Arts, Media and Communication Research Centre

The Cultural, Communication and Media research group aims to undertake excellent quality research in the conceptual, applied and practice-based aspects of cultural, film and media studies and traditional and new digital media. CCM research has been established formally at the University of Salford since 2005. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, a quarter of CCM research was judged to be world leading, with almost two thirds judged as internationally excellent or world leading. On a research power ranking CCM at Salford is ranked 21st in the UK.

More information about Culture, Communications and Media research at the University of Salford.

The Music and Performance Research Group comprises practitioners of, and writers on, subjects related to music, theatre, drama and dance. Members of the group actively compose music, write drama and comedy, perform and devise theatre, work in applied theatre and digital contexts, create technological applications, record and engineer sound, and write about all aspects of cultural theory related to these practices. We are particularly adept at using collaborative and interdisciplinary and Practice as Research (PaR) methods in addressing research inquiries. We have well- established creative and research partnerships with the BBC Philharmonic orchestra, Tempo Reale (Italy), Groupe de Recherche de Musique Vivante (France), Studio Matejka (Poland), Imitating the Dog (UK), Blast Theory (UK), Triangle Theatre (UK) and Ridiculusmus (UK/Australia). Our researchers act as consultants for the Blue Note recording label, as well as regularly having work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and 4.

More information about Music and Performance research at the University of Salford.

Contact

Performance:
Dr Richard Talbot
Co-Lead Music and Performance Research Group,
School of Arts and Media,

t: 0161 295 6367
e: r.talbot@salford.ac.uk

Music:
Professor Alan Williams
Professor of Collaborative Composition
School of Arts and Media

t: 0161 295 6234
e: a.e.williams@salford.ac.uk

The AnDRE Research Group brings together research active staff from across the School, including both senior, proactive researchers and emerging early career researchers. Members are engaged in theoretical and practice-based creative investigations across a broad range of arts and design-related areas, collaborating with academics from across the University as well as external practitioners and industry professionals.

Key researchers in this group were returned successfully to the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), and will contribute towards REF 2020. Transformative projects—such as the longstanding Design Against Crime initiative, arts-based community engagement work and growing Designamics research—focus on achieving high quality research outputs that deliver real-world impact.

More information about Art and Design research at the University of Salford.

Contact

Andrew B. Wootton

t: +44 (0)161 2952693
a.wootton@salford.ac.uk

The group takes an innovative approach to research, combined with an engagement with communities beyond academia. We explore hybrid and inter-disciplinary ways of working and in our examination of marginal, experimental and emergent practices. We are concerned with looking at the overlooked and teasing out readings of neglected and/or transgressive authors and cultural practices. From looking at writing conflict in Northern Ireland to Victorian Sensation fiction, from discontented minds in Early Modern Drama to the representation of serial killers in film and fiction, from African modernism to experimental poetry, from the hidden meanings of place names to discourse analysis – our work is searching, critically-engaged and culturally relevant.

English staff were returned to the last Research Excellence Framework (RAE 2014) with the University’s English Language and Literature submission (UoA 29). The results showed that nearly 50% of the work of researchers in the Centre was deemed to be internationally recognised or world leading, with 13% being graded at the highest possible level of 4*.

More information about English Literature, Language and Creative Practice research at the University of Salford.

Contact

Dr Scott Thurston
Reader in English and Creative Writing

t: 0161 295 3597
e: s.thurston@salford.ac.uk

The Politics and Contemporary History research cluster is interested in a variety of political and historical themes grouped around the field of International Security in its broadest sense. At the same time, members of staff also have research interests around European party politics, ideologies, intelligence studies (including the history of intelligence), military history (especially land warfare, air power and theories of war), counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and several other aspects of international politics and security, covering Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Politics and Contemporary are viewed by the group as mutually reinforcing disciplines; Contemporary History is defined in the more traditional since of history since 1789. Our political scientists understand the importance of historical background; our historians are interested in applying historical knowledge and experience to contemporary problems and challenges. The group welcomes cross- and interdisciplinary research projects. The activities of the group fall most conveniently into ‘Area Studies’.

More information about Politics and Contemporary History research at the University of Salford.

Contact

Dr Dan Lomas

T: +44 (0)161 295 6805
E: d.w.b.lomas@salford.ac.uk

The Salford Languages Research Group has particular expertise in the applied use of European languages in academic, professional and cultural contexts, and it also possesses expertise within Arabic translation and interpreting. Its members have participated in the National Centre of Languages Steering Group to review the National Standards in Translation; obtained external research funding from the AHRC; and possess specialized professional experience in environments ranging from the Jordan News Agency to European Works Councils. The Research Group members have been invited to give presentations at a range of institutions including the Université Rennes 2, The University of Stirling, and the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, London. Members of the group specialize in – and have published extensively in – interdisciplinary, real-world research areas focusing on language and contemporary society.

More information about Languages research at the University of Salford.

Contact

Dr William Hope
Salford Languages,
Room 805, Maxwell Building
The University of Salford,
Salford M5 4WT.

t: +44 (0)161 295 4914
e: w.hope@salford.ac.uk

The role of the Practice as Research Centre of Excellence is to support, prompt and make visible Practice as Research activity across the research groups in the School of Arts and Media and beyond.  We aim to be at the forefront of current conversations in the wider field of practice-as-research, both strategically and methodologically, and to make this information accessible to university colleagues and postgraduate students. The Centre also has a remit to champion and celebrate research-through-practice in its concomitant variety of formats and disciplines, through events such as seminars, workshops and publications and we are particularly interested in developing and supporting interdisciplinary and collaborative ways of working. Finally, the Centre aims to increase the visibility of existing and developing PaR enquiries in the School, and increase our knowledge (in the School of Arts and Media and beyond) of differing definitions of PaR and how it is documented, disseminated and assessed.

More information about Practice and Research at the University of Salford

Co-conveners

Dr Alison E Matthews:
T: +44 (0)161 295 6866
E: a.e.matthews@salford.ac.uk

http://www.bitchuationistinternational.com

Dr Joanne Scott

T: +44 (0)161 295 5388
E: j.e.scott@salford.ac.uk
http://joanneemmascott.com

hub.salford.ac.uk/amc-practice-as-research/

Community Finance Solutions (CFS) is an independent research and development unit specialising in financial inclusion and community finance. 

Our mission is to promote access to appropriate and ethical financial services for excluded businesses and households by developing, piloting and researching cost-effective solutions for policy-makers practitioners and funders.  

CFS offers independent research and advisory services to various organisations and agencies, including charities, social landlords and national government. 

Community Finance Solutions website

The Design Against Crime research initiative led by Dr Caroline Davey and Andrew Wootton with Sam Ingleson at the University’s School of Art and Design provides leadership in the field of design-led, sustainable practice in crime prevention and community safety:

• Using innovative design thinking to develop models, methods and solutions for improving crime prevention and community safety, through partnership and creative engagement with stakeholders and end users.