[artinfo] Academy of Fine Arts Vienna: PhD in Practice program

[Art & Education]

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna

Call for applications: PhD in Practice program

Application deadline: March 5, 2018

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Schillerplatz 3
1010 Vienna
Austria

<https://www.akbild.ac.at/portal_en/akbild_startpage?set_language=en&cl=en>www.akbild.ac.at
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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, Frank B. 
Wilderson III.

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. Its current focus, "Artistic Research: Assemblages of 
Epistemology, Methodology And The Arts" links questions on how to 
gain knowledge and how to do research with questions on aesthetics 
and representation, hoping to contribute to an understanding of 
research as a means to produce different knowledge and to produce 
knowledge differently.

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). 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 5, 
2018 following the online application procedure explained on the 
website of the program.

Further information can be found at 
<http://blogs.akbild.ac.at/phdinpractice/>blogs.akbild.ac.at/phdinpractice.

The final results of the application process will be published by June 2018.
Admitted candidates will embark on the PhD in Practice program in October 2018.

Funding
The PhD-in Practice program offers a limited number of doctoral study 
positions with full financial support for up to 4 years (30h/week on 
a 12-months-basis). The modalities of the payment follow the rules 
laid out by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (currently 2,071 
EUR/month before tax, incl. health benefits).