Research Education Fellow - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Research Education Fellow (80%) with special assignment to The Centre for Art and the Political Imaginary (2024-2028)

We are looking for a committed pedagogue and experienced researcher to join the core team of the first Centre of Excellence in Artistic Research in Sweden, which is addressed to Art and the Political Imaginary. The position is based at the Royal Institute of Art (KKH) in Stockholm, but because the Centre for Art and the Political Imaginary (CAPIm) spans both KKH’s campus in Stockholm, and Gothenburg University, HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design’s campus in Gothenburg, your responsibilities will also span both campuses.

This is an 80% position for a researcher and a research project committed to the collective effort of the Centre for Art and the Political Imaginary. The ideal candidate has a rigorously experimental approach to research in the field of contemporary art and a balanced commitment to aesthetics and discourse. You will be responsible for developing this approach into coursework aimed at supporting the practices of BA, MA and PhD students in fine art, and contributing to the CAPIm’s research environment. Your practice contributes clearly to one of the four research strands (listed further below) that define CAPIm’s activities. There are some administrative responsibilities within CAPIm included in this position.

About the Working Environment

The Centre for Art and the Political Imaginary is dedicated to interdisciplinary practice and research in the meeting between contemporary art and the future of politics. Based at two institutions of higher education in art: HDK-Valand and Kungl. Konsthögskolan, the Centre’s aim is to facilitate connections between research and education through an engagement with experimental approaches.

The activities of the Centre are organized around four conceptual strands: Climate Imaginaries engages with radical ecological change and environmental futures. Historical Imaginaries addresses decolonial approaches to collective memory and nationalist representations, as well as non-aligned movements and intensifying globalization. Democratic Imaginaries takes its point of departure from the polarization of the public sphere and emerging forms of illiberalism. Technological Imaginaries is focused on the interactions between art and technological developments and their resulting projections of possible futures.

The Centre is co-chaired by Professor Mick Wilson and Professor Natasha Marie Llorens who together with Professor Jyoti Mistry and Dr. Axel Andersson form its steering committee.

The Faculty of Arts (HDK-Valand), which is part of the University of Gothenburg, consists of the two departments: HDK-Valand Academy of Art and Design and the Academy of Music and Drama.

With the challenges facing society today, education and research in the artistic field is more important than ever. One of the strengths of the arts is the creating of perspective and critical tools, as well as meaning and hope. The Faculty of Arts is a driving force in matters of art, culture and learning, as well as in creativity and innovation in a broader sense. Locally established and globally orientated, the Faculty will be a place that accommodates the arts, the creating of knowledge, critique, visions, and transformation. Art and culture are for everyone, and HDK-Valand is a meeting-place for cultural actors, cultural institutions, creative industries, and civil society at large. Their goal is to be a house with many ways in – and even more ways out.

Royal Institute of Art (KKH) offers BA, MA, and freestanding courses on the advanced level in fine art, as well as freestanding courses on the advanced level in architecture. We are an interdisciplinary environment that promotes the encounter between different artistic expressions through experimentation. The school offers a wide range of courses, projects, and exhibitions that give students the opportunity to develop their artistic practices. Providing both studios and extensive workshops, the school operates an open-format education in fine art in step with the current national and international developments in the field. The Royal Institute of Art is also host to a number of externally funded artistic research projects and has PhD candidates.

The open position is hosted by the Text Area at KKH, which brings together courses and faculty responsible for Art Theory and Art History, as well as the BA and MA Essay. We aim to create spaces where students learn to identify the ways art has made and continues to make history, to engage in the theoretical debates that are shaping the field now, to acquire research skills appropriate to further their artistic practice, and formulate rigorous, experimental analyses of their own work and the work of their peers in writing.

About the Position

The open position for Research Education Fellow is set at 80% and is a temporary employment of one year with the possibility of an extension. 40% of your time will be dedicated to teaching and 40% to research and responsibilities connected to the Centre. You will be offered support to develop and refine individual external grant applications to further support your artistic research. While the position is based at KKH in Stockholm, it will involve travel to and teaching in Gothenburg and some administrative duties within CAPIm. The employment period begins in August 2024. You will be expected to be active in Stockholm and Gothenburg during this period.

