AN INTRODUCTION
Founded in 2015, the Rotterdam Arts & Sciences Lab (RASL) is a collaboration between Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Codarts Rotterdam – University of the Arts, and Willem de Kooning Academy (WdKA) at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences (RUAS).
RASL aims for cross-fertilization between the arts, sciences and humanities in order to address societal concerns. It thereby also seeks to reposition the arts, sciences and humanities in relation to each other under the urgency of complex societal issues. The collaboration is grounded in the shared belief that education plays a key role in addressing these concerns, and in the necessity of transcending (academic and artistic) disciplinary boundaries.
Engagement, collaboration and equality of knowledge are therefore at the core of RASL’s education and research missions.
RASL seeks to inspire students and staff by creating a learning environment that encourages them to take risks, to develop their own perspectives and to experience the value of working together and listening to one another. As such, we offer research-driven and open-ended education, allowing students and staff to explore their personal and professional positions, what they can contribute, and what they can take responsibility for.
Although we value individual contributions, RASL acts as a collective: “If you want to make a change, you need others” is the leading principle. RASL draws inspiration from, and is rooted in, a compositional approach in which heterogeneous elements both ‘compose’ (Latour, 2010) and ‘compost’ (Haraway, 2015) sustainable infrastructures. Collectivity, and the composition of the collective, generates dependency, trust, responsibility, longevity and new perspectives on what is learned and what can be imagined. And while this is not always easy, it brings commitment to what we do and what we want to achieve.
ON EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
RASL began its educational offering in 2016 with a Dual Degree, giving students the possibility of combining the arts and sciences into an integrated five-, instead of seven-year, programme. Through the Dual Degree, students can combine a study programme at WdKA or Codarts, with one at EUR. Such a combination further provides students with access to a large number of master’s programmes both in the arts and the sciences. The Dual Degree has proven to be extremely popular with students. In this year’s highly competitive admissions procedure, we admitted 50 new students. Indeed, students value the particular mix of arts and sciences that affords them additional opportunities on the labour market.
Building upon this success, there arose the need to expand upon the Dual Degree and take a further step in imagining innovation in education with regards to societal concerns. Benefitting from the increased interconnectedness of the founding institutions, we developed the RASL minor: Re-imagining tomorrow through Arts and Sciences. This minor was first offered in 2019 and was made available to all students, not just those following the Dual Degree.
Funded through a Comenius Leadership grant, the RASL minor both traverses and contests institutional structures by working transdisciplinarily. The minor was developed by an educational team consisting of teachers and PhD researchers across all three institutions. Students from our institutions, but also other universities, participate(d) in the minor.
It is our intention that RASL continues to build upon transdisciplinary education. As such, we are currently planning three important developments: transdisciplinary bachelor’s and master’s programmes, as well as a transdisciplinary PhD degree.
To further ensure critical perspectives, RASL initiated its European collaboration efforts through the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership. This collaboration seeks to launch an international transdisciplinary network, to offer the opportunity of collaboration with international partners, and to work on a tuning document for transdisciplinary education in the art and sciences.
RASL education is informed by its embeddedness in research. It is supported by the professorship of Transdisciplinary Education Innovation at Codarts and of Transformative Academic Education at the Erasmus School of Philosophy. In addition, RASL closely collaborates with the professorships of Perfomance Arts Medicine at Codarts, and the professorships of Autonomous Practices and of Social Practices at WdKA. The RASL research group serves as a platform for collaboration between the arts and sciences and has been very successful in securing research grants.
As characterized before, RASL is an entangled collective, and has thrived through the enthusiasm and unique support of all who participate in it, from student to board member.
Building upon this success, there arose the need to expand upon the Dual Degree and take a further step in imagining innovation in education with regards to societal concerns. Benefitting from the increased interconnectedness of the founding institutions, we developed the RASL minor: Re-imagining tomorrow through Arts and Sciences. This minor was first offered in 2019 and was made available to all students, not just those following the Dual Degree.
Funded through a Comenius Leadership grant, the RASL minor both traverses and contests institutional structures by working transdisciplinarily. The minor was developed by an educational team consisting of teachers and PhD researchers across all three institutions. Students from our institutions, but also other universities, participate(d) in the minor.
It is our intention that RASL continues to build upon transdisciplinary education. As such, we are currently planning three important developments: transdisciplinary bachelor’s and master’s programmes, as well as a transdisciplinary PhD degree.
To further ensure critical perspectives, RASL initiated its European collaboration efforts through the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership. This collaboration seeks to launch an international transdisciplinary network, to offer the opportunity of collaboration with international partners, and to work on a tuning document for transdisciplinary education in the art and sciences.
RASL education is informed by its embeddedness in research. It is supported by the professorship of Transdisciplinary Education Innovation at Codarts and of Transformative Academic Education at the Erasmus School of Philosophy. In addition, RASL closely collaborates with the professorships of Perfomance Arts Medicine at Codarts, and the professorships of Autonomous Practices and of Social Practices at WdKA. The RASL research group serves as a platform for collaboration between the arts and sciences and has been very successful in securing research grants.
As characterized before, RASL is an entangled collective, and has thrived through the enthusiasm and unique support of all who participate in it, from student to board member.
Written by
LIESBETH NOORDEGRAAF-EELENS
ROGER TEEUWEN
With special thanks to
DIEUWKE BOERSMA
TAMARA DE GROOT
WANDER VAN BAALEN
& the interviewees:
ASIM HALWARVI
CHIARA LAMPIS
CLAIRE TIO
FLORIEKE DE GEUS
LIESBETH NOORDEGRAAF-EELENS
ROGER TEEUWEN
With special thanks to
DIEUWKE BOERSMA
TAMARA DE GROOT
WANDER VAN BAALEN
& the interviewees:
ASIM HALWARVI
CHIARA LAMPIS
CLAIRE TIO
FLORIEKE DE GEUS
Edited and compiled by
CLAIRE TIO
MAAIKE VAN PAPEVELD
GABIJA BUBNYTÉ
‘KIDS: BY AND FOR’
LISA VELEMA
MAAIKE VAN PAPEVELD
MAËL VAN DER GIESSEN
RUI DE BOER
‘THE ENTANGLED BRAINS’
TIM VAN BREEMEN
CLAIRE TIO
MAAIKE VAN PAPEVELD
GABIJA BUBNYTÉ
‘KIDS: BY AND FOR’
LISA VELEMA
MAAIKE VAN PAPEVELD
MAËL VAN DER GIESSEN
RUI DE BOER
‘THE ENTANGLED BRAINS’
TIM VAN BREEMEN
Designed by
GABIJA BUBNYTÉ
YUSSER SALIH
Edited by
ROSA VIEIRA DE ALMEIDA
Supported by
JEROEN CHABOT
RON BORMANS
RUTGER ENGELS
WILMA FRANCHIMON
GABIJA BUBNYTÉ
YUSSER SALIH
Edited by
ROSA VIEIRA DE ALMEIDA
Supported by
JEROEN CHABOT
RON BORMANS
RUTGER ENGELS
WILMA FRANCHIMON