PhD by Creative Research and, or Dissertation
Drama for Life’s PhD programme
We are here to support you in your PhD study from concept paper (pre-application) to final submission. From the moment that you contact us about possible PhD study, you can become part of our learning community.
Since its establishment as a department in the Wits School of Arts in 2013, Drama for Life adopted a strategy to increase its research output by growing its PhD cohort from one PhD candidate in 2014 to 8 candidates in 2016 with an expected increase to 13 candidates in 2017. Drama for Life’s postgraduate strategy is in line with one of the strategic objectives articulated in Wits Vision 2022: to “Significantly improve the research output in terms of quality, quantity and impact while continuing to develop research capacity across the university - producing basic and applied research of high quality in abundance”. The strategy is also inspired by the department’s endeavour to grow its own supervision capacity considering that applied drama and theatre and drama therapy are fairly new fields of study in South Africa and Africa.
What you can expect from this programme
We understand that PhD study is a very individual and personal journey, but we also know that, if we support each other, we can get there more sure-footedly.
What you can expect from the programme:
- Supervision: We find the supervisor or supervisors that will best be able to support your particular enquiry. This may mean that you are assigned two supervisors – especially if your work stretches across disciplines.
- Mentoring support for writing: We also have two seasoned professors that will support you specifically through the process of application and proposal submission.
- Two-monthly working weekends. Every two months we get together to share pieces of our work (Friday afternoon 1 – 4pm) and do some dedicated writing (Saturday full day).
- The creative research lab. This is where you book the opportunity to try out some of your practical creative processes or performance ideas on us for conversation ad feedback. It will be up to you to book this time and invite whoever you would like to be there.
- There are symposiums and conferences throughout the year where we will share our research with the wider learning community.
- Workshops on proposal writing, data gathering, research methodology etc are scheduled in accordance with the needs of the group and the availability of facilitators\Working spaces
We have the following spaces available for PhD use:
1. A seminar room for symposia and discussion.
2. A resource centre with workspace options (At the moment these spaces cannot be dedicated to one person over time, they are shared. However, if you do need a dedicated workspace, there are such spaces available at the Wits post graduate centre.
3. A studio space for creative research and performance labs.
We look forward to welcoming you at Drama for Life’s PhD programme.