The ideal candidate has an interest in working beyond the boundaries of practice and discourse and comes with a strong critical and essayistic body of writing, attuned to the role of text as medium and material in art. Your background can be in artistic practice-based research with an accompanying writing practice, or art theory/history research with an engagement in contemporary artistic practice.

As the position is divided equally between teaching and research, the applicant should have a well-developed conceptual framework for how the two can be combined and nourish each other. The successful candidate will become a member of the Text Area of the Royal Institute of Art (KKH host of CAPIm). However, you will contribute experimental frameworks to the education offered to fine art students at both KKH and at the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, University of Gothenburg. Additional teaching responsibilities may include proposing and developing courses at each institution based on your research and artistic practice, contributing to examination committees, individual studio visits, and tutorials with MA and PhD students across both institutions.

Responsibilities:

• Developing, driving, and examining the field of experimental writing in fine art.
• Collaborate with colleagues in the Text Area, both to plan the curriculum at KKH and with CAPIm’s broader research community to support activities (e.g. elective courses, annual seminars with invited researchers, a bi-annual international summer school, conferences organized by CAPIm, etc.)
• Conduct research of a high standard in line with one or more of CAPIm’s research strands.
• Communicating research and research results to various publics in various forms of publication (e.g., artistic production, academic journals, academic and public presentations, organizing seminars, workshops, symposia, online media dissemination).
• Maintain competence in the fields related to your teaching and research responsibilities at both national and international levels.
• Participating in and developing CAPIm’s national and international network.
• Contribute to the dissemination of the Centre at relevant national/international conferences.
• Liaise regularly with the Centre’s steering group and other researchers affiliated to the Centre through writing internal reports and participation in regular research meetings.

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated pedagogical skills and a marked enthusiasm for teaching.
• A PhD in either practice-based artistic research or art theory/aesthetics/art history, or equivalent experience both in practice and in research output.
• Experience in conducting research on the intersection of art and politics.
• Proven artistic skills in the field of criticism and essayistic writing.
• Excellent communications skills both to specialized and wider audiences.
• Native command of a Scandinavian language and a good knowledge of written and spoken English.

Desirable:

• A demonstrated commitment to inclusive teaching practices, such as anti-racist, gender neutral, intersectional, and anti-sexist pedagogical methodologies.
• Experience working with public research formats, such as symposia, conferences, exhibitions, and publication.

Assessment criteria:

• Excellent ability to stimulate and develop the learning processes of students and fellow researchers.
• A vision for the development of pedagogy within the field of writing in art.
• Ability to contribute meaningfully to CAPIm’s research environment.
• Excellent track-record in research within the field.
• Excellent collaboration skills with colleagues and external researchers.
• Extensive experience with practice-based projects and their respective material processes.
• International overview of the field of artistic research.
• Existing collaborations in the field and engagement with international networks relevant for both teaching and practice.

Application materials

The application must include the following:

-    A letter of motivation that provides 1) a vision for how to teach writing as a part of artistic practice, 2) a summary of the research proposal, and 3) the experience that prepares you for the position (max 3 A4 pages).

-   CV (max 7 A4 pages).

-   Portfolio with no more than 4–6 artistic works with relevance for the application.

-   Teaching Portfolio that includes details of courses you may have taught in the past  inclusive of course descriptions/outlines and a proposal for an experimental writing course that you may implement in your tenure in this position.

-   Research proposal that describes the research project that aligns with the mission of the centre (max 2 A4 pages). 

-   Two professional references including contact details. One of these must be able to speak to your pedagogical skills and experience.

Please submit your application by midnight March 1, 2024 (CET, Central European Time), marked with registration number: dnr 2.4.1/2024:50.

Additional information is available from the work leader for this position, Prof. Natasha Marie Llorens (natasha.llorens@kkh.se). Information on general terms of employment is available from the Human Resources Manager Rickard Stöhr +46 (0)70 140 29 04. Trade Union representatives are Carl Johan Erikson (SACO-S) and Göran Svenborn (ST/OFR). Both can be reached at tel.: +46 (0)8 614 40 00 (switchboard).

The Royal Institute of Art believes that equal gender distribution and cultural diversity adds to its activities, and we welcome applicants who can contribute to this.