PhD position [1] - Position Assigned!
Behavioral and causative (DA agonist) approaches to visual art production and creativity change as impacted by Parkinson’s Disease: University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology.
The ARTIS Lab (Art Research on Transformation of Individuals and Society; Head, Asst. Prof.-Dr. Matthew Pelowski, Cognitive and Neuroaesthetics), Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, is looking to fill 1 PhD position to work with us in a new project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, #ConnectingMinds) on “Unlocking the muse: Transdisciplinary approaches to understanding and applying the intersection of artistic creativity and Parkinson’s disease”.
What it is?
A fully-funded, three year, PhD student position (standard PhD student salary at Univie, B1, 75%, see https://personalwesen.univie.ac.at/en/jobs-recruiting/job-center/salary-scheme/ for payment description). Position is hosted at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna (https://psychologie.univie.ac.at/en/), and within the wider Vienna Doctoral School in Cognition, Behavior and Neuroscience (VDS CoBeNe, https://vds-cobene.univie.ac.at/).
The PhD student position will work with Dr. Pelowski to fulfill one of the University of Vienna’s work packages on the above third-party funded consortium project (PI, Pelowski, see the project website here: https://unlockingthemuse.univie.ac.at). This project represents a first-ever systematic, transdisciplinary look into a fascinating, but empirically under-explored, intersection between Parkinson’s Disease and possible changes in visual artistic creativity or artistic production, as well as spontaneous uptake or improvements in art making itself.
The project includes a unique collaboration between PIs in Vienna, at the Faculty of Psychology (Pelowski, expertise in visual art making, creativity, empirical aesthetics, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Pelowski) and at the Vienna Cognitive Science Hub (PI Julia Crone, expert in computational neuroimaging and causative studies, https://neurocognition.org/), as well as collaboration with experts in clinical medicine, neurology, and epidemiological studies at Radboud University Medical Centre and the Donders Institute Center of Excellence on Parkinson’s Disease, Nijmegen, Netherlands, and with societal partners focused on patient-centered care and art therapy (https://www.parkinsonnet.com/). The position will be based 100% in Vienna, however with numerous opportunities to visit and work with our partners both across Austria and internationally.
Who we are looking for?
An ideal candidate will bring an interest, a passion, and possibly past experience in neuroscience, causative/drug studies, neurodegeneration, and/or specifically in visual artistic creativity and its intersection with behavior and the brain. More concretely, the candidate will work with Dr. Pelowski (and in close collaboration with Dr. Crone and an additional PhD student hired to focus on neuroimaging) to develop and apply visual art making batteries, assessments of creativity, or other behavioral measures with individuals with Parkinson’s Disease as well as with neurotypical controls to better understand the possible changes that may manifest with this disease and how these may relate to specific workings of the brain. Behavioral methods will be coupled with causative pharmacological studies (employing DA agonist), supported by our expert and institutional partners, in which we will attempt to duplicate emerging findings in the literature on PD. The candidate will also be involved in developing means of assessing produced artworks using techniques such as machine learning.
Are you interested in studying how our penchant for art, for pleasure, or our creative inspiration and motivation might be both revealed and impacted by neurodegenerative disease? Are you interested in applying cutting-edge techniques using pharmacology, as well as visual art making paradigms to investigate how we can be creative, how we become visual artists, as well as how this might be changed at the level of the brain? Are you interested in being a PhD student within a collaborative, transdisciplinary team? This position may be for you!
Candidates should have Bachelors and Masters (MSc) degrees or equivalent. A previous degree in Psychology, neuroscience, statistics, computer science, or equivalent STEM areas is useful, but not required (we would also be interested in hearing from candidates with degrees in, for example, aesthetic philosophy, art history, or other humanities; but of course please explain how your background might make you a unique fit for this position). Candidates should additionally bring at least some basic experience in designing and executing studies and analyzing data (e.g., SPSS, R, MATLAB). Perhaps even more important, a successful candidate will bring an active interest in the arts and visual creativity, in critical discussions around their possible application to psychological, clinical, and therapeutic applications, as well as an analytic mind and the desire to explore transdisciplinary questions systematically from the viewpoint of psychology.
Excellent written and spoken English is a must. German and/or Dutch (we may be working a bit in the Netherlands) would be useful, but not required (lab language is English).
What’s in it for you?
- A chance to join a truly unique consortium network and project at the center of creativity, art making, neuroscience, and policy/social applications of the arts to health and neurodegeneration.
- A chance to join a dynamic, international, and growing lab at the University of Vienna, the world’s first faculty with a specific research focus on empirical aesthetics, neuroaesthetics, and art studies. Work side by side with a large number of Master, PhD, and Postdoc researchers all sharing a passion for investigating a wide range of topics as they overlap with our human experience, production, and enjoyment of art.
- Opportunities to travel to partners in Europe for research meetings and data collection.
- Beyond the project consortium, enjoy a large collaboration network across Europe, North America, and Asia encompassing art and aesthetics-interested individuals and institutions in psychology, neuroscience, art policy, art education, clinical medicine, art therapy.
- The PhD will be embedded in the larger CoBeNe (Cognition, Behavior, and Neuroscience, https://vds-cobene.univie.ac.at/) Doctoral School, further uniting a number of faculties in Cognitive Sciences, Biology, and Psychology, providing support, extra funding opportunities for travel, and structure for students.
- Competitive salary and health insurance.
- Send materials to: sophie.groeber@univie.ac.at. The subject line should read: “Application for PhD position, Pelowski”.
- The deadline for sending your application is 21 July (Friday) before 23:59 PM (CET).
- The successful applicant is expected to start roughly 1 January 2024. However, this can be adjusted earlier/later depending on circumstances.
For more information on Asst. Prof. Dr. Matthew Pelowski see also:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Matthew-Pelowski