PhD in Science Communication Studies

Imperial College London

The activities of the Science Communication Unit span both academic research and professional media practice. Staff research interests include the media coverage of science and narratives of technological change. Please see our Staff pages for details of our individual research activities. The Silences of ScienceThe Silences of Science was an AHRC-funded research network, running from July 2013 to June 2014, which examined different aspects of the paradox that science depends both on prolixity and on reticence. We sought to interrogate the assumption that open and efficient channels of communication are always of greatest benefit to science and to society. The project aimed to remind the research community of the creative importance of silence, of interruptions in communication, of isolation and of ‘stuckness’.Through a series of three workshops and conferences, the research network brought together a range of scholars – from literary studies, anthropology, legal studies, religious studies, as well as from the history and philosophy of science and science communication studies – to draw on insights from their disciplines in order to examine the role of silence within the sciences.It normally takes between three and four years of full-time work to complete. It is also possible to undertake a PhD part time, over five to six years.