About the project or challenge area

This interdisciplinary project explores how nineteenth-century literature and visual culture in France, in the age of ‘carboniferous capitalism’ (Asa Briggs), can help us understand the capacity and the agency of the human body. How do bodies respond to environmental pressures, and how do bodies leave their traces on things and on landscape. Exploring Realist and Impressionist art and Emile Zola’s landmark novel Germinal (1885), through a range of critical thought on cultural and material modernisation, this project will ask how textual and visual culture of the past can help us understand more deeply our global present and, perhaps, our future.

Why choose this opportunity?

You will develop a keener sense of how the past shapes our values, consciousness, and behaviours today. You will acquire fluency in the exploration of text and image. You will have the opportunity to work across the boundaries between text, image, and 'real world' instances.

About you

You will have a desire to engage with pictures and narrative texts and will have an enthusiasm for exploring industrial landscape contexts and cultures.

How to apply

All students can apply using the button below, following the Admissions Statement (PDF, 220kB). 

Before applying, we recommend getting in touch with the project's supervisors. If you are interested in this project and would like to learn more about the research you will be undertaking, please use the contact details on this page.