PhD Studentship - Re-imagining Design for Critical Access in Museums and Cultural Spaces with Neurodivergent Youth

Project advert

This studentship is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in collaboration with Pinc College to explore neurodivergent young people’s perspectives on museums and cultural spaces. The successful applicant will study for a PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Museums and cultural spaces play a vital role in neurodivergent youth’s socialisation and education. In turn, neurodivergent youth bring unique perspectives, curiosity, and deep interests to these institutions. However, access is often designed by abled people in non-participatory ways, reinforcing exclusionary structures.

This PhD will be the first to engage neurodivergent young people in critically reimagining access in museums and cultural spaces. The project will foreground the experiences of arts students from Pinc College in two museums in England’s Northwest as they generate ethnographic insights into inclusion in cultural spaces.

Bridging critical access design and critical disability studies, the PhD will challenge traditional understandings of access as mere accommodation. Instead, it embraces critical access design, which critiques how decision-making in issues of accessibility often excludes neurodivergent perspectives.

Project aims and objectives

• To explore how insights from critical disability studies and critical access design can make cultural spaces more inclusive for neurodivergent youth.
• To examine how critical access design can be used as a methodology to generate new ethnographic understandings of cultural spaces with neurodivergent youth.
• To investigate how data and resources produced with neurodivergent youth while documenting their experiences of accessibility/inaccessibility in cultural spaces can help staff envision ways of improving inclusion and participation.

Specific requirements of the candidate

Candidates should have a background in inclusive education and ideally experience in critical disability studies, museums and autism, disability arts, access design, alternative education settings, or neurodivergent youth.

To be eligible for a WRDTP award, applicants must apply for a PhD place in an eligible school or department and intend to undertake a social sciences research project within the ESRC’s remit.

In addition to the standard entry requirements and the ESRC’s minimum threshold, typically a first- or upper second-class honours degree or equivalent qualifications/experience. Those without an undergraduate degree may meet requirements through further higher education study.

Funding information

The studentship entails a standard UKRI stipend for each year of the award, pro-rata for part-time study ((£20,780 per year for 2025/26 for full-time study), and full tuition fees for the duration of the award, payable at the home or international rate as appropriate.

Studentship offers are subject to the approval of the WRDTP Academic Quality Committee (AQC).

Further information

Interested applicants should contact Laura Trafi-Prats (l.trafi-prats@mmu.ac.uk), Principal Supervisor for an informal discussion.  

To apply you will need to complete the online application form for a part-time/full-time PhD in Education (or download the PGR application form).

You should also complete the Narrative CV) form addressing the project’s aims and objectives, demonstrating how the skills you have maps to the area of research and why you see this area as being of importance and interest. 

If applying online, you will need to upload your statement in the supporting documents section, or email the application form and statement to PGRAdmissions@mmu.ac.uk.

Expected start date: October 2025

Please quote the reference: H&E-LP-Education-WRDTP CDA 2025

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