Practice-based PhD in Arts

Situated on Saint-Barthélémy Hill in Nice and listed as a remarkable building of 20th-century architecture, Villa Arson belongs to a network of ten public national schools of higher education in the arts under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture in the field of visual arts. Villa Arson is also an establishment for artistic production and circulation through its international program of exhibitions and residencies. A legal entity of Université Côte d’Azur, since 2019, Villa Arson has been implementing a practice-based PhD in Arts.

Practice-based PhD in Arts
Villa Arson’s PhD program is addressed to candidates with a new and experimental approach to artistic creation, as well as an ongoing research activity. All forms of research are accepted, nonetheless, it is desirable for candidates to show a particular interest in Villa Arson’s specific activities and interdisciplinary environment (fine arts, photography, film, theater, performance, sound, immersive and digital arts, text, curatorial practices). It is expected that each candidate has sufficient technical and/or technological skills to be self-sufficient in the workshops and studios in order to participate actively in the research and development projects at the Villa Arson.

Expected activities
Prospective PhD candidates shall have an active artistic and intellectual production during the three-year doctoral program. They will be asked to present their work through conferences and specialized reviews, organize a seminar and, at the end of their PhD, show their work within Villa Arson’s exhibition program. Candidates are also expected to actively participate in the organization of Villa Arson’s research laboratory. They will be encouraged to develop partnerships and residencies abroad and to take advantage of Villa Arson’s partnership with Laval University in Quebec.

The dissertation
The dissertation will consist of one or several works, completed by a hybrid document in which text can coexist with other forms of expression. The aim of the dissertation is to produce new knowledge on a specific subject or in a specific field by presenting reasoned arguments and a clear vision of the questions at hand, in a form agreed to beforehand by the PhD advisers.

The dissertation advisers will be:
—A member of the teaching staff at the Villa Arson, teaching either fine arts or theory;
—An external professor, entitled to advise research (having a habilitation à diriger des recherches—HDR) and a member of a research laboratory belonging to a Doctoral School. They can for instance be one of a list of entitled advisers at the laboratory of the École Doctorale SHAL at the Université Côte d’Azur, or be a member of any other Doctoral School in France, or of a research entity abroad.

N.B. In order to submit an application, each candidate must first receive approval for the project from their prospective advisers.

Grant and support
The selected PhD candidate will receive an annual grant of 10.000€. Villa Arson will also provide accommodations on campus and access to on-site workshops and tools.

Application, shortlist, admission
Candidates are invited to send their applications either in French or in English. Each application will be examined by a selection committee. A shortlist of pre-selected candidates will then be interviewed.

Applications should be sent exclusively by email, in one single PDF document (as an attached file or as a link to Google Drive, WeTransfer, etc.), no later than Friday, April 28, 2023, to the following e-mail address: programme.doctoral [​at​] villa-arson.fr

The application file will be entitled LASTNAME.Firstname and will include: A detailed CV; A letter of recommendation from a professor entitled to be a research adviser, and a member of a doctoral school in France or at a foreign research institution; A detailed description of the candidate’s project (maximum 10 000 characters, including bibliography and spaces); A portfolio of previous works; A copy of the candidate’s Master 2 degree or equivalent.

Contact
Vittorio Parisi, Director of Studies and Research: vittorio.parisi [​at​] villa-arson.fr
Justine Meyer, Administrator for Studies and Research: justine.meyer [​at​] villa-arson.fr