Student shares experience of Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD support at King's

My PhD is an interdisciplinary piece between King's Film Studies and Interdisciplinary Humanities programmes, combining animation studies with media philosophy, with focus on using notions of uncertainty to develop an understanding of Contemporary Hollywood Stop-Motion and hybrid media in general.

My research spans multiple disciplines because animation is a nebulous and far-reaching artform. Working with an academic from the Department of Interdisciplinary Humanities has allowed me the scope and freedom to follow the research where it leads. Rather than narrowing yourself to one discourse or field of study, you can overlap different topics and disciplines to really examine the impact of particular cultures.

Animation is a weird one. On the one hand it’s an artform, on the other it’s a form of film. Different types of animation work totally differently to each other and yet they’re all called animation. It’s hard not to be interdisciplinary, so I needed someone like Dr Christopher Holliday to advise me who can comfortably guide me through these areas. Also, with my interest in philosophy, I’m wading into areas where not much work has been done, so having a media philosopher like Professor Victor Fan has opened up whole new areas of study that have allowed me to engage in research that’s genuinely having an impact and getting other scholars excited.

King’s has a good range of add-ons to the usual university resources – like access to various film streaming platforms – which has been great. The Faculty of Arts and Humanities events have also been great because you get to meet people from other courses. The conversations you have, the exchanges of views, all of that has been fantastic in offering new avenues and ideas.

I really like the conversations that I get to have as part of my PhD – whether that’s in my supervisions, where both of my supervisors and I can spend an hour just digging into ideas and going over them from every angle, or more casual chats in the social spaces. I also just love teaching. Working with the undergrads allows me to test out my knowledge and learn from new perspectives, and those conversations always leave me feeling inspired and motivated.

I’m looking for post-doctoral positions for after I’ve finished my PhD so that I can keep researching. I would love to go into teaching, and I’d like to turn my thesis into a book.

Discover more about the Interdisciplinary Humanities PhD programme.