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Leeds Metropolitan
University creates pioneering partnerships with the arts and sport. It
is well-known for its strong cultural partnerships include links with
Opera North, Northern Ballet Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and the
Harrogate International Festival. In 2005, the University formed a
partnership with the world-renowned Black Dyke Band and the two partners
are pleased to announce the creation of the Black Dyke Band Doctoral
Studentship, to commence in September 2008. The award is to allow a
suitably qualified student to study for a PhD on the topic outlined
below.
The University will pay a grant of £12,600 per annum., plus necessary
research expenses and fees, to an approximate total of £3,500 per annum.
The Black Dyke Mills Band, 1855-c1955: a social and cultural history
The British brass band movement was one of the most significant
working-class cultural institutions to emerge in the nineteenth and
earlier twentieth centuries and the Black Dyke Mills Band was one of its
most significant and celebrated products. This project seeks to situate
the band within the wider context of social, economic and cultural
change over a period which saw the brass band move to a central place in
northern popular musical life, only to be pushed into a far more
marginal position. It would focus on such issues as the social
composition of the band; its relationship to its employer and sponsor,
John Foster and Son; its role in the local community; rivalries with
other bands and what these tell us about both the movement and wider
territorial identities; music and masculinity; bands and social
opportunity and advancement; brass bands and musical education and so on
The sources for this study are rich and various. The band holds a rich
musical archive. Primary sources relating to the history of the mill and
copies of the relevant local press are easily available in or close to
Leeds, while the brass band 'trade press' can be accessed in the
National Newspaper Library in Colindale, north London.
The successful candidate will be situated in the Institute of Northern
Studies, established at Leeds Metropolitan University in 2006 to explore
the history, culture and idea of the north. The Institute is a research
centre, teaching unit and focal point for public activities in the wider
community committed to the highest standards in research and teaching,
and to the widest possible involvement of the public in higher
education. For more detail see
http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/vco/institute_of_northern_studies.htm
Lead supervision will be provided by Professor Dave Russell, author of
Popular Music in England. A Social History (Manchester University Press,
1997) and numerous other books and articles on the history of English
popular culture. |
