Cosy Crime: Violent Death and Domestic Comfort From the Golden Age to the Present

A group of students seated on sofas in a blue room with book cases and art on walls

This Research & Knowledge Exchange Doctoral Project brief summarises our priority areas of research interest under the heading of: Cosy Crime: Violent Death and Domestic Comfort From the Golden Age to the Present.

We welcome all research degree applications aligned with and in response to this brief.

Project brief details

Crime fiction is the most popular of all genres. Book shops have vast and prominent displays of crime fiction and across the streaming services crime predominates. The winner of the 2022 International Crime Fiction Association’s Book Prize was awarded to the collection edited by Phyllis M. Betz – Reading the Cosy Crime. One of the reasons this book won was because, despite this sub-genre being among the most popular of all, it has been neglected as a subject for study in favour of the more ‘serious’ genres including true crime, hard-boiled crime, and noir. The Cosy mystery is seen as much more ‘lightweight’ and (inevitably) as more of a woman’s genre. Yet as a genre and a sector it is growing at a great pace.

This proposed PhD will examine the phenomena of cosy crime, looking at issues such as age, gender, race, domestic violence, politics, conservatism, and the juxtaposition of violence, murder, and death. How can such dreadful crimes be ‘cosy’ at all? How do questions of history, place, memory, and nostalgia feed into this type of fiction? The PhD can be critical or practice based, but we welcome proposals that interrogate the genre. Cosy crime covers literature, film, television, theatre, digital and social media platforms, and games. Proposals can be for study into any of these areas, for creative writing, screenplays, theatre, digital forms of communication, VRetc.

How does the cosy genre fit into our troubled society today? How can violence and comfort go hand in hand? How do other cultures and societies globally deal with the notion of cosy crime in their fictional representations? What impact has the genre had historically and in contemporary society? Sitting in the School of Communication successful applicants will bring a broad and innovative vision to the subject of cosy crime.

The School of Communication specialises in storytelling. We already have a thriving PGR community in the School of Communication and particularly in Writing and Journalism. Our students have workspace, opportunities to participate in our Research Talks programme, and some teach as well. We provide many opportunities for our PGR students to integrate in the department and feel that they are a vital part of a thriving, growing research community.

Strategic alignment

Projects deriving from this brief are expected to sit within the Research & Knowledge Exchange strategy and the following department.

Department School of Communication

All successful research degree project proposals must emphasise a clear alignment between the project idea and our Research & Knowledge Exchange strategy. 

Project brief lead

Dr Ruth Heholt: profile image
Dr Ruth Heholt

Project supervisor: Dr Ruth Heholt


Dr Ruth Heholt is an active member of the International Crime Fiction Association and the ICFA have agreed that the successful candidate will have a fee waiver for their annual conference, be invited to peer review for the Association’s journal Crime Fiction Studies published by Edinburgh University Press, and there will be more opportunities for collaborative publications.   

Read more

How to apply

Apply for a Research MPhil or PhD

We welcome all research degree applications aligned with this Doctoral Project brief. ​To apply in response to this brief or learn about the application process click the button below.

Apply for a Research Degree
Students in a square on campus

Enquiries

Project brief & project proposal enquiries

To discuss this project brief, ideas or project proposal responding to this brief, please contact: Dr Ruth Heholt.

E: ruth.heholt@falmouth.ac.uk

Application enquiries

For all other application related enquires please contact the Research & Development team.

E: research@falmouth.ac.uk

T01326 255831

Additional resources

Two women and a man seated at a desk with a laptop and print outs
Falmouth staff at table

Fund your Research Degree

See the options available to help you fund your research degree.

Fund your Research Degree
Students sat around a table in the AIR building
Students sat around table in AIR

Falmouth Doctoral Studentships

You can apply for a fully-funded Falmouth Doctoral Studentship as part of your research degree appli...

Falmouth Doctoral Studentships
Research & Innovation
R&I Homepage Lead

Research & Knowledge Exchange

By stepping beyond disciplinary lines, harnessing creativity and working with communities, we delive...

Research & Knowledge Exchange
News_Make a Difference in Research: Workshop Success
Impact Training Workshop October 2013. Image courtesy of CommsConsult.

Doctoral Project Briefs

We invite MPhil and PhD project proposals that respond to a doctoral project brief.

Doctoral Project Briefs