First doctorates at the Graduate School of the Arts
Since 2011, the University of Bern and Bern University of the Arts HKB have been offering a joint artistic and academic doctoral program with the Graduate School of the Arts GSA. The first doctoral students graduated this fall.
The Berlin pop and jazz musician Immanuel Brockhaus wrote his dissertation "Kultsounds: Untersuchung zur Entstehung, Praxis und Wirkung dominierender Einzelklänge in populärer Musik 1960-2014", the Zurich designer Julia Mia Stirnemann wrote her dissertation in art history "Über Projektionen: World Maps and Worldviews. From reconstruction to deconstruction, from convention to alternative".
Over 40 doctoral students from the fields of music, design, art, theater, dance, literature, photography and conservation are now enrolled in the Bern doctoral program, which combines artistic practice and academic research. Some of them come from Swiss art colleges and universities, while others come from the USA, Russia, Thailand, Germany or Italy.
Projects involving GSA doctoral students have already attracted several million francs in third-party funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF and the Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI.
