Awards
Established
2018
Research Policy & Strategy
ESAM locates creative research at the intersection between theory and practice, emphasizing the pursuit of it as one of the School’s defining aims. The School’s research policy has recently been redesigned (in 2017). Academic staff are well represented on the School’s governing Scientific Council and play an important role in defining creative research for the institution, which is collaborative and practice-based. The School is a founding member of RADIAN (Research, Art, Design, Innovation, Architecture in Normandie), a research laboratory also involving Ecole Supérieure d’Arts et Design Le Havre/Rouen (ESADHaR) and Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture de Normandie.
Key research themes
Awards Offered
PhD in research and artistic creation through artistic practice.
Degrees are validated by Normandie Université (a trans-institutional association for the region).
Assessment
Artwork
Thesis based on artwork (100 pages)
Logbook
Viva
In accordance with French Law, PhD submissions are defended in front of a jury comprised 50/50 of academics and professionals.
Forms of Output
Free
Programme Structure
3 years full-time only (180 ECTS). Extensions to this time are possible by derogation. Students are expected to provide supervisors with frequent updates on progress. A PhD Charter governs the terms of supervision. This Charter also introduces ethics to 3rd cycle students and defines their obligations in this regard. Ethics training is thereafter provided as part of the PhD programme.Students commit to presenting progress reports as determined within individual research frameworks.
In the first and second year of study, they follow methodology modules according to their needs, meeting with supervisors regularly. Methodology training in the first year of study is common to all students in Doctoral School 558. A special training for RADIAN students is considered.
Undergraduate & Masters Research
Masters students at ESAM or Esadhar take ‘Introduction to Research’ modules.
Quality Assurance & Enhancement
This is being addressed in tandem with the development of the programme.
Supervision
Students work with 2 supervisors, an academic and a relevant professional from the creative industries (e.g. curator, artist, theorist)
Academic supervisors are expected to hold the Habilitation à Diriger la Recherche (HDR).
Staffing
Currently there are 4 members of staff engaged in 3rd cycle supervisions (13% of the total). This represents 1/3rd of the number of staff (12) engaged in research in the School, of who 4 are research professors. Staff can apply for internal funding of up to €10,000 to support research projects and are supported by means of reallocation of contracted time towards gaining HDR qualification and towards supervising 3rd cycle students.
Student Admissions
Students matriculate into the trans-institutional Doctoral School 558 (History, Memory, Patrimony, Language), Normandie Université.
There are currently 3 PhD students, 64 Masters students, 186 Undergraduate students.
Student Funding
A grant of €10,000 per student is covered by state funding from the Ministere de la Culture and local funding from the Région Normandie Council.
Additional Information
PhD research at Caen/Cherbourg is strongly practice-based, and research students are expected to place the creative process and the generation of artworks at the heart of their projects. The Programme is the result of an innovative collaboration between 3 higher education institutes in Art & Architecture.