Practice-led Research

Arts and Humanities Research Council: Mapping Practice-led Research in Creative and Performing Arts, 2005-2008

The national AHRC Steering Committee on Practice-Led Research in Creative and Performing Arts was set up to determine the nature and extent of the scholarly infrastructure in practice-led creative and performing arts research. The initiative was used to consider and recommend ways in which the intellectual and creative infrastructures supporting research in the creative and performing arts could be enhanced and sustained, and how the scholarship accompanying such research could be made accessible to other scholars.

The AHRC Committee on Practice-Led Research conducted workshops and meetings throughout the UK, throughout 2005-2008. The questions asked in all creative arts areas were these:

1. Where is this research taking place?
2. What activities does this research cover?
3. Who is doing this research and why?
4. Who takes responsibility for this research? Who supports this research and why?
5. How is this research recognised, understood and acknowledged? In what ways is this research valued and assessed, and to what ends?
6. How is this research developed, sustained, fostered, challenged, or impeded? How is it added to?
7. What counts as evidence of this research activity? How is it used, by whom and for what purpose?
8. How is this research documented, stored, and made accessible and sustained?
9. How do practitioners access this research base?

As the subject association for Creative Writing, NAWE maintains a keen interest in postgraduate and faculty research in Creative Writing in universities and colleges, particularly through its NAWE Higher Education Network and the Higher Education Committee. The Creative Writing Benchmark Statement contains specific reference to Creative Writing research, both practice-led research and critical research (p.11-15).

We continue to be very interested in increasing access to examples of postgraduate practice-led and critical Creative Writing research. For example, anyone who has undertaken a doctorate in Creative Writing, and is willing to offer an example of the doctoral project undertaken, is keenly invited to contact either Paul Munden or Steve May, Chair of the NAWE HE Committee. We look to provide further information, and assistance, for all those undertaking Masters level and Doctoral level degrees in Creative Writing, and to do so by providing examples of the work undertaken and opportunities to meet and interact with others undertaking practice-led and critical research in Creative Writing.