PhD programs
In the context of this partnership, it is possible to obtain a doctorate in artistic research within the Graduate School of the UvH. The creative process is acknowledged as valid research method, and the artistic work is part of the assessment. Currently, there are several doctoral programs.
Marloeke van der Vlugt investigates the importance of the sense of touch. Her doctoral research on touchability in and through art begins with her own artistic practice, in which she seeks a tactile creation process with sculptural, unpredictable materials and techniques. She then shares the resulting artefacts with audiences in interactive performances. At a time when touch is often associated with risk and taboo, Marloeke looks for ways to activate tactile sensations.
Simona Kicurovska explores how digital automation technologies, such as algorithms and AI, are transforming the field of graphic design. She questions what designers can do and what cannot be programmed into digital design systems. Her research focuses on "designer ways of knowing" that contribute to socially responsible engagement in times of automated, algorithmic design.
Marielle Schuurman researches Co-creative Artistic Research Ecologies, which are part of the Creating Cultures of Care program. In CARE labs, artists and designers work together with residents, clients, professionals, policy makers, students and researchers, regarding questions such as “what does it mean to live with dementia?” or “what can music mean for nurses, patients and their loved ones, after major surgery?" These artistic practices concern a lot, not only on an individual level, but also in their relationships, for everyone involved. How do new concepts and practices of care and art emerge here?
Habiba Afifi graduated in 2024 from the HKU Master of Fine Art. In her work, she explores the notion of “radical rest” as an artistic and spiritual mode of inquiry that creates space for more-than-human ways of knowing. Her practice – rooted in ceramics, fertile soil, and speculative fabulation – invites slowness, ecological attentiveness, and co-creation. Drawing on the concept of Al-Barzakh from Sufi cosmology – a liminal space where the soul resides after death and before resurrection – Habiba imagines rest not so much as as a form of personal or political recovery, but rather as a deliberate surrender that disrupts capitalist rhythms in favour of human and more-than-human care, slowness, and relational presence.
Milo van der Maaden graduated in 2014 from the Master of Fine Art at University College London, Slade School of Fine Art, and currently teaches in the Fine Art and Design in Education program at HKU. At the intersection of artistic research, queer and trans* care ethics, and critical pedagogy, Milo investigates how queer and trans* deviant practices, born from systemic exclusion and resistance to oppressive norms of gender and sexuality, generate critical and creative forms of care and learning. Through participatory methods such as performance and “anarchiving” – an alternative, embodied and shared mode of archiving non-normative knowledges – Milo approaches these practices as pedagogies of care.
Zoya Sardashti earned an MA in Performance & Creative Research from the University of Roehampton, Department of Theatre & Drama in 2014 and an MSc in Conflict Management & Resolution from the University of San Diego in 2022. Under the supervision of Louis (UvH) and Fabiola (HKU), Zoya will work on the completion of their dissertation The Performativity of Nonviolence in Translation. In a time of growing societal polarization, Zoya investigates how performance and performative methods can contribute to nonviolent, relational forms of dialogue across cultural and linguistic boundaries. Using practice-as-research methodology, autoethnographic inquiry, and Judith Butler’s work on the ethics of nonviolence, this artistic research develops performative interventions that reach beyond rigid identity frameworks. By approaching “translation” not merely as a linguistic act but as a bodily, relational, and performative process, Zoya explores how performance can cultivate sustainable forms of nonviolent engagement in plural, multilingual, and transnational contexts.
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