly.

For other Faculty and University wide events please see the central University events calendar: https://events.soton.ac.uk/ 

TUE WED THU
January 28 January 12:00-14:00 New PhDs Induction and campus tour, followed by PhD/ECC Start of Term Social @ 14:00-16:00 [in person], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024)
February 4 February 14:00-16:00 PhD Town Hall – discussing important business for the coming year[hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online
11 February 11:00-13:00 PhD Crits Rezia Wahid and Qixuan (Fay) Wu [in person], Sculpture Studio

AND

14:00-16:00 Practice-based research skills session with Prof Teresa Dillon [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online. Teresa Dillon is a self-taught artist and curator who draws on methodologies from psychology, social science and the performing arts.
 18 February 14:00-16:00, PhD WriteLab [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online
 25 February 14:00-16:00 Letterpress workshop with Andy Reaney in preparation for Into the Fold, WSA’s artists book and zine festival (6-7 March)  [in person only, max 6 participants], Printmaking Workshop (1023 East, WSA)
March  4 March 14:00-16:00 Zine and book-making workshop with Dr Megen de Bruin-Molé in preparation for Into the Fold, WSA’s artists book and zine festival (6-7 March) [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online
17 March 14:00-16:00 PhD Crits [in person], Sculpture Studio 18 March 14:00-16:00, PhD WriteLab [hybrid], physical location TBC
25 March 14:00-16:00, Design Research Methods with Dr Daniel Cid (Head of Research Design Department) [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online. A session focused on the idea that, in a way, we all design, and this potential can be transformed as an ongoing rehearsal for what more sustainable ways of living could be.

EASTER BREAK 30 MARCH – 24 APRIL

(teaching and some university services will be suspended)

TUE WED THU
April 14 April 14:00-16:00 PGR Student Crit Workshop with Elissa Wang and Rui Cai [in person], Sculpture Studio (East Side). The work will remain up through Weds 15th and Thursday 16th April.
29 April 14:00-16:00, PhD WriteLab [hybrid], physical location TBC and online
May 6 May 14:00-16:00 Learning to Teach: Reports and Reflections from SoTeach3 with PhD teachers and Megen de Bruin-Molé [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online
13 May 14:00-16:00 PURE online profiles workshop with Megen de Bruin-Molé [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online.
20 May 14:00-16:00, Progression review preparation session (leader TBC) [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online
26 May 14:00-16:00 PGR Student Crit Workshop with Susan Francis and Jingnan Bian (Bianca) PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online 27 May 14:00-16:00, PhD WriteLab [hybrid], physical location TBC and online
June  10 June 14:00-16:00,PhD WriteLab [hybrid], physical location TBC and online
23 June 14:00-16:00 PGR Student Crit Workshop with Zhiyu Guo (Zoe) and Glauco Adorno, location at WSA TBC (please contact David Birks) 17 June 14:00-16:00, ‘Creating and narrating impact’ workshop with Dan Ashton, focus on developing PURE profiles [hybrid], PGR Meeting Room (East 3024) and online

WSA Summer Graduation will take place at 10am on Monday, 20 July 2026 in Winchester Cathedral. Following this, at around 12pm there will be a formal reception on the Cathedral grounds for staff and PGRs. There will then be a PhD celebration, lunch, and social at The Willow Tree from around 1pm. Please RSVP here.

Second wave practice research: managing the institutionalisations of tacit knowledge (12 November 2025)

On 12 November, the WSA PhD Seminar is excited to welcome Dr Rachel Hann (Northumbria University, Newcastle), who has extensive experience with practice-based research across Fine Art, Design, and Fashion/Textiles.

Dr Hann’s talk will be on ‘Second wave practice research: managing the institutionalisations of tacit knowledge’ The main concern of what Dr Hann proposes as the ‘first wave’ of Practice Research was to win the right to conduct research through practice from the administrators (university management, HEFCE). The end game of this perspective was, she argues, that it sustains a culture where Practice Research is conducted for the purpose of administration: for evidencing an individual’s research profile to be assessed holistically, by exercises such as the REF. We now need to move beyond the administrative focus of Practice Research, however. Dr Hann is part of a movement suggesting a ‘second wave’ of arts research practice. This talk and subsequent discussion will lay out some strategies and examples for managing the institutionalisations of tacit knowledge, and skills for navigating a practice-based PhD within these institutions.

Dr. Rachel Hann is Associate Professor in Performance and Design at Northumbria University, Newcastle (UK). She researches material cultures of scenography, transness, and climate crisis. Rachel is the author of Beyond Scenography (Routledge 2019) and co-founder of the research network Critical Costume. From 2024-2025, she was PI for an AHRC Fellowship entitled Trans Performance Now. Rachel is also a former Chair of the Theatre and Performance Research Association, a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, and a curator for the Prague Quadrennial 2027. Rachel has examined 11 PhDs as external and supervised 11 to completion.

This session will take place in person in the PhD Common Room (WSA East Side 3024) and online. 

PhD Crits Resume

It has been so wonderful to see PGRs taking the initiative to develop a more collaborative research culture at our beloved WSA. Having a safe space and the opportunity to learn from each other and explore and challenge our ideas are very valuable for developing our competencies as researchers as well as for our own research.

This time, we would like to acknowledge David Birks, who has been working very passionately to present us with PhD crits. PhD Crits is a regular (biweekly) 2-hour workshop where a practice-led and a theory-based PGR from different stages of the research process (early, mid, and final) present their art/design research process and findings to gain action-orientated feedback from fellow PGRs and experts, such as Stephen Cornford and Megen de Bruin-Molé.

