Skip to main content

Getting a PhD in the arts is now possible in Limburg. It can be done in 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.

Leave a Reply