Michael Coates MA, MPhil

Head of Postgraduate Taught, Faculty of Arts & Humanities

As Head of Postgraduate Taught for the Faculty of Arts & Humanities I oversee the delivery, recruitment, quality and development of all taught MA, MFA and MSc courses in the Faculty. My primary focus in this role is to engage with our postgraduate students in a mutually beneficial relationship to ensure the continued improvement and success of our courses and our students.

I teach into a number of postgrad and undergrad units, most frequently on 2nd year undergrad unit "The City: Architecture, Art and Society", which deals with the social and political world as it is represented in, and determined by, the urban environments of the 20th and 21st Century.

I have taught at Manchester Metropolitan University permanently since 2008 as a Lecturer in History of Art & Design, from 2010 as Senior Lecturer Contextualising Practice, from 2015 as Contextualising Practice Coordinator, and as of May 2018 as Faculty Head of Postgraduate Taught.

My research areas are multifarious, but are concentrated Radical approaches to architecture and built environment generally, particularly urbanism, place making, philosophies of experiencing space, psychogeography, urban resistance, regeneration, and alternative modes of housing including self-build, co-housing, and participatory architecture.

My scholarly work concentrates on the relationship of anarchist modes of doing, and organisation of the architectural profession. I am interested in the desacralisation of architectural knowledge and skill, and the democratisation of access to the building of buildings.

These interests coalesced in February 2013 when I began my PhD part-time at the Sheffield School of Architecture, University of Sheffield. The intended final thesis is now entitled "THE ARCHITECTS REVOLUTIONARY COUNCIL: Anarchist and radical modes of ‘doing architecture’ in the UK, 1972-1980". My research has developed as an exploration of anarchism and anarchist modes of organisation as they can be developed in architectural practice. Especially looking at modes of anarchist control in the maintenance, redevelopment and construction of dwellings.

I am (2019-2022) External Examiner at the De Montfort University International Pathway College (DMUIC). DMUIC offers undergraduate and postgraduate pathways leading to a degree award from De Montfort University.

My education in design and architecture began with an undergraduate degree at the Cardiff School of Art graduating with a 2:1, BA (Hons) Interior Architecture in 2002. I moved to Manchester in 2003 (and after 16 years consider myself an adopted Mancunian) starting my MA in Spatial Design at the School of Art, graduating with a Distinction in 2004.