Category: Doctoral School

Doctoral School invites candidates interested in applying to the creative research PhD at EKA to participate in a preparatory course.
Creative research (artistic and practice-based research) is rooted in the professional practice of artists, designers, and/or architects, generating new knowledge that takes shape both in creative practice (artwork, creative process, product, service, etc.) and in a written dissertation.
The course focuses on designing and developing a creative research project, introducing completed and ongoing doctoral dissertations. It also helps participants clarify how to connect their research problem, methods, and creative practice.

The course consists of four seminars and consultations. Seminars are led by Dr. Jaana Päeva, head of the art and design PhD program, and Dr. Liina Unt. In addition to the theoretical part, doctoral students with a background in art and design will present their ongoing research. In the consultation, applicants will receive individual feedback on their research project proposal.

NB! The course takes place on-site at EKA.

Preparatory course schedule:

17.02   17:45-19:15 A-302
Introduction to artistic and practice-based research.

18.02   17:45-19:15 A-301
Research problem and framework. Example of a practice-based research (Katrin Kabun).

25.02   17:45-19:15 A-301
Integrating theory and practice through research question and methods. Example of a practice-based research (Sofja Hallik).

26.02   17:45-19:15 A-202
Example of a practice-based research. Practitioner´s viewpoint (Jane Remm).

08.03   Deadline 08:00
Submitting research proposal drafts for consultations.

12.03   Individual consultations (Jaana Päeva, Liina Unt, Kristi Kuusk).

To participate, please send a short introduction (max 1.5 pages) to irene.hutsi@artun.ee by 10.02.2026. The text should address your motivation, previous experience and the potential topic of your research. The number of places is limited, the acceptance will be confirmed by 13.02.2026.

The course will be held in English.

On 9 January, from 15:30 to 17:00, Kadri Liis Rääk will have her third peer-reviewed event as a part of her doctoral studies with the creative project “The artist’s body as a sensory threshold” at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), in room A202.

The peer-reviewers of the exhibition are Laura Põld and prof Esa Kirkkopelto.

The doctoral supervisor is dr Liina Unt.

Kadri Liis Rääk’s research is situated at the intersection of expanded scenography and speculative practices, offering an in-depth exploration of touch, affective attunement, and body–space relations. The third creative project, “The artist’s body as a sensory threshold”, focuses on embodied and sensory experience as a means of knowledge production within artistic practice.

The creative project unfolds the artist-researcher’s process through a heuristic unpacking presented in the form of a video journey. Rather than documenting a finished artwork, the video makes the movement of the research visible: introspective thought processes, forms of attunement shaped by neurodivergence, and the dynamic interplay between discovery and failure. At the core of the project is the artist’s performative withdrawal into a natural environment. The collapse of initial plans shifted the focus from expectation to the investigative activity itself, transforming the artist’s body into a sensory threshold where material-based making and spatial engagement converge. This approach places the creative process at the methodological centre, where negotiation with materials and sustained presence in a liminal in-between state give rise to unique, immediate forms of embodied knowledge.

On 9 January at 13.00 the peer-review event of Aman Asif’s exhibition Algal Phycosphere, will take place in EKA Valge maja, material lab. Exhibition is part of Asif’s practice-based doctoral thesis.

Supervisor. Kärt Ojavee
Reviewers: Marie Vihmar and Julia Lohmann

Aman Asif is an interdisciplinary designer and PhD-researcher interested in sustainable design practices that cultivate ecological wellbeing. The exhibition Algal Phycosphere marks the first peer review of her doctoral research.

Phycosphere frames the event as an inquiry into algal-centred relations. Asif’s research explores creative design practice as sites for attuning to microbial others. The works presented here emerge from her practice-led research, developed through ongoing encounters with algal in her home, the laboratory, and coastal environments in Tallinn. The exhibition includes material-led experiments and hand-crafted artifacts, as well as sensory probes developed in relation to algal.

Through this research, Asif traces a process in which meeting another living microbial presence reshapes how design is practised, and how relational negotiations at this scale can inform the values and conditions of designing amid concerns for ecological wellbeing.

Acknowledgements

Aman Asif would like to thank the many human and more-than-human collaborators who made this work possible.

She would like to thank Kärt Ojavee and Valentina Guccini for their guidance and sustained support.

She is grateful to Rameez Husnain, Pia Lindberg, Kim Janssen, Jaakko Kokko, Anjali VIjayan, Nashwa Attallah, Ero Kontturi and Sarvin Sefatyar for their collaboration and generosity at various stages of the work. Special thanks to Rando Tuvikene and his team at Tallinn University (TLU) for providing space, access, and support during the early stages of this research.

She would also like to acknowledge her colleagues Maria Kapajeva, Joanna Kalm, and the members of the EKA PhD cohort for feedback and shared thinking.

Finally, she would like to thank her family: Asif Latif Lone, Saima Asif, Shehryar Asif, and Danish Lone for always supporting her wellbeing and endless curiosities.

