Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "WANDERING THE BLUE FIELDS OF LIMINALITY: An artistic research in the somatic effects of liminal experiences" "Arne DE WINDE" "ArcK, Media, Arts and Design" "WANDERING THE BLUE FIELDS OF LIMINALITY is an artistic investigation into liminal states and their sensory manifestations. It focuses on liminality in the form of subtle changes in the ordinary in order to reveal how artistic practices can lead to being physically immersed in liminal states, not in order to escape everyday life, but to expand it. The research focuses on affective liminality in the form of eros, despair, and mourning, sensory liminality in the form of sound and music, and liminal transitions in life in the form of mortality. By delving deeper into this myriad of possible everyday liminal spaces, the research seeks to explore the bodily effects they produce in those who access them. To this end, inspiration is sought from the field of (psycho)somatic care, questioning the ways in which such practices are too often perverted in the pursuit of increased effectiveness and productivity. Therefore, the project sets a clear non-utilitarian and non-therapeutic goal and instead seeks to expand the space for purposeful uselessness by bringing together cultural (artistic and academic) theories of liminality and psychosomatic medicine." "Borders and Borderlands Revisited: A Visual and Mixed-method Study of Liminal Spaces and 'In Situ' Experiences" "Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi)" "This research project investigates the varieties and dimensions of borders in selected border spaces by documenting the visual and multimodal manifestations of a diversity of borders (geopolitical and non-geopolitical), and through researching their impact on peoples' lives. It advocates and constructs an innovative mixed methodology for studying different aspects of semiotically-charged border spaces which allows to focus on both visual manifestations of various dimensions of borders and on people's actions and reactions towards those materialized expressions. Five distinct border(land) cases will make up the empirical part of this project. These research sites are carefully chosen to question and challenge existing types and typologies of borders and borderlands. The selected five distinct types of 'border' sites within the European realm, each are characterized by different forms of borderland continuation, different levels of border openness, and different dimensions of borders. The part of the field research focused on geopolitical borderlands (borders between nations) will test some of the existing typologies, and will seek to develop more refined alternatives. The fieldwork on dynamic non-geopolitical border sites (e.g. borders within cities) will seek to adapt and expand those border and borderland typologies for broader use and at the same time critically examine the viability and affordances of such a venture." "Protecting Victims of Disappearances Committed by Organised Criminal Groups: State Responsibility in International Human Rights Law and the Experiences of Human Rights Practitioners in Mexico." "Stephan Parmentier" "Leuven Institute of Criminology, Cultural Studies Research Group" "In this thesis, I explore the protective capacity of International Human Rights Law (IHRL) vis-à-vis victims of disappearances committed by organised criminal groups (OCG), and their relatives. To do so, I combine doctrinal legal research with qualitative research on the particular situation of disappearances in the context of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ in Mexico and the experiences of human rights practitioners engaged with this topic. My research departs from the issue of non-state actors as perpetrators of human rights violations in international law, specifically disappearances, and the question of how state responsibility for such acts can be determined. By focusing specifically on OCG as a non-state actor, this research adds not just to scholarship on non-state actors and disappearances more generally, but also to incipient international legal scholarship on the issue of organised crime and international law. Moreover, the combination of two disciplinary lenses can contribute to discussions around methodology in human rights research. Finally, the thesis provides insight into the complexity of the ongoing crisis of disappearances in Mexico.Based on an analysis of current jurisprudence of the European and Inter-American human rights courts, I argue that from a doctrinal perspective the IHRL framework provides avenues for protecting victims of disappearances committed by OCG by holding states responsible for their failure to prevent such acts. However, when contrasted with the Mexican reality, it becomes apparent that such responsibility cannot fully capture the intricacy of state-crime relations, thereby perpetuating the legal fiction of separability between ‘state’ and ‘crime’. This in turn can facilitate denial by the state of its overall responsibility for failing to protect its population, especially where such a failure is intentional. Consequently, I argue that there is a need to further explore possibilities of developing a concept of ‘gross state negligence’ as a form of state criminality that fundamentally erodes the protection of human rights, thereby allowing seemingly never-ending spirals of violence to emerge.    " "Foregrounding the Built Environment in Experiences of (Cancer) Care: Learning Lessons for Human-centred Design" "Ann Heylighen" "Architecture and Design" "Foregrounding the built environment in experiences of (cancer) care: learning lessons for human-centred design Abstract:In cancer care facilities where people are confronted with stress and anxiety, architecture’s potential to impact on people’s well-being is highly relevant. Realising a welcoming and supportive environment is, however, challenging for both healthcare organisations and architects/designers. Since stress and anxiety are context- and person-specific, designing for people affected by cancer requires taking into consideration their particular concerns, sensitivities and experiences. In studies on how the built environment impacts on people’s health and well-being, these are hardly addressed.The aim of this research is to investigate how the experience of people affected by cancer can inform human-centred design of cancer care facilities. To achieve this aim, the focus is on the following research questions: What is the role of the built environment in the lived experience of people affected by cancer? To what extent do architects and clients involved in the design of cancer care facilities integrate the perspectives of users generally, and people affected by cancer specifically, in the design process? And, how is this integration of user perspectives in the design of (cancer) care facilities supported or constrained?Spaces are both constructed and interpreted and it is with this understanding that people affected by cancer and their interactions with the built environment of their cancer care are placed centre stage in this research. The point of departure is formed by sensory dimensions of experiences, affordances (how the environment supports or hampers actions or activities) and meanings that arise in use. An understanding of everyday lived experiences results from a collaborative effort between research participants and (the) researcher. By reflecting on the role(s) of the built environment in the experiences of people affected by cancer, this dissertation produces findings that can better inform human-centred design approaches to (cancer) care facility design.The research is built up around four studies. Three are oriented towards the first research question. To address this question the initial focus with patient participants is on qualitative methods that are used to creatively produce knowledge and disseminate results while bringing to the fore spatial aspects in their experience. Patient-made photos play a key role in foregrounding the built environment in patients’ narratives (the suitability of photovoice is tested in the first study). To gain insight into a diversity of perspectives the approach is extended by also involving patients’ relatives and care professionals in the second study. The third study is an analysis of autobiographies that supplements the fieldwork with personal and diverse written narratives of people treated in Belgium or in neighbouring countries.Patients’ cancer care environment turns out to be dispersed in a ‘landscape of care’, composed of formal and informal places of (cancer) care. In cancer care facilities the (socio-material) built environment contains and mediates an individual’s confrontation with cancer. This highlights the relative importance of sensory qualities, experiences of entering, and the affordances in/along routes and spaces of transitions. Over time the changing body amplifies the bodily relation with the environment and demands attention for the spatial organisation and the changing building. Varying sensitivities and preferences make that patients (and their relatives) require a diversity of spaces to support their coping, a flexibility that may further have the potential to support care professionals in utilising their work environment. The concept of liminality is found to be helpful to better understand a spatial progression that cancer illness experience entails. It directs attention to the pre-diagnosis phase of tests and consultations as characterised by constant change and an undefined spatiality. It also highlights how the cancer care facility as a whole and particular spaces within are experienced as places of transition, emphasising the importance of the affordances presented (including access to nature) facilitating evolving identities. Finally, the findings suggest that in light of increasing survivorship a patient’s journey reflected in a spatial and geographic progression or logic may support recovery.With the fourth study we assess how these insights relate to current architectural practice and (cancer) care facility design. To do this the second research question is addressed with two case studies investigating design processes retrospectively. The first case study looks at a newly built general hospital accommodating a ‘full oncological care program’ with facilities for diagnosis, follow-up and treatment on site, with dedicated units for oncological care of in- and outpatients. The second case concerns the renovation of an oncological consultation within a university hospital. These case studies reveal that, within healthcare design consultations, ‘spaces of transition’ are at risk of receiving deficient attention regarding patient experience.Together, the varied components of this PhD dissertation make the case for the support that the built environment can offer in light of the challenges people affected by cancer are faced with. Within a dispersed landscape of care patients’ experience is deeply affected by matters of mobility and distance. There is a desire to have psycho-social care and support integrated as ‘place’ (not only ‘event’) within the medical care environment. These findings are consistent with studies exploring the supportive role of (the architecture of) the Maggie’s Centres, although our research suggests there is unexplored potential in this respect at the scale of wards and wings. Finally, while giving voice to people affected by cancer it is important to recognise that the variety of sensitivities and disabling conditions affecting their experience are not all unique to cancer. Designers and care professionals concerned with the diversity of human abilities may find the playing field considerably changed when taking into account people whose lives are disrupted by cancer and who may also benefit from appropriate spatial interventions. " "The Desert of the Real" "Kristof Timmerman" MAXlab "While everday familiarities are collapsing (climate breakdown, the pre-pandemic ‘normal’, …), the virtual world has further colonized our experience of reality (Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts, 2021). A near future awaits in which our experience of reality will be increasingly punctuated by moments where real life and fictional realities seamlessly blend together: hyperreal moments where actual and synthetic realities implode into each other (Graham, 2021). In ‘The Desert of the Real’, the interdisciplinary collective Studio Radiaal, consisting of Jeroen Cluckers (video art, film, 