UAL Storytelling Research Fellowship 2026/7

The Fellowship supports six research projects over nine months, beginning November 2026. Fellows are employed for two days per week. They will develop and deliver a research project exploring how stories in popular culture create change.

We want research that asks why, how and when stories create change. Which kinds of stories are most likely to influence audiences and wider systems.

We welcome proposals across five themes:

1. Public support and mobilisation for climate justice.
2. How pop culture shapes young men’s sense of identity and wellbeing (this commission on masculinities will need to use  an ethnographic research approach).
3. Poverty and economic justice.
4. Migration, race, belonging and national identity.
5. Populism, democracy and people power.

Outputs must include a written report 6000-8000 words. This is equivalent to 11-16 pages single spaced not including references.

Additional outputs are welcome as appropriate to the research and can be discussed with the team.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. They must be able to attend Fellowship activities in person in London. This includes two workshops and the closing symposium.

The Fellowship is open to researchers whose work engages with storytelling, popular culture, media, narrative change, representation, audience behaviour, social change or related fields.

Applicants must hold a PhD. Or be able to demonstrate equivalent research experience through a substantial track record of high-quality academic or independent research outputs. This is not a practice-based research programme.

Applicants should be able to propose and deliver a clearly defined project within the Fellowship timeframe. They must be comfortable working independently while contributing to shared programme activities.

Fellows will be individually employed by UAL so it will not be possible for research teams to work on single pieces of research together.

All applicants must:

• have the right to work in the UK for the duration of the Fellowship
• be in London for the kick off meeting and mid-point workshop in-person
• be able to commit to the whole programme.
• propose an original research project and have an interest specifically in the impact of popular culture and in making a difference with their work. All research outputs should not have been previously published.
• be fluent in English.

We are looking for applicants able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills. These are described in the person specification section of the job description.

A nine-month employment contract for two days per week (0.4 FTE), starting in November 2026, at an annual salary of £48,563 (pro rata). The salary payable for the nine-month contract is £19,425, subject to PAYE and National Insurance contributions.

Fellows will receive mentorship, peer cohort engagement, research guidance. They will participate in workshops and a final public symposium where they present their findings.

The AKO Storytelling Institute is unable to:

• offer dedicated studio space
• help with publication or production costs
• support additional expenses associated with childcare or legal support
• help with materials
• help with general living costs including financial support with VISA costs.

Proposals should address the following overarching question:

In what ways and under what conditions does popular culture shift public attitudes, norms and behaviours on social and climate justice issues?

Popular culture

The Power of Pop Fund defines pop culture as the following: Pop culture is a collection of creative ideas, and people’s interaction with these ideas, which creates emergent, commonly shared reference points at a large scale.

For the purposes of this programme, we are interested in:

• popular culture content including television (scripted drama, reality TV, documentary, crime drama, soaps and comedy)
• film (narrative, animation,  documentary, blockbuster)
• games (indie and AAA)
• podcasts & radio (chat, narrative, journalism, audio drama)
• social media (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok)
• music
• comics and publishing
• fan communities
• the public discourse surrounding these types of content.

Priority Research areas

We welcome proposals focused on one or more of the following themes:

• Public support and mobilisation for climate justice.
• How pop culture shapes young men’s sense of identity and wellbeing.
• Masculinities (this must use an ethnographic research approach).
• Poverty and economic justice.
• Migration, race, belonging and national identity.
• Populism, democracy and people power.

Cross-cutting themes

Projects may approach the research areas from a range of perspectives.

Cross- cutting themes that intersect the research areas can include:

• Narrative analysis: What stories are being told and how? Identifying recurring themes, coding of tropes, archetypes, plotlines and representational patterns
• Audience & attitudinal research: How do different audiences respond to or interpret stories? How are audiences changed by cultural content?
• Cultural change and public discourse: How do stories shape the way we talk about different issues? How do ideas and narrative frames travel from popular cultural into public, media and political discourse.
• Behavioural research: Why and how do stories change people? Drawing on cognitive psychology, behavioural science and neuroscience to explain  empathy, narrative transportation, identification and related processes
• Participatory & community-centred research: How can communities help shape the stories that affect them? Co-designed with communities to understand lived experiences and reflect different perspectives and priorities. Relevant methods here might include focus groups, interviews and ethnographic-style research.
• Social media & big listening: How do stories spread, develop and gain influence? Tracking how narratives migrate into digital public discourse over time.
• Case studies: What can one story or piece of content teach or tell us about social change? In-depth examination of a specific pop culture work and its relationship to public discourse or policy. How did the story make a difference?
• Representation & identity: Whose stories are being told and what difference does this make? Examining how specific communities, identities and lived  experiences are portrayed across popular culture, and the relationship between those portrayals and how affected communities see themselves and are seen by others.

