PhD position for the project Spekulative Documentary

Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH) provides education and conducts artistic research in the subject areas of circus, dance, dance pedagogy, film, media, opera, performing arts and acting. The breadth and scope of art forms enables unique opportunities for cross-artistic co-creation and development. Through strengthening connections between education and research, we support artistic practice as a site for academic knowledge, nurture the next generation of artists and researchers, and advocate for art’s ability to meet the challenges of and developments in society. The university has 25 doctoral students, approximately 500 BA and MA students and 250 employees. We are currently located in five different buildings on Gärdet and Östermalm with plans to move into a custom designed joint building in Slakthusområdet in 2030.

Do you want to contribute to a vibrant study, research and working environment? As a doctoral student you will join an environment where leading artists, researchers, and educators, are creatively contributing, via artistic practice and research, to an active and ongoing dialogue with the society we are all a part of. Together we look to create a culture with a strongly demonstrated sense of responsibility, trust, empathy and commitment.

Do you have an active artistic practice in documentary film? Are you interested in undertaking doctoral studies in performative and media-based practices? Under the title Speculative Documentary this call provides an opportunity for a documentary film artist to propose a doctoral project with collaboration at its centre, exploring how documentary film can capture the great societal and existential challenges we face.

Speculative Documentary

For three decades, the research funding body Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) has worked to support research and knowledge development in close collaboration with the business community and organisations. Through funding doctoral students at Sweden's newer universities, the foundation looks to strengthen research and innovation with a particular focus on collaboration.

Funded by the Knowledge Foundation, SKH announces a doctoral position in the doctoral project Speculative Documentary with a start date of 1 September 2025. Applicants are admitted to the third-cycle subject Performative and media-based practices. Applicants are required to collaborate with external partners in the doctoral project and participate regularly in collaboration meetings organised by the Knowledge Foundation.

The doctoral project Speculative Documentary is part of the research environment at SKH, within the subject area of film and media, and of the overarching ongoing research project The Future through the present, led by professors Erik Gandini who will also be the principal supervisor of the doctoral student.

The doctoral project Speculative Documentary investigates how documentary film, traditionally based on real events in the present and past, can create a projection into the future. The project aims to develop a cinematic language that frees documentary film from the limitation of depicting only the present or the past, through capturing not only 'what is' but also 'what can be'.

The doctoral student will experiment with new technologies to create innovative documentary narratives and explore alternative modes of distribution to reach new audiences, which is of great interest to both established and new collaboration partners. Within the framework of the doctoral project, the doctoral student is expected to work on their own research questions and create a new film language that challenges and renews the role of documentary film as a depictor of the present and the past.

Speculative Documentary strives to open new possibilities for documentary film to capture the great societal, existential challenges we face. Collaboration with the film industry and with external organizations is a central part of the doctoral project and the accepted doctoral student will have great opportunities to develop long-term networks and collaboration.

Third-cycle subject performative and media-based practices

The subject Performative and media-based practices accommodates research in artistic practice. It offers possibilities for artists with higher education or equivalent qualifications to reflect in, on and through artistic practice. This is done by situating a specific enquiry to relevant knowledge and methods within artistic practice, resulting in a documented artistic research project Speculative documentary (doctoral thesis).

The aim of the doctoral programme Performative and media-based practices is to educate the artists and artistic researchers of the present, in both practice and theory, as they endeavour to make meaningful contributions to the art, culture, and society of the future. Programme aims include promoting dialogue about art in and with society, as well as developing collaborations and exchanges between artistic research and other fields of research.

The education qualifies the doctoral student for artistic practice and research in artistic and/or academic contexts nationally and internationally.

General syllabus for third-cycle studies in performative and media-based practices

Terms and Conditions

Third-cycle studies are comprised of four years of full-time study and lead to a Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Fine Arts in Performative and Media Based Practices. The education is conducted on SKH's campus and begins September 1, 2025. As a doctoral student, you are required to reside in Sweden and participate on site at SKH.

Third-cycle studies consists of courses corresponding to one year of full-time study and the conception, development, and production of a documented artistic research project Speculative documentary (doctoral thesis). As a doctoral student, you are expected to participate and contribute to internal and external research environments, for example in the context of seminars, workshops, conferences, and expositions at SKH and the Knowledge foudnation, nationally and internationally.

The program will be fully financed, and the doctoral student will be employed full-time at SKH. Departmental duties, up to 20 percent full time, can be included in your doctoral employment. Usually, departmental duties include teaching at first and second cycle level.

