PhD position JUST PRODUCTION: ART & SOIL ECOLOGIES

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) is offering a PhD position within the JUST ART consortium focused on researching and developing artistic and art-based approaches to address the foundational role of soil ecologies in keeping our planet livable.

Your function

As one out of ten PhDs within the JUST ART consortium, and one of the two positions located at VU, the focus of this PhD will be on soil ecologies.

Soil is a life-sustaining system that serves both human and non-human life. It is a vital site of multispecies conviviality and a highly sophisticated regenerative system. Challenging the conception of the ground as a neutral or passive backdrop, artists and environmental humanities scholars emphasize the fragility of soil as an entity that suffers, remembers, and “retains responsibility” (Fiske 2020). Through nurturing land care practices, cultivating “soil attentiveness” (Puig de la Bellacasa 2015), and experimenting with legal frameworks to defend soil against pollution, artists have been positioning soil as a foundation for environmental justice since the 1960s at least. This PhD position is intended to reflect and build upon such theories and practices by developing artistic and art-based approaches that contribute to more just relationships to and through soil—on and through the ground.

You will work in collaboration with local stakeholders in the Netherlands, including but not restricted to our project partners. At VU, you will be working with the Arts & Culture group, the members of the Environmental Humanities Center, with our ArtScience gallery, and profit from the expertise of our systems ecology department.

Your duties

• Actively contribute to the JUST ART Consortium community through participation in and organization of workshops with project partners, and participate in the JUST ART School’s writing retreats and other activities and the VU Graduate School training programme
• Write a doctoral thesis that complies with the VU Doctorate Regulations and integrates an artistic/art based research format (e.g., exhibition, workshop)
• Engage with societal partners, e.g. organise collaborative knowledge exchange as well as educational and dissemination activities
• Present your research in academic, artistic, and societal context (e.g. conferences, exhibitions, workshops, community gatherings) and publish at least one peer-reviewed article or book chapter and contribute to other writing projects as required
• Take on teaching tasks in year two and three of your PhD
• Due to the collaborative nature of the project, regular physical presence is expected

Your profile

• Hold a relevant second-cycle degree (MA or equivalent) from an art school or university
• Have an active artistic research practice; applicants with established engagement with climate justice and/or environmental questions more broadly are strongly encouraged to apply
• Be able to work independently and collaboratively in an interdisciplinary and intercultural research environment, including fieldwork
• Be enthusiastic about communicating research to academic and non-academic audiences
• Have excellent writing and speaking skills in English and Dutch

What do we offer?

• A salary of € 3.059,00 (Promovendus / PhD) and maximum € 3.881,00 (Promovendus / PhD) gross per month in the fourth year, for a full-time employment
• An employment contract of initially 1 year. If there is sufficient perspective, this will be extended to a total of 4 years. Your dissertation at the end of the fourth year forms the end of your employment contract
• 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus
• Solid pension scheme (ABP)
• Contribution to commuting expenses
• A wide range of sports facilities which staff may use at a modest charge

About the project and the team

JUST ART. Creating Common Grounds for Climate Justice Through Artistic Research is a six-year project on climate justice and artistic research in the Caribbean and European parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and led by the University of Groningen. It offers 10 fully funded PhD positions at six universities in collaboration with Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and four universities of applied sciences.

JUST ART PhD candidates will generate new knowledge and critically assess approaches that integrate scientific insights with artistic research to address climate justice. JUST ART PhDs will study and develop concrete cases to learn how art and artistic research can be embedded in ongoing and emerging work on climate justice. They will enhance expertise and skills to take artistic and art-based transformative action on climate justice and will contribute to theoretical frameworks, common methods, educational toolkits and knowledge sharing platforms in co-creation with project partners.

VU Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

You will be joining the Art & Culture group at the department of Art & Culture, History and Antiquity of the School of Humanities.