Call for applications for PhD in Practice Program

The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna invites applications to its doctoral program for research in artistic practice. The “PhD-in-Practice” program provides participants with the opportunity to pursue their individual arts-based research projects in a collective learning environment with a decidedly transdisciplinary and international bent. The program is coordinated by Renate Lorenz (Professor for Art and Research) and Anette Baldauf (Professor for Methodology and Epistemology). The invited lecturers and guests include Trinh T. Minh-ha, Stefano Harney, Suzana Milevska, Sharon Hayes.

The Program
The PhD in Practice program is built on a concept of arts-based research that relates to critical epistemologies, as they have been developed in the context of feminist, queer, postcolonial, ecological, postmarxist and other political and emancipatory projects. Inspired by these struggles, the PhD in Practice program approaches arts-based research as a space for the negotiation of social, political, cultural and economic conflicts. It refers to a history of research in the arts, which has been developed in dialog with an array of different fields, including academia, activism, high art as much as pop and subculture. It thus privileges cultural/artistic productions, which are concerned with a critique of injustice, social hierarchies and exclusions, and it is interested in the development of heterotopic visions as well as activist interventions. By engaging with these trajectories, the conditions and foundations of knowledge production in the art fields are themselves turned into a subject-matter of basic research.

The PhD in Practice program is designed for a duration of four years of study. During this time the participants will develop and implement their projects analytically and experimentally in coordination with the academic and artistic team of co-participants and faculty. Participants learn how to conceive, organize, document, as well as carry out independent and/or collaborative arts-based research in an environment that is dedicated to transdisciplinary and international exchange.

Course work is organized around so-called focus weeks, which take place one week per month during the academic calendar (October to January, March to June). This “low residency” scheme enables participants to take part and pursue their project without having to move permanently to Vienna (as much as this should be seen as an option). During these weeks the participants and the PhD in Practice team meet for tutorials, seminars, lectures, workshops, excursions and other research and study events. The PhD in Practice participants have access to the facilities and resources of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and to the institutions and people that form the broader and expanding network of the Academy. Moreover, participants are expected to take an active part in organizing the program, including the conceptualization and organization of workshops, guest lectures, conferences, exhibitions, screenings, etc.

Entry requirements
Requirements for admission to the PhD in Practice program are a degree (Magister, MA or diploma) from a recognized university, and the submission of a portfolio and a written project proposal. Applicants who are already engaged in an artistic or academic career are especially encouraged to apply.

The application is online only. Applications (to be written in English) must be received by March 13, 2016 following the online application procedure explained on the website of the program.

Further information can be found at blogs.akbild.ac.at/phdinpractice .

The final results of the application process will be published by June 1, 2016.

Admitted candidates will embark on the PhD in Practice program in October 2016.