Funded PhD with SGSAH ARCS - Documenting Edinburgh International Film Festival

This project investigates the history and local and international impacts of Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), one of the world’s longest established and running film festivals.

About the Studentship

Since its inception in 1947, EIFF has been a prominent international showcase of cinema and a platform for local Scottish and British film talent. Cataloguing, preserving and analysing the National Library of Scotland (NLS)’s extensive archival holdings on EIFF, as well as locating and scoping EIFF-related materials held elsewhere, the project combines close reading of audiovisual material and text-based festival ephemera through festival studies methodologies to map the networks, curatorial logics and archival gaps that have defined EIFF’s history.

This is a PhD in collaboration with the NLS, and is jointly funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH), Queen Margaret University (QMU) and The University of Edinburgh (UoE). The project supervisors are Dr Chris Cassells (NLS), Dr Robert Munro (QMU) and Prof. Jonathan Murray (UoE).

Co-supervised from QMU and UoE, the PhD student will work in partnership with NLS to explore how EIFF has shaped, and been shaped by, Scottish, British and global film cultures and film festival landscapes since 1947. Focusing on NLS’s EIFF holdings, the student will investigate three central questions/problems: (1) festival networks — EIFF’s local and trans/national relationships with funders, distributors, critics, programmers, filmmakers and other festivals; (2) curatorial logics — successive artistic directorships’ serial (re)articulations of EIFF’s identity and mission; (3) archival gaps — quantifying and responding to absences within the NLS archive and how these shape understandings of the Festival.

Throughout the project the student will have regular onsite work placements with NLS in Edinburgh and will gain appropriate training through the supervision of curatorial staff in addition to the support provided by two academic co-supervisors. The student will also be part of the postgraduate training network organised by SGSAH and will take part in the annual SGSAH Summer School and other events.

The successful applicant will have their course fees waived and will receive an annual stipend at the UKRI rate (£21,805 for 2026/2027).


The successful candidate will have a 1st/ 2.1 Honours Undergraduate degree, and/or a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., Film, Media or Culture Studies, Festive Studies, Creative and Cultural Industries, Library & Information Studies, Archives and Records Management) and/or equivalent research experience.

Desirable applicant prior knowledge and skills:

  • Applied, historical and theoretical forms of curiosity about film culture, specifically, how films are curated, exhibited and programmed within festival contexts, and an interest in historical processes of film festival documentation and cataloguing.
  • Strategic ability to identify and build relevant working relationships, effective communication with relevant project partners and audiences, and effective liaison with key stakeholders.
  • Evidence of existing relevant skills and experience in qualitative and/or quantitative research and a willingness to learn and apply skills from both approaches.
  • Dynamism and enthusiasm to drive ideas forward, set goals and work to deadlines.

Applicants should meet the standard entry criteria for the QMU PhD Programme as follows:

  • A degree in an appropriate subject, or have a qualification or experience accepted as equivalent.
  • A Bachelor’s degree with an excellent or very good classification (i.e., first or upper second-class honours in the UK or international equivalent) or a good Master’s degree.
  • International applicants for whom English is a second language must also evidence competence in written and spoken English by submitting a valid IELTS certificate (valid for 2 years from date of test) with an average score of 6.5 (with no element scoring below 6.0); or evidence of successful completion of a Master’s degree in the UK; or evidence of successful completion of a non-UK Master’s degree taught and assessed in English.

Full instructions on how to apply can be found on the following Queen Margaret University webpage - Apply

The deadline for applying to this funded position is 6th May 2026.

Interviews will be held on the 12th May 2026 (please note this date and ensure you will be available to attend an online interview on this date).


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