The 4th CCVA PhD Forum

Over the past nearly two decades, the Centre for Chinese Visual Arts (CCVA) at Birmingham City University has been dedicated to advancing new understandings and perspectives on Chinese contemporary art, design, and visual culture through interdisciplinary practices and theoretical inquiry. Starting from September 2025, CCVA is officially rebranded as the Centre for Contemporary Visual Arts Asia (CCVA Asia), expanding its research scope from China to encompass East and Southeast Asia while maintaining a sustained focus on core issues in Chinese visual culture.

As an annual parallel event to the long-standing CCVA Annual Conference*, the PhD Forum was inaugurated in 2023 and has successfully held three editions annually. It has attracted a large number of PhD students and those who are newly awarded with doctorates from universities worldwide, from China, Europe and the UK. Unlike our themed annual conference, the PhD Forum breaks down disciplinary and geographical barriers to form a diverse exchange model of ‘theoretical discussion + practical cases’, with its core values manifested in three key aspects: it deepens research on Chinese contemporary visual culture by covering pivotal areas such as artistic practices in the digital age, cultural identity and memory, art ecology and industry, artistic expression of social issues, and interactions between education and policies; it builds an interdisciplinary dialogue platform that brings together researchers from art theory, media communication, folklore studies, gender studies, digital technology, and other fields; and it supports the academic growth of young scholars by providing a unique space for presenting research outcomes, exchanging ideas, and enhancing professional skills through panel discussions and expert feedback.

As the first academic event after the CCVA rebranding, the 4th PhD Forum will continue its tradition of openness and inclusiveness while further expanding its research boundaries: on one hand, it will sustain in-depth exploration of Chinese contemporary visual culture by inheriting the core academic achievements of the previous three forums, and on the other hand, it will extensively embrace research findings on contemporary art, design, media, and visual culture in East and Southeast Asia, covering diverse topics such as regional cultural inheritance and innovation, artistic expression amid social transformation, and cross-regional cultural exchange.

We embrace ‘Asia’ as both a research method and a core focus, aiming to break the single-country research framework, advance the global academic community’s comprehensive understanding of contemporary visual culture in China, as well as in East and Southeast Asia, and construct a more extensive and in-depth international exchange platform for young scholars.

Presentations should be no longer than 20 minutes. Forum fee: £40. Please note that this is an in-person only event.

To apply, please include all the following information and send it to: 

Yining.He@mail.bcu.ac.uk and copy to ccva@bcu.ac.uk 

The email subject should be ‘CCVA PhD Forum 4’, and the application deadline is . 

Information to be included in the application file:

1. Name
2. Email address
3. University and Department
4. PhD topic
5. PhD start year
6. Short biography (not extending 100 words)
7. Abstract (not extending 300 words)

Submitted proposals will be reviewed by CCVA PhD Forum Panel. Successful proposals will be notified within two weeks after the deadline. 

*In October 2026, we will be hosting our 19th Annual Conference: , at University of Bologna. Please see details here.