Job: Funded PhD Opportunity - ERC SYNCULTURE Project: Synthetic Media in Contemporary Hip-Hop; Deadline: 17.07.2026
Synthetic Media in Contemporary Hip-hop PhD
PhD scholarship covering stipend and tuition support, exploring synthetic media and AI in contemporary hip-hop, within an ERC-funded research project.
Award details
Award type: External
Award value: Stipend plus fees with international tuition only
Application deadline: 17 July 2026
Study level: Postgraduate Research
Qualification level: Doctorate
Campus: Birmingham (Edgbaston)
This scholarship comprises a living stipend plus tuition-fee bursary totalling c.a. £26,000 per year for a home student. (It is not a fee-waiver but a bursary to pay the tuition fee.) International students are eligible to apply, although they would receive a tuition fee bursary alone and study via distance learning.
This PhD project will address the new aesthetic, technical, and citational practices that have evolved around the use of synthetic media in contemporary hip-hop (understood as a global meta-genre, and inclusive of grime, trap etc).
Scholars have persisted in interpreting such media through the frame of sampling and remix culture, themselves inherited from nearly a century of criticism on the status of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. But the concept of ‘synthesis’ that has come to refer to the products of generative AI does not imply an original-copy relation. As such, it has been harder to assimilate to existing legal, moral, and philosophical frameworks of authorship--hence calls for new forms of copyright to protect e.g. vocal likeness.
Some questions that arise from this new arrangement may include:
How are the evolving commercial and legal norms in this area informing musical practice in hip-hop? (For instance, new licensing arrangements between musical rights holders and AI music companies.)
In what ways might emerging restrictions and the creative licenses they beget call for a new analytics of power and resistance for contemporary popular music?
What practices and discourses of authentication are emerging around uses of synthetic media in hip-hop, and what methods should we deploy to analyse them?
Are there different moral economies in play when amateur hip-hop musicians make use of synthetic voices as opposed to stars?
The successful candidate will join SYNCULTURE, an ERC-funded project that seeks to develop a richer understanding of musical synthesis as a cultural technique, both in the present and in history. Individual work-packages address synthesis in terms of 1) contemporary musical practices; 2) discourse and terminology; 3) theories of representation and modelling: 4) engineering practice; and 5) property and ownership.
Supervision team
Professor Christopher Haworth (University of Birmingham)
Dr Dhanveer Brar (University of Leeds)
Dr Maria Perevedentseva (University of Salford)
Funding Notes
This PhD is part of the ERC-Consolidator project, After Sampling Culture: Synthetic Media as Culture in Twenty-First Century Music
Who can apply?
Applicants should have an undergraduate degree and MA in music, music technology, or cultural studies. In exceptional cases, relevant professional experience will be considered if you don't have an MA.
Which countries and nationalities are eligible?
Open to anybody from any country and any nationality
How to Apply
To apply for this PhD, candidates must write a 2-page research proposal, attuned to their own interests and specialisms, that takes the above questions as a starting point. Additionally, candidates will supply:
A 1-page cover letter (this should set out your reasons for applying for the scholarship and why you are suited to the research proposed.
CV (include the names and contact details of two referees at the end of the CV)Transcript of grades.
Transcript of grades.
These documents should be sent to: calscholarshipprizes[at]contacts.bham.ac.uk by July 15 2026 at 12:00pm.
Additionally, applicants must submit an application to study by this deadline (using the same materials)
Following shortlisting, interviews will be held. At this stage we will ask for reference from the referees nominated by shortlisted candidates.
All are welcome to apply, but preference will be given to candidates who are underrepresented in academia, and/or from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Ask a Question
For more information about this scholarship please contact Professor Christopher Haworth c.p.haworth[at]bham.ac.uk