Photo credits: Sarvin Sefatyar

A public peer-review of knowledge transfer PhD student Liisi Tamm’s first case study will be held on December 17th at 16:00–17:30 at the Estonian Academy of Arts, room A202. The case study is part of a creative doctoral thesis analyzing design practice and methods of working with wool to determine its influence on design decisions and the designer’s role in meaning making. The knowledge transfer partner for the doctoral project is Pallas University of Applied Sciences.

Supervisors: Jaana Päeva PhD (EKA) and prof. Aet Ollisaar (Pallas)
The peer-reviewers are Ave Matsin and Nithikul Nimkulrat PhD (OCAD University)

The first case study focuses on the process of creating the material – making wool yarn. It examines how working directly with wool – from sorting and washing to hand- and machine-spinning – shapes textile students’ experience with the material, influencing their design process, aesthetic choices, and attitudes toward the value of local wool.

EKA Doctoral School will be hosting an online info session about doctoral studies at EKA on February 11, 2026, at 15:00-16:30 EET (local Estonian time). 

Info session provides a good opportunity to hear more about doctoral studies at EKA, available programmes, admission requirements and procedure, etc; also meet and ask questions directly from people behind the Doctoral School and the programmes. The info session will be hosted online over Zoom. A link to attend will be e-mailed to registered participants shortly before the event begins.

REGISTER HERE

The Estonian Academy of Arts offers following PhD level programmes for international applicants:

• Architecture and Urban Planning
• Art and Design
• Art History and Visual Culture
• Cultural Heritage and Conservation

Admission period for international PhD applicants for 2026/2027 starts on February 1st, 2026. Deadline for submitting application is March 31st, 2026, at 3pm (EET).

Admission requirements for PhD programmes can be found HERE.

More information:
Irene Hütsi
Doctoral School coordinator
irene.hutsi@artun.ee

The peer-review of Kim Morgan’s artwork in the exhibition Anatomy of Dust will take place on December 4, 2025, at 15:30 – 17:00, at Valge maja, Kotzebue 10, V308.

The peer-reviewers are Dr. Maiju Loukola (Uniarts, Helsinki) and Professor Liina Siib (EKA, Tallinn).
The thesis supervisors are Dr. Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla (Tallinn, Estonia) and Jan Peacock, Professor Emerita (NSCAD University, Halifax, Canada).

Kim Morgan invites you to the public presentation on her artwork in Anatomy of Dust, a two-person exhibition with Estonian Artist Juss Heinsalu, at the Hobusepea Gallerii, Tallinn, August 27 – Sept 22nd.   During this exhibition Morgan also used the site of the gallery as a research/lab/studio space to present, examine, and discuss her ongoing doctoral research.

This presentation is the second peer-review of her practice-based doctoral artistic research titled Examining, Diagnosing, and Creating, Public Art Installations for Complex Spaces; such Health Care Facilities.  Kim Morgan will discuss her artistic research, reflections and method of working that resulted in the exhibition installations. With this body of work and ongoing research and activities, Morgan proposes that site-specific relevant art installations situated in health care facilities have the potential to enhance our understanding of the human body and shift our experience and relationship to these complex spaces.  And, hopefully, to promote a new sense of health, care, and well-being.

Kim Morgan is a doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax, NS, Canada.

For more information on Anatomy of Dust exhibition https://hobusepeadraakon.ee/en/archive/

On 12 December, 2025 Margus Tamm, external doctoral student of Art and Design curriculum, will defend his doctoral thesis „Artistic Interventions in the Public Space: Tactical Media and the Communicative Turn in Protest Culture at the Turn of the Millennium“ („Kunstilised sekkumised avalikus ruumis. Taktikaline meedia ja kommunikatiivne pööre protestikultuuris aastatuhande vahetusel“).
The public defense will take place at 11.00 at EKA (Põhja pst 7), room A101.

Thesis is available in EKA digital repository.

Supervisors: Prof. Andres Kurg (Estonian Academy of Arts)
Prof. Marek Tamm (Tallinn University)
External reviewers: Dr. Ingrid Ruudi (Estonian Academy of Arts)
Prof. Daniele Monticelli (Tallinn University)
Opponent: Prof. Daniele Monticelli (Tallinn University)

Summary:

The political culture of the 21st century is increasingly shaped by protest movements and protest politics. Against the backdrop of weakening traditional democratic institutions, protest activism has become a fertile ground for civic participation and democratic renewal – revitalizing political debate, creating new collective identities, and expanding the ways of political engagement.

This research focuses on the spectacular dimensions of contemporary protest culture and on the period 1990–2010 – an academically under-studied transitional era during which a radically democratic and artistically interventionist protest repertoire emerged. The dissertation consists of five articles that, through case studies and theoretical discussion, examine the defining features of interventionist artistic activism, accompanied by an introductory umbrella chapter that frames the research topic and situates it within a broader discussion.

The study addresses the following questions: what kind of social role do protest movements and popular protest politics play in contemporary Western democracies; how has the communicative turn in the social sciences shaped the conceptualization of protest movements; what is the role of artistic practices in contemporary protest culture; what developments characterize democratic protest culture during the period of 1990–2010; and finally – and most crucially – how can the passion for political change be reconciled with institutional sustainability?

