A PhD in the Arts – Now Possible in Maastricht

Maria Sybilla Merian, Rode ibis met een ei, 1699-1700, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Getting a PhD in the arts is now possible in Limburg. It can be done at MERIAN, a collaboration in the area of artistic research between Zuyd Hogeschool, Maastricht University, and the Jan van Eyck Academie. MERIAN (the Maastricht Experimental Research In and through the Arts Network) is an environment in which selected PhD candidates from all artistic and academic disciplines can pursue Maastricht-style artistic research.

“The MERIAN working group is very happy with the generous decision by Maastricht University to change its PhD Regulation. This allows for PhDs in the arts in South-Limburg,” says Ruth Benschop, head of the MERIAN working group.

MERIAN will be launched in the coming academic year as a space for collaborative research in between making and thinking. PhD candidates engage in innovative styles of research, utilizing the powers and fragilities of artistic and scientific practices. Their research addresses urgent matters of societal concern apparent in the Meuse-Rhine Euregion. This collaboration between Maastricht University, Zuyd Hogeschool, and the Jan van Eyck Academie builds on existing expertise from the research, arts, and higher education networks in Maastricht. The distinct Maastricht style of ‘research in and through the arts’ is problem-based, methodologically innovative, and focuses on interdisciplinary topics that can fruitfully be explored across the arts and academia.

MERIAN is a collaboration between:

• Jan van Eyck Academie, department Research & Education
• Research Centre for Arts, Autonomy and Public Sphere, Maastricht Academy of Arts, Toneelacademie Maastricht & Conservatorium Maastricht, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences
• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science and Engineering (University College Maastricht) of Maastricht University (including MACCH (The Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage) and MCICM (The Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music – a collaboration of Maastricht University, South Netherlands Philharmonic, Zuyd))

For further information about MERIAN, please contact Ruth Benschop, head of the MERIAN working group and lector Arts, Autonomy and the Public Sphere via: Ghislaine.boere@zuyd.nl.