At RASL, research and education have always gone go hand in hand. The reasoning is precise yet simple: to increase the relevance for knowledge development, the link between education and research should be strengthened. RASL research can thus be identified as research for- and research on education.

Research on education has education as its topic with a main focus on the transformative, transdisciplinary role of education. Within this line of research, we look at the specific position of students in education as well as the socially transformative character of education. Apart from this more conceptual research, three PhD students do action- and/or ethnographic research within the RASL education programmes.

Research for education takes place in the different professorships at Codarts and WdKA, as well as within the Department of Arts & Culture Studies at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication. Working on the borders between the arts and the sciences, these researchers have enjoyed years of successful collaboration, and have also benefitted from numerous grants. See reimagining.rasl.nu for an ongoing overview.

With regard to future developments, new collaborations are initiated, with a special focus on including the technical sciences. EUR is currently strengthening its collaboration with TU Delft, which will also enlarge RASL’s network. In future research, attention will be placed upon a transdisciplinary approach to addressing societal issues. 

ON EDUCATION

To support and embed RASL research on education,

LIESBETH NOORDEGRAAF-EELENS

was appointed as professor of Transdisciplinary Education Innovation at Codarts (September 2018) and full professor of Transformative Academic Education at the Erasmus School of Philosophy (May 2020).

In her education and research, she focusses on the question of how collaboration between higher education and society can be improved. Within these professorships, she develops philosophy-based knowledge on transdisciplinary/transformative education and on the societal meaning of education. The professorships further support the incorporation of insights from RASL into the regular curricula of Codarts, WdKA and EUR. In advising PhD research, she also works in close collaboration with prof.dr. van Eekelen (TU Delft)

DIEUWKE BOERSMA

’s research (WdKA/EUR) is titled ‘Woundrous Learning Happenings: Retu(r)ning to the Vulnerable Body, Agency and Freedom In Precarious Times’. This educational action research project explores how to artfully teach students to transform experiencing a precarious state of being from a threat to self-determination into a transdisciplinary praxis of individuation attuned to others. It seeks to transfigure how to make new forms of knowledges (a) happening and empower students to make differences.

TAMARA DE GROOT

(EUR/Codarts/TU Delft) is writing her PhD dissertation on how futures are produced and operationalized in innovative transdisciplinary educational practices, by undertaking a material semiotic study through which she rethinks materiality and temporality in higher education. In her analysis, she relies on recent conceptualizations of utopia as method, and relatedly, works on the material conditions of everyday utopias.

WANDER VAN BAALEN

’s (EUR/Codarts/TU Delft, selected for Arts/Science: Academy Honours Programme for young artists and scientist, KNAW) research centres on the ways in which ‘quality’ is organized, practiced, and negotiated in higher education. He explores these issues in the context of transdisciplinary education (TDE). TDE is an interesting starting point because it brings together a wide variety of actors with different understandings of, and dependencies upon, quality. His research draws on insights from STS, sociology, and anthropology.

FOR EDUCATION

Within

‘GAMPSISS: Gameful Music Performances for Smart, Inclusive, and Sustainable Societies’,

researchers M. HAMEL (Codarts/RASL), prof. dr. ir. A. VERBRAECK (TU Delft), prof. dr. C.J.M. VAN EIJCK (EUR), A. LUIJTEN (Codarts), dr. JANNA MICHAEL (EUR), ANNABETH ERDBRINK (TU Delft) and WdKA’s Honours Hybrid Lab investigate the relationship between gaming and classical music.

Dr. H.J.C.J. HITTERS (EUR), dr. P.P.L. BERKERS (EUR/RASL) and dr. P.W.M. RUTTEN (lector Creative Business, Creating 010, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences)

researched the sustainable economic, social and cultural value of local, live pop music in Rotterdam in their project POPLIVE ‘Staging popular music: sustainable live music ecologies for artists, music venues and cities’.

Dr. JANINE STUBBE

(Codarts/RASL) initiated the Performing Artist and Athlete Research Lab (PEARL) at Codarts, Erasmus MC and WdKA. Funded through a 1.6-million-euro grant, PEARL focusses on the health and vitality of performing artists (dancers, musicians and circus artists) and athletes. PEARL’s mission is to reduce injuries, improve the health and optimize the performance of athletes and artists.

Dr. FLORIAN CRAMER (WdKA Research Center/RASL) and Prof. Dr. JANNEKE WESSELING (Leiden University)

received funding for their project ‘Bridging art, design and technology through Critical Making’. The grant allows them to undertake a four-year research project aimed at furthering the discourse of Critical Making.

Dr. FLORIAN CRAMER (WdKA Research Center), PAUWKE BERKERS (EUR/RASL), JOSUÉ AMADOR (Codarts/RASL) and WdKA’s Autonomous Practices department

launched The Autonomous Fabric of Rotterdam and Bridging Art, Design and Technology through Material Practices, initiatives seeking to research self-organized practices outside the institutional systems of galleries and museums, both in Rotterdam and internationally, with a focus on non-Western artist collectives.