There is a funded PhD opportunity for a suitable candidate to undertake research at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China, under the supervision of Dr. Yiwen Wang (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University) and Prof. Barry Godfrey (University of Liverpool, UK).The title of the proposed project is: The Reuse of Decommissioned Prisons in the Heritage Industry: Comparative Research in China and UK (化遗产产业中关于退役监狱的再利用─中国和英国案例比较研究）

Further details, including eligibility requirements, are available here http://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/assets/files/admissions/phd-projects/upd/RDF-16-01-22.pdf

The proposed project takes a comparative approach to examine ethical, commercial, and academic issues in the re-use of former prisons by the heritage industry. It focuses on transformation and trans-institutionalization of defunct prisons and considers prison reuse from an interdisciplinary perspective – history, criminology and architecture. In particular, it raises questions on how tourism sector’s commodification of heritage may have reshaped our accepted norms for the present use of the past; and how contemporary societies’ perception of prisons – and subsequently discernments of historical prisoners and crimes – may have been re-conceptualized by the new use. Investigation into different societies’ attitudes toward the reuse of prison structures and sites will further broaden our understanding about cultural nuances in perception and variance in ability to transcend the stigma of the past use. The research findings will provide a guide for heritage-experts as to how buildings once used for punishment and incarceration can now be re-purposed for the leisure and education sector, bringing new understandings to the public about their architectural and social pasts.

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