Two projects receive funding from NWO PhDs in the Humanities

This year, two candidates from Utrecht University have been rewarded a PhD position in the NWO funding programme 'PhDs in the Humanities'. In the next four years they will conduct research into the subject of their choice at Utrecht University.

the accepted proposals

Opening up the black box: artistic explorations of technological surveillance


Applicant: Prof. Rosemarie Buikema
Candidate: Rosa Wevers
Many contemporary European art exhibitions currently address the growing importance of technological surveillance in post-9/11 Europe. This PhD project analyses a corpus of exhibitions of ‘surveillance art’, and investigates how they form an important contribution to public understanding and critical reflection on the impact of technological surveillance. The project examines the Arts as an innovative site where technological surveillance is scrutinized, socially just alternatives are designed and where citizens can be educated and made critically aware of the impact and implications of this form of surveillance.

New research on early language development in gestational diabetes


Applicant: Prof. Aoju Chen
Candidate: Rachida Ganga
Even before birth, children learn from speech in their environment. Findings from infants born too small and born preterm suggests that disturbances in these prenatal experiences with speech negatively impact their language development, but how is yet unknown. Therefore, this research focusses on the interaction between immaturity of the brain and prenatal experiences with speech and their consequences on language development in children from mothers with gestational diabetes. Furthermore, the results will help us understand why children from mothers with gestational diabetes often have a language delay. Based on this information, intervention can be developed in the future.

PHDs in the humanities

The aim of the PhDs in the Humanities funding instrument is to increase the number of young talented researchers in the humanities, and to facilitate their progression on the academic career ladder.