RDE Artistic Practice

Call for Proposals

This page is published for archival purposes.

Join us in April 2024!

These events explore creative practice and critical inquiry at Tyson Research Center, WashU’s environmental field station in Eureka, Missouri.  

All are welcome. RSVPs required.

Call for Proposals: Artistic Research in Academic Work

Workshop and gathering at Tyson Research Center

Fall 2023–Spring 2024

Application deadline has passed.

WashU’s Center for the Humanities and Tyson Research Center invite WashU humanities graduate students to participate in Spring 2024 artistic research at Tyson’s fascinating site, which includes remnant structures from WWII built into the wooded landscape, and which will culminate in a two-day on-site workshop-gathering on April 26 and 27. 

The participation will include on-site meetings, individual project development with guidance, a publication opportunity, as well as exposure to the field of “Artistic Research.” The intention is to generate community among researchers from different branches of humanistic inquiry, for whom creative practice can provide a methodologically necessary complement to their critical and intellectual work. 

If you are interested in any of the following —

  • Public humanities
  • Site-specific research and creative practice
  • Research that challenges the dominance of textual domains for analysis and study
  • Sound as a research tool for investigation and study
  • Ways of documenting artistic research, especially ephemeral and complex work
  • Embodied practice (and the political dimensions of materiality)
  • Methods for durational and body-centered research
  • Imaginative, speculative ways to engage with archival gaps to render significance to unseen, unfamous, (seemingly) unimportant materials
  • Engaging with more-than-human perspectives and scales, in theory and in practice

— this opportunity may be for you!

The application portal is now closed.

Washington University humanities graduate students are invited to submit proposals to participate in this workshop and gathering. Deadline for submissions was Friday, December 1, 2023.

Opportunity details

Students must commit to attending two group gatherings (to be scheduled) and the final workshop-gathering (April 26–27), as well as making time for site-specific research and exploration throughout the spring semester. 

Students will be granted card access to Tyson for on-site research, a $500 budget toward research expenses, and guidance from Anya Yermakova about Artistic Research methods and readings. The final workshop-gathering will include invited researchers well established in the field, from within as well as outside of the U.S. 

The central offering of this project is an invitation to explore methodological playfulness, inclusive of creative practice, that remains legible within the university. This is an invitation to suspend traditional methodological expectations and an opportunity to explore something new about your research and practice.

All disciplines are welcome.  
No pre-existing experience in artistic practice is required. 
Questions should be directed to Anya Yermakova (anyay@wustl.edu). 

How to apply

If interested in participating in this project, please apply by Friday, December 1: 

  • What appeals to you about inhabiting the cross-section of artistic research methods, environmental studies, and histories of war. While you do not have to be working in any of those fields, the interdisciplinary and practice-based nature of the project has to be of interest to you. 
  • What question might you want to explore during on-site research at Tyson. You won’t be held to this! It’s just an idea. 
  • How do you imagine artistic research methods might complement your doctoral research? This could range from something you have already explored to fresh ideas you haven’t yet enacted.
  • State any technological needs your project may require. 
  • Confirm that you are available to attend the final gathering (Apr 26-27) and to dedicate time to this project throughout the semester
  • Optional: If you are interested in collaborating with someone, list them here. Please note that both of you must apply.

 

Selected WashU graduate students

Cristina Correa, Program in Comparative Literature, International Writers Track

Lourdes del Mar Santiago Lebron, Performing Arts Department

Kristin Emanuel, Department of English and Program in Comparative Literature

Zihan Feng, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

Asha Marie Larson-Baldwin, Department of Sociology

Tess Losada-Tindall, Performing Arts Department

Jillian Lepek, Department of Art History and Archaeology

Yining Pan, Department of Anthropology and Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Alexis Rose, Department of Music

Khashayar Shahriyari, Department of Music

Sylvia Sukop, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures

Tola Sylvan, Department of English

Tsering Wangmo, Department of Anthropology and Program in Film and Media Studies

This workshop is offered as part of Washington University’s RDE Initiative (Redefining Doctoral Education in the Humanities, or “Ready”). RDE focuses on developing capacities in graduate education essential for success both within academia and in the world beyond. Follow this link for details of past retreats and more on the RDE initiative.