Steph Brocken

Currently:  Minerva Arts and Studying for a PhD in Applied Arts

I was a student in the Department of English from 2006 to 2009 and lived at home for the duration of my degree. One of the reasons I chose to stay at home was because I had the opportunity to continue the work I had done in my gap year in the Education Department of the Chester Gateway Theatre. Throughout my time at University I was able to combine my two primary interests, the study of literature and working in the applied arts field. After graduating in 2009 I was part of the first cohort to undertake the MA in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.

At this point, my parallel work in the arts led me to set up my own arts business, Minerva Arts. During the 2009/10 academic year, Minerva delivered several outreach projects in various settings throughout Cheshire and Greater Manchester, and in April 2011 I took over what was formerly the Chester Gateway Youth Theatre. In September 2011 I began my PhD research. My PhD is in applied arts, using the work that I have been doing over the past six years as its inspiration. It is informed by, and in turn informs, my professional practice under the banner of Minerva Arts. This means that I can continue to work professionally as a participatory artist whilst developing a career for myself in Higher Education and using all the academic skills and interests that I gathered during my undergraduate and Masters-level studies.