Resurgent Places: Practice-based Repair Across the West Asia and North Africa Region University of the Arts London in United Kingdom

The University of the Arts London invites applications for a PhD studentship titled "Resurgent Places: Practice-based Repair Across the West Asia and North Africa Region." This opportunity focuses on the WANA region, which has been shaped by colonial, extractive, and militarist violence, as well as environmental risks such as drought and desertification. The project seeks to address and redress social, spatial, and environmental injustices caused by the intersection of wars, colonisation, and climate change.

Applicants are encouraged to propose research that advances place-(re)making practices as modes of repair and resistance. Potential research questions include: What reconstruction and repair work is needed after the deliberate unmaking of a place? How can place-making practices remedy the rift between suppressed land-based epistemologies and colonial projections? How can radical place-making transform conditions of violence and vulnerability under colonialism?

The studentship welcomes practice-based proposals that articulate creative methodologies and spatial strategies, including writing, poetry, visual arts, film, and sound-based practices. Projects may focus on textual/linguistic frameworks, critical fabulation, and storytelling to recover memories and modes of relation embedded in place. Research can be situated in a specific location within the WANA region or take a translocal/transregional approach.

Potential research areas include recovering indigenous, ecological, and linguistic place-based knowledges threatened by war and neoliberalisation; practices of ecological sustainability and resilience in war-torn zones; studies of land-based epistemologies and ancestral knowledges; decolonisation of knowledge about land and place; and investigations of multispecies assemblages and alliances.

The project partner, Mosaic Rooms, is a leading arts organisation dedicated to contemporary culture from the Arab world and beyond. Mosaic Rooms will provide mentorship, access to archives, networks, and dissemination opportunities for the candidate’s work.

Supervision is provided by Dr Elisa Adami (expert in decolonial ecologies and sustainable place-based practices), Dr Nadine Monem (expert in land-based and Indigenous research methods), and Dr Caterina Albano (expert in cultural history, memory politics, and ecological/social justice). The supervisors offer connections to UAL’s research centres and communities of practice, supporting interdisciplinary and creative research approaches.

Applicants should have a strong academic background in relevant disciplines and demonstrate interest in decolonial ecologies, indigenous epistemologies, and place-making. Practice-based proposals are encouraged. No specific degree level, GPA, or language test requirements are mentioned.

Funding details are not specified. The application deadline is May 11, 2026. For application guidance and submission, visit the University of the Arts London website and follow the instructions provided. This position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to social and ecological justice in the WANA region through creative and interdisciplinary research.