Nida Doctoral School 2021

Cautious and with current constraints in mind, NAC announces an open call for participation in the sixth Nida Doctoral School (NDS), which is anticipated to take place the last week of August 2021 in the remote resort town of Nida, Lithuania.       

The Nida Doctoral School comprises an intensive one-week programme for DA and PhD candidates in visual and performing arts, design, architecture and spatial practices, media, as well as the humanities and social sciences. NDS is structured to provide opportunities for doctoral candidates to present, discuss, and share their individual research in a collegial setting with formal and informal discussions, group and individual consultations, and tutoring. Questions and modes of presentation pertinent to the individual research of each participant are the central element of the summer school in Nida.

The common threads of the 2021 iteration of the course are documentary practices in use today. NDS aims to focus on research that reconsiders the conditions and purpose of documentary practices invested in politics, particularly those that contest existing narratives and consider the impact of recent technological, historical, and political developments and relations.

NDS is eager to bring together researchers working in an expanded field of documentary, with a multifold of formats and developing practices that open up new perspectives and produce new forms and types of what can be considered “a document”: the materialisation of factual information, the providing of records, and the reminding and representation of historical and political connections. This includes practices that propose and establish new conjunctions and correlations, shake up persistent, old issues, and shed light on those that have been repressed in order to capture, convey, construct, and insist on truth.

We are interested to assess in today’s terms the documentary from the viewpoint of its political agency and its role and potential of not only producing new knowledge, but supporting the movements invested in transforming this world towards a more just and liveable one. NDS seeks applications from doctoral candidates who are working with: spatial practices, exemplified through case studies, mapping, or employing materials from established archives; studying cultural processes; investigating material inscriptions, structures, and infrastructures; decoding everyday matters and settled daily procedures.

NDS 2021 lecturers and tutors
Nida Doctoral School 2021 includes lectures by invited speakers Deimantas Narkevičius, Sarah Owens, Meike Schalk, and Ines Weizman. In addition to their lectures, they will, together with David Cross, Mika Elo, Vytautas Michelkevičius, Joanne Morra, and Sofia Pantouvaki, offer individual tutoring consultations to doctoral candidates. Drawn from across the art, architecture, and design sectors, they provide extensive experience of carrying out practice-led research and supporting doctoral students to do likewise.

The curator and organiser of NDS 2021 is Egija Inzule, director of NAC of Vilnius Academy of Arts. 


What is Nida Doctoral School?
Nida Doctoral School is organized by NAC of Vilnius Academy of Arts in collaboration with Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, University of the Arts Helsinki and University of the Arts London. The programme comprises intensive courses organised once a year and the possibility to participate in the NAC residency programme.

The goal of NDS is to provide time, space, and a conceptual framework for participants to gain insight into their research as well as to broaden and diversify their outlook and methodological tools. Applications are open to students who are at least in their second year of study enrolled in any accredited doctoral programme. Upon successful completion of the NDS course, participants gain 5 ECTS credits.

There is no tuition fee, but there are costs. Please look for application and additional information on the NAC website.