PhD Position JUST FUTURES: ReStor(y)ing Multispecies Futures Through Digital Media
Achieving climate justice and halting biodiversity loss are interrelated challenges. They both require transformative changes across economic, political, and cultural dimensions that challenge the status quo and critically engage with the root causes of social and environmental crises. This artistic PhD project will address the concept of biodiversity justice from the perspective of digital media and speculative / immersive futures.
Your research will engage critically and creatively with environmental data (e.g., pollution data, biodiversity surveys, citizen science data, fossil and natural history collections at Museumfabriek, Natura Docet or Artis). This includes questioning what counts as ‘relevant’ environmental data, adding a critical artistic dimension to current academic debates around the politics of knowledge co-production and scientific research. You will develop multi-sensory ways of encountering and envisioning future scenarios that use environmental data to give voice to diverse species in ways that reclaim technology and the digital as critical immersive artistic practice. To this aim, you will explore different typologies of 'rurban' spaces across the Twente region (e.g., where rural-urban relationships illustrate climate and/or biodiversity related injustices) and conduct artistic experimentation with data and code. The focus will be on making frictions and controversies characteristic of different ‘rurban’ spaces and practices publicly debatable in experiential ways to support collective imagination of biodiverse and climate just futures. By taking a multispecies perspective, your research will place a relational understanding of ecology at the center of future speculative / immersive scenarios, which will be exhibited in the form of multi-sensory participatory installations. These installations may be developed in collaboration with artistic residencies and cultural organisations like Tetem - Platform for Digital Culture and Making Culture in Twente.
While these are the overall objectives for the PhD position, the exact scope of the research is open and can be refined by the PhD candidate together with the supervisory team and in collaboration with the wider JUST ART community. This includes academic partners as well as a network of artists, cultural institutions and societal partners across the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
This PhD position is part of JUST ART. Creating Common Grounds for Climate Justice Through Artistic Research - a six-year project on climate justice and artistic research in the Caribbean and European parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The project is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and led by the University of Groningen. It offers 10 fully funded PhD Positions at six universities in collaboration with Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and four universities of applied sciences. More information and links to all 10 PhD positions: www.justart.info
The complexity and scale of the climate crisis are overwhelming. Artistic practice and artistic research can open up new ways of understanding the intersectional dimensions of this crisis and empower people to act. Bringing together artists, researchers, campaigners and communities in rural and urban regions, JUST ART aims to cultivate diverse strategies of climate justice through artistic research and creative practice.
JUST ART PhD candidates will generate new knowledge and critically assess approaches that integrate scientific insights with artistic research to address climate justice. JUST ART PhDs will study and develop concrete cases to learn how art and artistic research can be embedded in ongoing and emerging work on climate justice. They will enhance expertise and skills to take artistic and art-based transformative action on climate justice and will contribute to theoretical frameworks, common methods, educational toolkits and knowledge sharing platforms in co-creation with project partners.
Information and application
Please apply by 27 March 2026. The application should include:
- A Curriculum Vitae;
- A cover letter (maximum 2 pages A4), emphasizing your specific interest in the topic, relevance of qualifications, experience, and motivations to apply for this position. In case you apply for more than one JUST ART position, we appreciate you mentioning it;
- A writing sample of 1500 to 5000 words (e.g., published article, thesis chapter, curatorial text);
- If available, please include a short portfolio of artistic work, which may include links to online resources;
- The names and contact details of two references who may be approached by the selection committee (please note we will only do this upon consent and after the first interview round and we do not require reference letters with the application);
- Official copies of relevant diplomas and transcripts of grades.
Please note that there will be two rounds of interviews to be held on the following dates:
- First round (online): 11 and 13 May;
- Second round (in person): 26 and 27 May.
For the candidates selected for the second round of interviews, we will ask for a research proposal of no more than 500 words explaining how you would approach the PhD project theme, including information on at least one potential case study / collaboration.
The desired start date is 1 September 2026.
About the department
You will join the Knowledge, Transformation & Society (KITES) section within the Technology, Policy & Society department. KiTeS is dedicated to analysing and improving the contribution of Knowledge to Transformations in Society to address intersecting societal and environmental challenges, including growing disparities and inequities, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Our group works across diverse disciplines and scholarly fields and draws on critical, historical, participatory, design-oriented, and arts-based methods and approaches. We work in different domains such as science and innovation policy, higher education, and environmental governance and we collaborate closely with policy makers, social movements and grassroots organisations, cultural institutions, scientists and engineers, and business and financial institutions. Guided by values of justice, pluralism, sustainability, and care, our work is aimed at creating spaces for collaboration, critical analysis, reflection, and learning.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our university. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
About the organisation
At the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS), we unite the worlds of people and technology to address today’s complex societal challenges. We are passionate about understanding human behaviour, fostering responsible innovation, and designing solutions that create societal value. Our educational programmes span disciplines such as Psychology, Business Administration, Public Administration, Communication Sciences, Philosophy, Educational Sciences, and Health Sciences. Through our bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Professional Learning & Development programmes, and interdisciplinary research themes – including Emerging Technologies & Societal Transformations, Resilience, Smart Industry, Learning, and Health – we empower students and researchers to make a positive societal impact.
At BMS, we combine critical thinking with practical action. From advancing sustainable mobility with innovations like the world’s most efficient hydrogen car to shaping policies that promote digital inclusion, our work contributes to a healthier, fairer, and more sustainable future. Whether it’s exploring how technology influences human behaviour or leveraging data and innovation to transform industries and communities, we ensure that technology serves people – and not the other way around.
As an employer, BMS offers a vibrant, inclusive, and entrepreneurial environment where you can thrive personally and professionally. Join us and become part of a forward-thinking community that equips you to shape the future – for yourself and society. With us, you will become part of a leading technical university with increasing, positive social impact.
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