Ph.D. (Research) Project Summary

River Irk Valley is a landscape rich in the past have played a climactic role in the industrial legacy of the city of Manchester. Now partially culverted beneath Victoria Station, the river also has been a symbol of the environmental hurt that industrialization can yield. This 3.5-year fully-funded project – organized in partnership with Manchester City Council and housed in the Leverhulme Unit for the Design of Cities of the Future at Manchester Met - will draw upon both critical and creative strategies to investigate how the (his)stories of the River Irk might inform and challenge plans for the future of this area of Manchester.
The successful applicant will be allowed to shape the project according to their academic background and interests. The methodology is expected to include archival research on the history of the Irk, analysis of extant cultural representations, and a co-produced element based on work with local communities. It might further incorporate place writing, oral history research, creative cartography, and critical comparisons of the Irk and other urban rivers.
The Irk Valley is also home to Victoria North: the North of England’s most ambitious urban regeneration program. Crucially, then, this assignment will examine how creative strategies can inform and/or challenge plans for the sustainable regeneration of Victoria North and other such developments both in the UK and internationally.