PhD Studentship - Stories of Intangible Heritage and Cultural Practices (of Horseracing) through Place-based Immersive Interactive Experiences: National Horse Racing Museum

This project celebrates the vibrant cultural practices, intangible heritage, and unique social rituals of horse racing through emergent immersive and interactive storytelling. It aims to explore how these practices can be made tangible and publicly accessible via bespoke, place-based immersive experiences within a museum context. Focusing on the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket—the birthplace of horse racing, the global epicentre of the sport, and the financial hub of the racing trade in Europe. 

This fully funded PhD position, jointly funded by the National Horseracing Museum and the Manchester School of Art, offers the candidate an interdisciplinary academic supervision board comprising experts from Manchester School of Architecture, School of Digital Arts (SODA), and the curatorial team of the National Horseracing Museum. Through hands-on involvement in a real-world project at a premier national institution, the candidate will investigate how a museum setting can integrate advanced immersive and interactive technologies to communicate intangible heritage. As part of the broader ‘Day at the Races’ project, the project will capture the essence, stories, and cultural experiences of horse racing and develop site-specific, place-based immersive media to effectively convey them.

Project aims and objectives

The project aims to:

• Investigate the challenges and opportunities of using immersive technologies to tell the stories of intangible heritage and cultural practices surrounding horse racing within a museum context. 
• Activate parts of a Grade II* listed building (Gallery 6–7, Palace House) by transforming it into a fully immersive space.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of digital narrative interventions and immersive spaces in enhancing public engagement, accessibility, and the transmission of cultural practices to non-specialist audiences and future generations.

This research will make significant contributions to multiple academic fields:

• Digital Heritage: It will advance the understanding of how cutting-edge technologies and immersive interactive spaces, and potentially AI can be utilized to address challenges in heritage communication and engagement.
• Immersive Technologies: It will offer practical insights into the design and implementation of bespoke immersive and interactive systems for tangible heritage within historically significant buildings.
• Intangible Heritage: It will explore how innovative digital heritage can function as a means to reflect vibrant cultural experiences, such as the one of a ‘Day at Racing’ to non-specialised public audiences and younger generations.

Funding information

The student will be in receipt of a stipend payment, amount to be confirmed on offer (as an example the 24/25 rate is £19,237).

Home and Overseas students can apply. Home fees are covered. Eligible overseas students will need to make up the difference in tuition fee funding. 

Further information

Interested applicants should contact Dr Hamid Khali (h.khalili@mmu.ac.uk) for an informal discussion. 

To apply you will need to complete the online application form for a full-time PhD in Architecture (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. 

Applicants should also submit a link to their portfolio or a link to selected examples of their relevant creative work outputs. 

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.

Closing date: 18 March 2025

Expected start date: October 2025

Please quote the reference: A&H-HamidK-Architecture-2025

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