Level of Change

We welcome research examining social and environmental change for individuals, communities and institutions to systems and society. Where proposals examine change at the individual and community level, they should explain how the relevant processes contribute to societal and systemic change.

Geographic focus

The research projects should focus on British viewing audiences.

Audiences for this Research

The primary audience for this research is creative practitioners (such as storytellers, commissioners, impact producers, creative researchers, entertainment executives, broadcasters and streamers) with accessible and applicable research findings available to them. Secondary audiences include funders, civil  society organisations, academics, communications experts and campaigners.

Your proposal should be maximum 1,000 – 1,200 words excluding references and should include:

1. Project description (300 - 400 words)

▪ Your research objectives

▪ Key research question

▪ Why the work matters and the potential contribution of the project

▪ Why you are suitable to undertake the work

2. Methodology and Approach (500-600 words)

Please include:

▪ Your proposed methodology explaining your approach

▪ Data collection and analysis methods

▪ Any ethical considerations

▪ Potential limitations

We welcome qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods and emergent methods (e.g. big listening, social media analysis) as appropriate.

3. Delivery Plan (200 words)

▪ A proposed timeline

▪ Key milestones

▪ Expected outputs

Please apply through UAL’s application portal.

Please include:

• CV
• Record of research outputs (please provide links where available)
• Research proposal maximum 1000 - 1200 words
• Supporting statement including at least one example of a research project you’ve designed and delivered.

A team of UAL staff and members of the Power of Pop team will review the applications assessing against the selection criteria:

▪ Criterion 1: Relevance and synergy to programme objectives.

▪ Criterion 2: Experience and ability to deliver research project.

▪ Criterion 3: Quality of proposal and previous research.

▪ Criterion 4: The impact potential of the work in practice.

We are dedicated to bringing together a diverse cohort of Fellows from different backgrounds. Our goal is to have a balanced cohort of projects in the programme in terms of the social issues that the projects address reflecting diversity in the challenges we face. We aim to have rich and productive discussions and create an inclusive and safe environment for all fellows.

The Fellows need to be available in London for the in-person kick-off meeting, mid-point workshop and symposium:

• Programme duration: 9 months.
• Applications open: 01 August 2026.
• Deadline for applications: 11 September 2026.
• Interviews: 28-30 September.
• Fellowship commences with an in-person London workshop: 2 November 2026 (and contract start date).
• Ethics application & approval Nov/Dec 2026.
• In-person mid-point London workshop: 12 April 2027.
• Final report deadline: 16 Jul 2027.
• Closing symposium: October/November 2027 (date tbc).

For enquiries about the Fellowship, please contact storytelling@arts.ac.uk

Both the Power of Pop Fund and UAL AKO Storytelling Institute have produced frameworks that outline our approaches to research in this area and may help contextualise the research programme. We advise engaging with these to understand the project. It is not a requirement to read both in full.

• Power of Pop Fund Foundational Framework
• Impact Storytelling: The Ecosystem, The Evidence and Possible Futures

We consider the following examples relevant to the objectives of this programme and are offering them as indicative of work we admire. Applicants are not expected to replicate their scale or resources. We also note that many of these are from different geographical jurisdictions to the brief outlined in this call out.

• Haqq and Hollywood — Dr Maytha Al-Hassen, Pop Culture Collaborative. Traces 100 years of Muslim tropes in media and sets out recommendations for authentic representation.
• Break the Story: Imagining a Future Beyond White Supremacy — Jamilah King, Pop Culture Collaborative. A series of themed collections examining white supremacy narratives in television storytelling.
• Normalizing Injustice — Color of Change. A content audit of scripted crime TV finding, among other results, that 81% of showrunners were white men.
• Missing and Maligned — Pillars Fund. Found that just 1.1% of characters in 100 US films and 63 UK films were Muslim; paired with a Blueprint for Muslim Inclusion.
• The State of Social Impact Entertainment — Skoll. A major mixed-methods report spanning multiple genres, social issues and data sources.
• Change the Narrative; Change the World — Define American and Norman Lear Center. Longitudinal study tracking immigrant  representation and audience attitudes across television from 2018 to 2022.
• Are You What You Watch? — Norman Lear Center / Future Perfect Lab. Explores how TV viewing habits map to political values across conservative, liberal and swing audiences.
• Move Them or Lose Them — Define American and Harmony Labs. Identifies four segments of 'moveable' audiences on immigration and examines what content influences them.