Information about being a doctoral student at SKH can be found here: Being a doctoral student 
Information about relocation can be found here: Relocation for doctoral students   

Eligibility requirements

To be admitted to third-cycle studies in performative and media-based practices, the applicant is required to fulfil the general and specific entry requirements in accordance with the general syllabus. Entry requirements shall be fulfilled at the time of application.

General entry requirements are met if the applicant has: 

• been awarded a second-cycle qualification, or
• completed course requirements comprising at least 240 ECTS, of which at least 60 ECTS awarded at second-cycle level, or
• otherwise acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in Sweden or abroad.

Specific entry requirements are met if the applicant has:

1. been awarded a degree comprising at least 240 ECTS in educational programmes that are relevant to the subject area performative and media-based practices or have experience of artistic work comparative therewith, and
2. demonstrated continuous and on-going artistic activities and carried out independent artistic work, and
3. good knowledge in English, both written and spoken.

Selection and basis of assessment

Selection of applicants who meet the eligibility requirements will be based on the applicant’s qualifications at the time of application and their ability to profit from third-cycle studies according to the selection criteria.

In connection with the application, the applicant shall present a research plan outlining their intended artistic research project Speculative Documentary. The plan shall contain a description of the doctoral project Speculative Documentary, a sketch of its proposed execution and a preliminary budget. Work samples may be attached to the application.

The following criteria form the basis of assessment of the applicant’s ability to profit from third-cycle studies:

1. the research plan’s content in relation to an assessment of the applicant’s earlier qualifications and the applicant’s suitability for artistic research work,
2. the feasibility of the project according to the research plan within the given time frame (a period corresponding to four years of full-time study) and allocated project budget,
3. the research plan’s artistic quality regarding doctoral project’s Speculative Documentary the subject’s delimitation, relevance, originality, research questions, ties with and relevance to the collective area of knowledge and its method development,
4. the research plan’s content in relation to the existing research expertise and research fields of SKH as well as good research practice, and the university’s possibilities for adequate supervision, and
5. documented good collaboration skills.

The most qualified applicants will be called to interview between 24–25 April 2025.

Admission process

The call is open from 16 December 2024 to 6 February 2025 accessed via SKH's digital application system. 

The admission process is carried out in several steps: Complete applications undergo an eligibility assessment. Applications which pass the first selection go on to an external assessment process. After which, applicants who have passed a second selection are invited to interview, scheduled for 24–25 April 2025.

After the interviews, the proposed applicants are contacted for admission and employment.

Employment as a doctoral student

Those admitted to third-cycle education are employed as doctoral students at SKH. This means that you are an employee of the university and part of an academic environment. SKH is a Swedish government agency, and your employment is therefore subject to the employment rules regarding public employees in Sweden.

Regulations for employment as a doctoral student can be found in Chapter 5 of the Higher Education Ordinance.
Read more here: Higher Education Ordinance 
and
The-Higher-Education-Ordinance/#chapter5 (unofficial translation).

The initial appointment as doctoral student may apply for no longer than one year and SKH's practice is to extend the employment one year at a time. The total period of employment may be no longer than that equivalent to full-time third-cycle studies of four years.

SKH operates in accord with local salary agreement for doctoral students. The starting salary for doctoral students is currently SEK 29 000/month.

Contact details

If you have questions, please refer to the FAQ from the last round of doctoral admissions. You can also email your question to: phdpositions@uniarts.se

Information meetings on zoom

Are you interested in applying or have you applied for a PhD position at SKH? Do you have questions about the application process or the content and structure of the doctoral program? Welcome to one of our digital information meetings for applicants: January 9, 2025, at 16:00-18:00 or January 14, 2025, at 9:00-11:00, Swedish time, on Zoom.
Zoom-link to the meeting

Trade unions

Personnel organisations

For this recruitment, we have made our advertising choice and therefore do not want to be contacted by advertising salespeople, recruitment agencies or any similar organizations.

Application

SKH welcomes the qualities that meetings between different perspectives and experiences bring to the organization. We particularly encourage applicants who complement our organization in terms of gender equality and ethnic diversity.

Application for admission to doctoral studies here: SUBMIT HERE

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their application is complete in accordance with the call, see detailed instructions here: How to write your application.

Submit only digital material. You may be asked at a later stage of the admission process to provide physical work samples or other material by post.

Application documents with attachments become public documents. SKH handles its public documents in accordance with the Swedish National Archives' regulations.

The application must be submitted no later than: 6 February, 2025 at 23.59, Swedish time.

We welcome your application!