Â鶹AV

The School of Arts, Culture and Language at Â鶹AV is delighted to offer a four-year fully funded studentship. The studentship is part of the AHRC-funded Lles project, which will fund 28 studentships across universities in Wales. This studentship will commence in October 2026.

Overview

This Doctoral Studentship will support a creative research project in the field of ecopoetics that integrates individual writing practice with participatory, community-based methodologies to explore collective dimensions of place. It offers an exciting opportunity to shape research in the discipline of creative writing by foregrounding the socially transformative aspects of creative practice.

While wellbeing is often imagined as a private, internal, or psychological state, Wales's Future Generations Act offers a more expansive conception, framing it as shaped by cultural, material, ecological, and communal factors that can encompass collective experiences of landscape, shared resources, environmental stewardship, and community resilience. Ecopoetics, as an interdisciplinary field that brings together creative writing and environmental humanities, has increasingly become responsive to this broader perspective.

With a central focus on how specific natural environments in north Wales are experienced and interpreted, the project will enable the development of diverse methods, such the use of interviews, walks, multimedia approaches and interdisciplinary research to create a substantial literary work.

Alongside this artistic practice-led dimension, the candidate will undertake a sustained critical examination of previous works that have enabled new ways of understanding place, environment, and social and ecological wellbeing.

Applications with an interest in how the field of ecopoetics is developing both internationally and in Wales would be warmly welcomed.

Potential research questions could include the following:

• How can ecopoetic practices contribute to collective forms of environmental engagement?
• How can creative methods support communities in articulating shared experiences of place?
• How can writing practices account for the roles of non-human actors?
• How can collective creative work shape or transform understandings of wellbeing?
• What new forms of poetry or participatory art emerge when ecological thinking is placed at the centre of creative practice?
• How might these forms influence broader cultural conversations about environment, sustainability, and responsibility to future generations?

The project will include a placement of at least three months with Literature Wales.

Supervisory Team

Lead supervisor Zoë Skoulding, Professor of Poetry and Creative Writing, is an award-winning poet and critic. She is Co-Director of CAInC, the Centre for Creative Arts Interdisciplinary Collaboration at Â鶹AV, and active in international networks in poetry, sound and performance in an ecological context.

Co-supervisor Dr Fiona Cameron's poetry engages with innovative ecopoetics, and she is involved in an ongoing cross-artform collaboration that explores deep time in a discrete six-acre location and focuses on ideas of scale, human tenure, and the non-human life.

Dave Chadwick, Professor of Sustainable Land Use Systems, will have an advisory role in the team. He has world-leading expertise in sustainable agricultural practices, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the risk of transfers of pollutants to watercourses, and understanding the secondary impacts of mitigating diffuse agricultural pollution.

LLes

Lles is a consortium of all Wales’ universities, working in partnership with Welsh public and third-sector bodies. It will fund and train PhD students to investigate issues relating to wellbeing through the arts and humanities. Lles is a Welsh word that means ‘benefit’ or ‘wellbeing’. Its use here captures both how Lles students will benefit from training and career development and how their research on wellbeing will be for the benefit of wider society in Wales and beyond.

Lles and its studentships are guided by the ambition, principles and requirements of the Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This legislation is globally unique and obligates Welsh public bodies to set objectives and take steps to improve the economic, social, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of Wales against seven goals: prosperity, resilience, equality, health, cohesive communities, vibrant culture and Welsh language, global responsibility. Lles seeks to use the arts and humanities to meet and understand these goals.

Lles will fund 28 PhD studentships over 4 cohorts. Lles studentships will explore and demonstrate how the arts and humanities can contribute to a healthy planet, people, and places. At the project’s heart is the Well-being of Future Generations Act (Wales) 2015. This unique legislation was designed to improve the wellbeing and sustainability of people and places in Wales. The underpinning goal of Lles is to work with and take forward that vision. All its students will receive bespoke training delivered in collaboration with the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales about the Act, its five ways of working and how these can be used in public life and policy. Every Lles student will undertake a sustained placement with a Welsh public body where they will develop their research and employment experiences.

Placement

All Lles students are required to undertake a placement that totals at least three months.

Applicant webinar

A webinar for applicants will be held on 3^rd March at 4pm. This will be an opportunity to go over the Lles project and ask questions. To register for the webinar, please complete the form

Entry Criteria

To receive Lles studentship funding, you should have qualifications or experience equivalent to an UK honours degree at a first or upper second-class level, or a masters. Students with non-traditional academic backgrounds are also welcome to apply.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Lles is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and creating an inclusive environment for all. We welcome applications from all members of the global community irrespective of age, disability, sex, gender identity, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation.

Assessment

Short-listed applicants will be invited to interview. As part of the interview process, applicants will be asked to give a short presentation and answer a series of panel questions.  Interviews may be held in person but will also be available through Zoom/Teams for any applicants who wish to participate in that way. If requested, interviews can be conducted in Welsh.

How to apply

Applications should be received no later than 27^th March 2026 including all required documents. Due to the volume of applications received, incomplete applications will not be considered.

All applications should be submitted HERE 

Please include the following documents with your application:

• CV - This may be in a narrative form, demonstrating how your lived experience, educational and/or work journey showcases your potential
• Statement outlining your interest in this project, your ideas for it and your suitability to undertake it (2 pages max)
• Academic or professional references (candidates must approach referees themselves and include references with their application. The reference must detail the applicant’s research strengths).
• Degree certificates and Transcripts (including translations if applicable)
• If relevant, proof of English Language Competency (see institutional requirements for entry)

Funding

The studentship funded by the AHRC covers tuition fees, an annual tax-free living stipend in line with UKRI minimum rates (currently £21, 805 for 2026-27 full-time) and includes access to a Research Training Support Grant. Full and part-time applications are welcomed. If you have a disability, you may be entitled to a Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) on top of your studentship.