OPEN CALL: Doctoral Supervisors’ Summer School 20–23 August 2025, Helsinki

17.2.2025 0 Like 0 kommenttia Michaela Bränn

Apply by 16 March 2025

Hosted by Uniarts Helsinki

Target group

Artists, artist-researchers and academics supervising doctoral students in the arts. Experience of at least one ongoing or completed doctoral supervision process is required.

We aim at a working environment where people with diverse cultural backgrounds, from different genders, sexes, ethnicities, ages, and abilities feel free to join, act and share their experience and expertise.

Concept

The summer school continues the series of doctoral supervisors’ summer schools previously organised in Utrecht (2023) and Copenhagen (2024). The focus will remain on the doctoral supervision in the arts. In the Helsinki edition, specific focus will be put on questions of quality: What constitutes the quality of a supervision process in the arts? The question addresses both the quality of supervision practices and the challenges of aiming at high quality of the artistic and research outcomes as well as the quality of the experience of the process itself. We have invited two experienced supervisors (Sher Doruff and Gediminas Urbonas) to facilitate impulse sessions. The programme will be planned in a way that enables both informal collegial discussions and structured work in small groups. All participants will stay at the venue for the entire duration of the programme, which creates a coherent mental space for collegial exchange.

Theme: Quality of supervising artistic research / Supervising quality in artistic research

The supervisors’ summer school 2025 focuses on questions of quality. Doctoral projects in artistic research differ from each other significantly in terms of methods, themes and formats. This desired diversity brings challenges in terms of quality criteria. Artists, scholars and experts supervising doctoral projects in the arts, often come from very different backgrounds, and the level of their previous knowledge of artistic research may vary significantly. It is not unusual that even within one institution, the individual supervisors do not know much of the supervising practices of each other.

A similar problem can be observed on the international level. Universities, even those operating within the same networks, are not actively reflecting on the institutional differences that would enhance both their collaboration and their supervisors’ competences in the field of artistic research. Until today, developing criteria regarding the quality of artistic research and the coherence of the field through supervising practices tends to remain a fragmentary endeavor. More communication and exchange concerning the criteria for quality amongst the supervisors of doctoral theses in artistic research is therefore highly desirable. The supervisors’ summer school 2025 aims at tackling these challenges and sharing experiences and good practices across the different interest areas and institutions, in the name of quality.

When looked at through the lens of quality, the task of supervising artistic research doctorates appears highly demanding and multifaceted. The supervisor has many overlapping roles from a formal gatekeeper to a supportive dialogue partner and a mentor. This summer school aims to be a venue for sharing the experience of good ways of dealing with all possible roles and the delicate shifts between them as well as for reflecting on especially tricky issues and new demands imposed on supervisors by the rapidly changing technological framing conditions of art and research practices.

Issues we imagine to be worked on include:

• the tensional relation between ethical reflection and evaluation
• data as profitable resource vs generous sharing of materials
• coping with the canon – politics of citing
• are we witnessing a shift from ethical reflection to ethical regulation?
• rules and responsibility
• sharing and developing of feedback methods
• practices of group supervising and supervising groups
• how to deal with AI?

Participation fee

The participants and/or their home institutions will cover the participation fee of 850 euros. The fee includes accommodation 20–23 August 2025 and all meals during the programme. Each participant will have a single room.

Travel costs

The participants and/or their home institutions are expected to cover the travel costs to and from Helsinki.

Venue

The summer school will be held at Hanaholmen/Hanasaari, a venue in a beautiful setting by the sea. Hanaholmen is a cooperation- and cultural centre for Sweden and Finland, as well as a hotel with a high-quality restaurant and excellent opportunities for meetings, conferences and events. Hanaholmen runs long-term collaborative projects and organises seminars about current social and cultural issues. It also administers four Nordic foundations. In 2025 the centre celebrates 50 years of activities.

Read more about Hanaholmen here

How to apply – deadline 16.3.2025

The application consists of a motivation letter and a short bio that is sent as one (1) pdf file via an online form to the organisers.

Write a motivation letter (max. 2 A4 pages) and indicate what kind of quality issues you would like to work on in the collegial setting of the summer school. You belong to the target group if you are supervising at least one doctoral artistic research project. Include a short bio at the end of the letter. Name the letter – as a pdf file – with your surname.

Send your motivation letter by 16.3.2025 via the online form, where you also are asked to give your contact information.

Go to the online form here

Selection of participants

The selection of the participants will be made by the organising team (Mika Elo, Otso Aavanranta, Maiju Loukola, Ilse van Rijn and Henk Slager). The total number of participants will be 40 including the organisers.

We plan to communicate the decisions to all applicants at the latest 31 March 2025. The selected participants will receive detailed information about the payment methods of the fee as well as other practical matters (program etc.) during spring 2025.

Practical information

The programme starts on Wed 20 August at 3pm and ends on Sat 23 August at 2pm (times are given in Finnish time). Participants’ trips should be planned accordingly. The participants are expected to arrange possible additional accommodation individually. No individual arrangements will be made by the organisers. The participation fee includes accommodation in a single room on 20–23 August and all meals during the programme. Possible purchases from minibars etc. must be paid for by the participants themselves. Participants will be asked to inform the organisers of dietary restrictions.

Hanaholmen is a walking distance from the Koivusaari metro station. It takes ca. 45 minutes to get to the centre from the airport by taxi.

More information on how to get there

Please bring along proper outdoor clothing (windbreaker, some warm clothes, walking shoes), a water bottle, and – if you wish to take a dip in in the Gulf of Finland – a swimming suit. The sauna and pool are available at the venue as well.

Read more about the venue

Contact

The summer school is hosted by the University of the Arts Helsinki (Uniarts Helsinki). Please contact Prof. Mika Elo in matters of content at  mika.elo@uniarts.fi and in matters of practicalites, please contact Specialist Michaela Bränn at  michaela.brann@uniarts.fi

Read more about Uniarts Helsinki