UNESCO Chair Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts (RILA)

MIDEQ PhD: Evaluating The Human And Social Impact Of Art For Migratory And Marginalized People: An Intercultural, Mutlilingual Approach To Equity

Supervisor - Prof Alison Phipps, Co-Director of MIDEQ – Migration for Development and Equality and the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts within the School of Education at the University of Glasgow.

This collaborative studentship is aligned with the MIDEQ international research hub project, and the Intercultural Dialogue Section at UNESCO’s Social and Human Sciences sector in Paris, in charge of the “Art-Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue” initiative. It will benefit from co-supervision by colleagues within the UNESCO’s Intercultural Dialogue Section, potential internships, and connects the evaluation of leading research on the human and social impact of arts with UNESCO’s role in the 2030 Agenda.

You will be part of a small cohort of research students supervised by Prof Phipps, and join an interdisciplinary team of researchers, artists and professional staff on the largest project on human migration ever funded by the UK Government (MIDEQ), as well as working to translate the findings of your research with MIDEQ into the UNESCO’s Art-Lab.

Project details

This studentship call is an unparalleled opportunity for the right candidate to work alongside an international team of researchers within the largest project on human migration ever funded (MIDEQ – Migration for Equality and Development), UNESCO’s Art-Lab and the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts (UNESCO RILA) based at the University of Glasgow. This PhD studentship will start in 2020 and be funded for a maximum of 3 years. Though based in the School of Education in the College of Social Sciences at University of Glasgow, the candidate will develop international networks through virtual and in-person visits to our collaborative partners and spend time on attachment at UNESCO Paris, France (up to 3 months over the lifetime of the studentship).

General Overview of Proposed Research

This research programme is directly connected to work package 11 of MIDEQ (Arts, Creative Resistance and Wellbeing) and the UNESCO RILA Chair. It develops work which has been identified as critical by MIDEQ and UNESCO’s Art-Lab to evaluate the use of creative arts methodologies in social integration work in a range of jurisdictions in the UK and internationally. The aim of the PhD is to review and critically evaluate arts-based practice and interventions, as well as their potential for scalability and transferability of contexts.

The arts have an impact on society: they have the power to evaluate social mores and to change the nature of intercultural dialogue and human behavior. That the arts can introduce unpredictable elements, healing elements and cathartic or critical elements into society has been a continuing thread in human histories of conflict. It is well documented that migration and the intercultural arts which ensue from artistic, linguist and cultural contact have profound transformative effects on societies. The question remains, for practitioners, policy-makers and researchers, however, at both a conceptual/theoretical level and as a pragmatic requirement – how might this be appropriately evaluated in today’s context?

Full information 

Please see the College Graduate School website Studentship for full eligibility criteria and how to apply: https://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/socialsciences/studentfundingopportunities/postgraduateresearch/#mideqphdstudentship

Closing Date: 25 March 2020

For other information please contact Lauren Roberts (Lauren.Roberts@glasgow.ac.uk)

 

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First published: 12 February 2020