PhD Position (full-time, 4 years) on Aesthetic Transformations in Decolonial Media Practices at Erasmus School of Philosophy.

The Aesthetic Transformations Project.

Decolonization has become an almost omnipresent cipher in contemporary art discourses and increasingly across the humanities. On the one hand the “decolonial turn” in the arts and humanities signals a reference to these situated struggles against colonial violence. On the other hand, its adaptation expresses the importance to critically revisit acclaimed practices and sets of knowledge considering their (often implicit) colonial heritage.

While the focus of either approach foregrounds the epistemic violence and need for critical revision, they rarely address the potential for challenging aesthetic conventions and understandings as part of decolonizing practices. Put differently, to decolonize means not only to change ways of thinking and doing but also to transform ways of sensing and feeling, leading towards a decolonial aesthesis.

A shift in the philosophical vocabulary of aesthetics and the effects of aesthetic practices related to decolonial processes define the main interest of this PhD-project. Accordingly, the use and role of media and their impact on aesthetic experience play a central part in these processes. In different struggles for decolonization the role of digital platform media exceeds their communicational and organizational powers, pertaining to new aesthetic approaches that critically challenge Western conventions of sensing and sense-making.

The envisioned PhD project will engage with media aesthetic practices in relation to processes of decolonization. It should focus on concrete and situated contexts, ideally in resonance with perspectives from the Global South, and contribute to a critical reworking of Western aesthetic categories and concepts. Translocal perspectives and critical reflections of the European context of the position’s research environment can be an integral aspect of the project.

The PhD-position is located within the Erasmus School of Philosophy (ESPhil) and part of the Human Conditions Research Group. It will also be associated with the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague. The PhD candidate will be jointly supervised by Dr. Christoph Brunner (ESPhil), Dr. Sjoerd van Tuinen (ESPhil), and Prof. Dr. Rosalba Icaza Garza (ISS).

The PhD Project

The candidate's primary responsibility will be to conduct research and write a PhD thesis. The candidate should also contribute to development of the field of decolonial perspectives on the philosophy of media and technology in other ways, such as by giving scholarly presentations and co-organizing reading groups and workshops. Furthermore, the PhD candidate will become part of a large and diverse community of PhD candidates, and is expected to contribute as a junior lecturer to the Erasmus School of Philosophy’s (ESPhil) educational programme.

Job Requirements

We are looking for a motivated PhD candidate with the following background and skills:

Completed MA in philosophy or equivalent (i.e., BA in philosophy and MA in Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Gender or Queer Studies, STS, Anthropology), with an interest in continental philosophy, aesthetic philosophy, philosophy of media and technology, feminist philosophies, technofeminism, post-colonial theory, and digital cultures. A keen interest in the relation between media and processes of decolonization and decolonial research methodologies are an advantage.

Further the position requires:
Excellent speaking and writing skills in English,
Ideally, language skills concerning the region of interest in the Global South,
Conceptual capacity, presenting, planning, and organizing and monitoring (VSNU competencies for PhDs),
An interest to work in teams, build local and international networks, and co-organize research workshops and public events.

Questions concerning the academic scope of the position may be directed to Christoph Brunner (brunneresphil.eur.nl)

Full information about benefits, emplyoment conditions, reuqired documents, and link to the submission portal can be found at https://www.eur.nl/en/vacancies/phd-position-full-time-4-years-esphil.