PhD on Making Methods (for designing in uncertain times)

Position PhD-student

Irène Curie Fellowship No

Department(s) Industrial Design

FTE 1,0

Date off 04/08/2024

Reference number V51.7591

Job description

We invite applications for a fully-funded 4-year doctoral position on exploring and developing design research methods for times of change.

This project takes place at the department of Industrial Design and aims to advance our understanding of method and process as strategies for paying attention and evidencing difficult and uncertain material. This is done through material speculative making the edges of digital craftsmanship, speculation-through-making and first person perspectives to generate samples, reflections, data, performances and timings, in order to arrive at understandings of how we engage with machines, material, patterns, people and more-than-human worlds1.

To do this we bring together situated knowledges2, diffractions3, and critical fabulations4 informed by feminist design research5 and the understanding of making as a feminist practice6. The promise of these strategies is that they are design-oriented, longitudinal, and situated inquiries of research through design and digital craftsmanship. They serve as a strong basis for learning to negotiate complexity and trouble through design7.

Practically, this doctoral research project will develop a series of design research methods through hands-on experimentation that engage with how we can do design research with a complex world in rapid change. The project is strongly connected to the Wearable Senses Lab as a site for making and research, and a large aspect of the output is expected to be material explorations. 

Job requirements

This work is situated at the intersection of digital craftsmanship, explorative making and feminist theory. Candidates should have a master’s degree in a related area, experience or a strong interest in an area of making, and demonstrable skill and interest in research through design. Ideally, you have the following qualifications:

• Strong interest in the making and crafting of textiles, jewelry or related areas such as glass, embroidery or woodwork.
• Interest in and curiosity towards collaborations with/through intelligent textile machinery.
• Experience or keen interest in broadening our understanding of Research through Design feminist methodologies, explorative making and digital craftsmanship.
• Experience in designing and making explorative design intervention as evidenced in a portfolio.
• Experience of and interest in working in diverse teams, with the ability to think across various disciplines.
• The potential to publish academically or a track record of publications in design related research areas.
• Ability to work independently and persistently tackle complex research problems.
• Good communication skills: Fluency in English (written and verbal) is mandatory.
• Readiness to relocate to the Netherlands

Conditions of employment

A meaningful job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities, scale P (min. €2,770 max. €3,539).
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process.
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children's day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates. 

Information and application

About us

Eindhoven University of Technology is an internationally top-ranking university in the Netherlands that combines scientific curiosity with a hands-on attitude. Our spirit of collaboration translates into an open culture and a top-five position in collaborating with advanced industries. Fundamental knowledge enables us to design solutions for the highly complex problems of today and tomorrow.

Curious to hear more about what it’s like as a PhD candidate at TU/e? Please view the video.

Information

Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more? Please contact
Kristina Andersen, h.k.g.andersen@tue.nl.

Visit our website for more information about the application process or the conditions of employment. You can also contact HR Services: HRServices.ID@tue.nl.

Are you inspired and would like to know more about working at TU/e? Please visit our career page.

Application

We invite you to submit a complete application by using the apply button. The application should include:

• Cover letter in which you describe your motivation and research interests
• A portfolio of design work in PDF format.
• Curriculum vitae, including a list of your publications and the contact information of three references. Reference letters will be requested if you are selected to proceed to the interview stage.
• Your master thesis (with English abstract), or at least one paper in English of which you are the primary author.

We look forward to receiving your application and will screen it as soon as possible. The vacancy will remain open until the position is filled.

1 Ron Wakkary. 2021. Things We Could Design: For More Than Human-Centered Worlds. MIT Press, Cambridge.
2 Donna Haraway. 1988. Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies 14, 3 (1988), 575–599. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178066
3Karen Barad. 2014. Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting Together-Apart. Parallax 20, 3 (jul 2014), 168–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2014.927623 
4Daniela K. Rosner. 2018. Critical Fabulations: Reworking the Methods and Margins of Design. The MIT Press.
5Sara Ahmed. 2010. Feminist killjoys (and other willful subjects). Polyphonic Feminisms: Acting in Concert (2010). Issue  .3.
6Janne Mascha Beuthel and Verena Fuchsberger. 2022. Exploring Bodily Heirlooms: Material Ways to Prolong Closeness Beyond Death. In Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Creativity and Cognition (Venice, Italy) (C&C ’22). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 135–145. https://doi.org/10.1145/3527927.3532788 
7Zoy Anastassakis. 2021. DESIGN STRUGGLES: Intersecting Histories, Pedagogies, and Perspectives. Valiz, Chapter REDESIGNING DESIGN IN THE PLURIVERSE Speculative Fabulations from a School in the Borderlands, 169–186.