The broader aim of the dissertation is to examine contemporary protest culture as a point of intersection between artistic and political expression, to contribute to the critical discourse on its expanding social role, and to highlight both the challenges and opportunities that arise from employing artistic practices for activist purposes.

On November 13 at 15.00, a peer-review of PhD student Karolin Poska’s performance „Spatial Hiccups“ will take place in EKA white house (Kotzebua 10), room V308.

The peer-reviewers are Annette Arlander (Uniarts, Helsinki) and Mart Kangro.
The thesis supervisor is Liina Unt.

In this doctoral research, I examine how a disruption within a system — a glitch — can be understood not merely as a technical malfunction, but as a creative strategy that enables the emergence of new ways of thinking and helps to overcome creative barriers.

In this research, I focus on site-specific performance as a structure, along with the everyday routines, logics, games, and the body connected to the site-specific place, Balti Jaama Market. As part of the preparatory work for the “Spatial Hiccups”, I embodied the roles of a vendor, a customer, and an observer at the Baltic Jaam Market, which allowed me to gain deeper, site-specific knowledge of the place.

As an artist, I sometimes perceive myself and my actions as a kind of glitch within society—an unexpected or unconventional behavior within an established structure. Therefore, I also aim to conceptualize glitch as a possible artistic attitude toward engaging with the world. I am like a gold tooth, a bone fracture, or a hiccup—an unexpected glitch that occurs within the structure itself.

The First Peer-Reviewed Project of Doctoral Theses “Playing with Fire: Possibilities for Designing Four-Dimensional Gemstones by Combining Traditional Faceting and Free-Form Engraving. Time as a Design Element.”

Travelling Light. A Study on the Movement of Light in Experimentally Cut Gemstones.
Exhibition at the Library of the Estonian Academy Of Arts  21 Oct.- 4 Nov. 2025

Peer-review: 4 Nov. 2025 12:00 at the EKA Library

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Krista Kodres
Peer-Reviewers: Prof. Dr. Virve Sarapik and Prof. Theo Smeets (Trier University of Applied Sciences)

The starting point of this doctoral research is the hypothesis that by combining traditional faceting with free-form carving, it is possible to create innovative reflection patterns within gemstones  – patterns that can be experienced not only in space but also in time. The creative research explores how to make jewelry four-dimensional by consciously using time as a design element, presenting jewels not as static objects but as dynamic works in continuous transformation. Reflection from curved surfaces enables the smooth modulation of reflected light intensity, linking rhythms into a fluid, variable whole.

This experiment provides an overview of the basic principles of faceting – refraction and reflection of light – through the combination of faceted and freeform elements. The aim is to demonstrate how individual reflective elements, through mutual interaction, form the brilliance of a gemstone. To illustrate the experiment, the exhibition held at the EKA Library presents, in addition to transparent test objects, both works in progress and completed jewellery set with cut gemstones.

PhD Seminar “Socially Engaged Art as a Subject of Study and its Potential for Higher Arts Education’s Third Mission – Contributing to Society” will take place on 21 November 10.00-14.00 at Estonian Academy of Art. Lecturer Kai Lehikoinen (Uniarts Helsinki).

Seminar is open to PhD and MA students.
Please register HERE by 14 November.

What do we mean by socially engaged art, and why does it matter in higher arts education today? This seminar explores socially engaged art as a dynamic and interdisciplinary field of study that fosters creativity, collaboration, and societal transformation. In this theoretical and practical seminar conducted by Kai Lehikoinen we will get familiar with socially engaged art, its interests, central organising concepts, principles of practice, skills and competences, and criteria of success.

In this session, drawing from his new book Creativity, Society, and the Role of Socially Engaged Art in Higher Arts Education (Routledge, 2025), Kai Lehikoinen introduces case examples and invites participants to imagine how socially engaged arts practices can contribute to the Third Mission of higher arts education—engagement with society—by creating “third spaces” for dialogue, co-creation, and innovation. Through a lecture presentation, followed by group discussions and sharing, participants will reflect on how these practices can enrich research, pedagogy, and institutional impact across diverse cultural contexts.

This seminar is relevant for artists in all art forms, researchers, practitioners, and educators who are curious about how to expand their work and share it further, regardless of their previous experience with the field of socially engaged art.

Kai Lehikoinen is a Finnish scholar of dance pedagogy and socially engaged arts, currently serving as a University Researcher at the Research Institute of Uniarts Helsinki. His research spans socially engaged arts practices, masculinities in dance education, and the evolving professionalism of artists. He actively contributes to discourse on the futures of higher arts education, as well as equity and well-being in and through the arts.

Throughout his career, Lehikoinen has held several leadership roles, including Vice Director of ArtsEqual Research Initiative and Director of the CERADA research centre. He currently serves as a member of ELIA’s Representative Board, contributing to international dialogue on arts education and policy.

Estonian Doctoral School for the Humanities and Arts

Project “Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies” (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.