Post-Grad interest groups
UAL’s Post-Grad Community supports a growing number of issue-specific, cross-disciplinary interest groups led by postgraduate students and academics.
These connect postgrads with shared research and interests or social interest needs across different subject areas and provide the opportunity to develop, new social networks, knowledge sharing, peer supported projects and the expanding of creative portfolios.
Open for PhD and MA leaders and members. Undergraduates will be welcome to some too!
As an example, PhD students have launched interest groups in the past to coincide with exhibitions and symposiums that they have organised under the same theme. Students have also used Interest Groups as a working group towards research or a standalone event or series.
Hear from the initiators of three thriving PhD student-led interest groups to understand how these originated and how the group has fuelled their research.
Want to start an Interest Group?
Once you have completed your proposal with the help of the Post-Grad Interest Group Set Up Guide (PDF 65KB). Please book into a Post-Grad Interest Group Surgery to discuss your idea with a member of the Post-Grad Community Team.
Alternatively, email your proposal to pgcommunity@arts.ac.uk. Or enquire about the next scheduled Post-Grad Interest Group Surgery.
Post-Grad Interest Group Directory
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© Rachel Whiteread, 'Story Time' 2008, Tate
Photograph: © Rachel Whiteread, TatePost-Grad Guardians
Are you a student with caring responsibilities, a parent or a carer for someone at home? Come together for support and friendships.
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'Streetstyle: from sidewalk to catwalk', a seminal fashion exhibition staged at the Victoria & Albert Museum in November 1994
Subcultures
What are the functions and meanings of subcultures historically and contemporarily?
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Remi Rana-Allen,
BLAME
Brown Leaders and Makers Exist - With aims to 'make the brown feminist maker visible’.
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Spiritual Stitching 2024
Spiritual Stitching
Spiritual Stitching is a collective of UAL postgraduates, alumni, and staff, interested in the art and meditation of embroidery.
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Fashion and ethnicity - Post-Grad Interest Group
Fashion and Ethnicity
Looking at how ethnicity intersects with practices of fashion in its broadest sense.
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Post-Grad Interest Group - PhD Tea and Chat, hybrid attendance option
PhD Tea and Chat
A place for PhD students to come together as a community, to socialise or to study and help each other through their PhD journey.
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Post-Grad Community,
Mindful Knitters
Building connections through the mindful practice of knitting.
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Lucy Stapylton-Smith and Guillaume Choquard, 2018 M ARCH: Architecture, Central Saint Martins, UAL | Photograph: Lucy Stapylton-Smith and Guillaume Choquard
Preparing For Publication, Peer Review
PhD student only group, for members to share and discuss texts and other material intended for publication.
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Chris Morris, Courtesy of the Subcultures Archives
Vintage
This group is for people interested in Vintage. From those who are interested in learning more about it, to those who like to dress in vintage and are interested in social history/popular culture.
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Musarc Winter Konsert - Thierry Bal, Musarc Winter Konsert - Thierry Bal
Performance Research Lab
A platform for performance researchers to share research projects to a shared space investigating the critical frameworks and enquiry-driven creative methods underpinning performance practices.
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MA Global Collaborative Design Practice | Photograph: Winifred AhupaCircular Communities
Collaboratively explore and design creative solutions to circular economy practices through the lens of community resourcefulness
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Image: Ana Flavia Fernandes (MA Global Collaborative Design Practice, UAL CCW)
| Photograph: Ana Flavia FernandeBrick by Bite
Designed for MA and PhD students who are new to London and eager to build connections, while delving into the city’s dynamic urban fabric.
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Left: Moss universe (loupe), Lucy Jane MacAllister Dukes & Bryophyte, digital image, 2025. Right: Mushroom Resisters, Sara Vanore Rewkiewicz & Tuber Borchii, chemigram, 2022.
More than human
A global network of researchers exploring more-than-human ways of worlding
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Photograph: Andris Romanovskis (Unsplash)
Fashion Commercial Awareness
A space for postgraduates to keep up with the latest news in fashion commerce.
Interest group stories
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Post-Grad Community PhD Mixer at UAL's Doctoral School, 2024, High Holborn, UAL | Photograph: Kat Newman Post-Grad Community PhD Mixer Featuring the Subcultures Interest Group
On Friday 23 February 2024, PhD candidates gathered to mingle and connect at a PhD Mixer. Organised by the Post-Grad Community, the mixer was the first Post-Grad Community event to be held at the new Doctoral Space, High Holborn.
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Image: Camila Rivero-Lake Cha, a print publication from Brown Leaders and Markers Exist (BL&ME)
Post-Grad Interest Group, BL&ME, have digitally released its debut publication, Cha. Download your copy here and find out more about the upcoming exhibition for UAL's Research Season 2023.
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Example of zines Subcultures Interest Group Newspaper Call for Submissions
Post-Grad Community's Subcultures Interest Group will be launching a music press style newspaper - submit your piece now.
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Bracelets used for object analysis, PhD Candidate Anushka Tay (2020). Reporting back on ‘Fashion and Ethnicity’ Post-Grad Interest Group’s 2021 Meetups
Our regular group meetups provide a welcoming and open space to consider the meanings and ramifications of ethnicity in fashion and dress practices worldwide.