The structure of the workshop is specifically designed to facilitate a positive and critical peer learning environment to help both the presenters and participants be more aware and appreciative of each other’s research, to be comfortable in raising questions and answering them, and to learn more about various research philosophies/methodologies, approaches/methods, analyses, and effective ways to present our research. To facilitate effective engagement, this workshop will be an on-site and PGR-only event.

Therefore, we would like to encourage all WSA PGRs who live in and outside of Winchester to come and attend these events in person. Furthermore, we would love to have fellow PGRs that share similar research topics or approaches with the speakers to come and actively engage in the open dialogue sessions to co-create a productive workshop.

 

The PhD Crits will be a valuable complement to our regular Wednesday PhD Sessions, WriteLab, Design Research Methodologies and Methods, and Interdisciplinary Collaboration Working Group.

 

It is with great pleasure that we invite you to attend the launch of the 1st WSA PhD Crits that will be held on:

Date    : 28th October 2025

Time    : 1 to 3 PM

Venue    : Right-hand Installation Space (back end of the Sculpture Studio)

Introducing our speakers:

  1. Weigan Zhang [Practice-based research]

PhD research title: “An Artistic, Practice-Based Inquiry into Digital Memorialisation:Visual Reality as an Empty Machine for Reshaping Memory and Mourning”

Supervisors: Dr Alexandra Anikina, Dr Emma Reay and Prof Seth Giddings and Dr Ruohan Tang.

Abstract:

This study explores how VR can function as an ethical and reflective medium for digital memorialisation. In response to the rise of the “digital afterlife” industry, the project proposes the concept of the Empty Machine—treating VR as an open, participatory field for co-creating meaning around loss and memory. Through research-creation and participatory co-design, I’m developing a speculative VR prototype that invites users to navigate fragmented, polyphonic memories, fostering reflection and dialogue rather than simulation.

  1. Li Xu (Visiting Postgraduate Research Student from China) [Theory-based research]

PhD research title: “The Afterlife of Nucleic Acid Testing Booths: Assembling Post-Pandemic Urban Infrastructure”

Supervisors: Jussi Parikka and Ryan Bishop

Abstract:

This article examines the lifecycle of nucleic acid testing booths in China, a form of data infrastructure that became ubiquitous during the COVID-19 pandemic. While scholarship has addressed datafication and the politics of pandemic control, the material afterlife of such infrastructures — particularly their abandonment and reuse — remains underexplored. Drawing on fieldwork in Wuhan between December 2023 and September 2025, this study traces how these booths underwent territorialization, deterritorialization, and reterritorialization as public health policies shifted. Using assemblage theory and infrastructure studies, it conceptualizes the booths as a case of post-pandemic infrastructural adaptation that reveals the volatility and plasticity of short-cycle urban systems. Once integral to data collection and pandemic governance, the booths were rapidly decommissioned, generating both spatial friction and infrastructural waste. Yet many were reassembled into community kiosks and other shared facilities through grassroots initiatives. This reterritorialization highlights the agency of local actors who reconfigured abandoned digital infrastructures to meet evolving socio-spatial needs. The study advances urban theory by foregrounding the afterlife of temporary infrastructures, contributing to debates on urban resilience, waste politics, and community governance in post-pandemic cities.

PhD Activities Autumn 2025

We’ll be continuing our regular Winchester School of Art PhD Seminar Series, which will generally run from 2-4pm on Wednesdays, in person (PGR Rooms at WSA) and on MS Teams. The series consists of (guest) speakers, workshops, trainings, and other research- and practice-led events.

In conversation with PhD Representatives, however, the nature of these sessions will be slightly different this term. Namely, we are trying to do fewer ‘big’ events and guest lectures (1 a month), and other events will be tailored to different subsets of our PhD community here at WSA (for instance practice-based PhDs and PhDs at specific stages of their projects).

The working schedule for the Spring 2025 term is available below (also HERE as an Excel sheet), and will be updated here with any schedule changes. Details and bios for individual sessions will be linked as they become available.

For other Faculty and University wide events please see the central University events calendar: https://events.soton.ac.uk/ 

click the image below to enlarge

WSA PhD Researcher Rui Cai Wins Doctoral College Research Award 2025

WSA PhD researcher Rui Cai has been awarded the School Winner of the Doctoral College Research Award 2025, receiving a £200 prize in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the research environment. He was nominated for his active engagement in managing the shared studio space used by practice-based PhD researchers and for fostering a strong sense of community solidarity among all WSA PGR researchers. This award celebrates the exceptional impact of doctoral researchers on their research group, school, faculty, or the wider University research strategy. 

 

The Research Awards recognise a PGR’s excellent contribution to the research environment through a variety of research activities and outputs, as appropriate to their discipline, has been formally recognised at the PGR Showcase 2025: 3MT® Final & Awards Ceremony, which has been held on 17 June 2025 at Highfield Campus.

Rui Cai’s statement on the awards:

 I’m honoured to have been nominated for my contributions to the research environment. This recognition is particularly meaningful as my interdisciplinary work, primarily in the bio-art field, presents unique challenges. Combining biology and art requires significant effort, including mastering complex biological knowledge and troubleshooting practical issues like persistent contamination. However, the fascinating process and consistently surprising artistic outcomes motivate my continued dedication. I’m grateful for this acknowledgement from the university, which will undoubtedly support the progression of my research.

Many congratulations to Rui on this well-deserved recognition!