360° video, VR), Jasmijn Lootens (cello, electronics), Michaël Verlinden (piano, electronics), Maarten Craeynest (music technology) and A. De Causmaecker (sculptures, space, scenography), researches how liminal, multisensory experiences can blur the boundaries between analog and digital, material and immaterial, real and virtual. Starting from the Buddhist concept of double negation or non-duality, Studio Radiaal researches the ‘in-between’-status of the embodied viewer in hybrid artistic experiences, questioning the interconnections of the Reality-Virtuality Continuum (Milgram & Kishino, 1994). This MAXlab-project is supported by ChampdAction, Concertgebouw Bruges, Immersive Lab (AP), IPEM (UGent), LUCA/KU Leuven and docARTES Orpheus Institute. The output of this research project will function as insights and learnings: a learning base from which a co-production with Concertgebouw Bruges can be developed during season ’24-’25." "The Power of the Displaced: Towards a Theology of the Bakwits" "Annemie Dillen" "Research Unit of Pastoral and Empirical Theology, Research Unit of Theological and Comparative Ethics" "Displacement is a commonplace experience that disrupts the lives of people worldwide. In Mindanao, Southern Philippines, a significant number of the population is considered as internally displaced persons, locally known as bakwits. Being a people “in-between”, the bakwits are not merely geographically displaced but are also politically, religiously, culturally and economically marginalized. With the impetus of recent post-colonial studies that emphasize their resilient human spirit in the face of adversity, this dissertation explores their particular context as a source of theological and ethical reflection. It listens to perspectives on the ground by gathering empirical data. Employing the optics of liminality and communitas, tactics, in-between and subaltern identities, this paper offers an analysis of their experience that emphasize their agency, creativity, and hopefulness. Such analysis has significant implications for the task of finding sustainable approaches in dealing with the crisis of displacement. Moreover, a theo-ethical understanding of bakwits engenders typological positions in how the Catholic church should journey with these people. Taking Pope Francis’ culture of encounter as a dialogue partner, a bakwit theology ultimate rediscovers and reimagines an understanding how Christian faith and witness should be lived with the displaced and vulnerable. In the last analysis, the experience of displacement by bakwits in Mindanao can be seen as locus theologicus, presenting lived experiences of persevering faith and hope amidst uncertainty and conflict." "Înterzone (architecure of the ritual space)." "Walter Weyns" "Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool Antwerpen, Faculty Research SW" "My artistic practice addresses the unknown in the psyche and the collective consciousness. I see celebrations and rituals as moments when a community expresses its identity; when the individual and the group merge. My interest in shamanism and rites of passage has a strong impact on my current way of working, in which collaborations and interaction with the public have become important. The goal of this PhD research is to sculpt the participatory artwork Înterzone, which aims to function as a transition ritual. During Înterzone residencies and actions, taking place in the periphery of the city, the school and the art world, a liminal space is made where shared experiences are created through protocols and creative processes. In a next phase, I will develop methods to visualize these experiences and, in consultation with the participants, link them back to an artistic context. What do we expose and how? Furthermore, I will organize a number of seasonal, cyclical actions in cooperation with fellow artists, where art is explored as a catalyst for transformation. Through this research, I am using my artistic practice as an experimental platform to implement rituals in the here and now, in education and in society, while exploring my position as an artist." "Înterzone (Architecture of the Ritual Space)" "Nico Dockx" "Body & Material Reinvented, ArchiVolt" "The artistic practice of Bart Van Dijck addresses the unknown in the psyche and the collective consciousness. He sees celebrations and rituals as moments when a community expresses its identity; when the individual and the group merge. His interest in shamanism and rites of passage has a strong impact on his current way of working, in which collaborations and interaction with the public have become important. The goal of this PhD research is to sculpt the participatory artwork Înterzone, which aims to function as a transition ritual. During Înterzone residencies and actions, taking place in the periphery of the city, the school and the art world, a liminal space is made where shared experiences are created through protocols and creative processes. In a next phase, Van Dijck will develop methods to visualize these experiences and, in consultation with the participants, link them back to an artistic context. What do we expose and how? Furthermore, Van Dijck is going to organize a number of seasonal, cyclical actions in cooperation with other makers, where art is explored as a catalyst for transformation. Through this research, he is using his artistic practice as an experimental platform to implement rituals in the here and now, in education and in society, while exploring his position as an artist." "Middlebrow Modernity: Irish Writers and The New Yorker in the Mid-Twentieth Century" "Elke D'hoker" "English Literature, Leuven" "This project explores Irish writers’ connections with The New Yorker, shedding new light on the literary transactions between the US and Ireland in the mid-twentieth century. I investigate how Irish writers engaged with the American metropolitan magazine’s post-war liberalism; I also consider the extent to which the connection with TNY can help us redefine Ireland’s “isolated” literary environment in relation to global modernity.Many important Irish writers contributed regularly to TNY. While it is well known that the magazine enhanced Irish writers’ international standings, some critics have voiced concerns that the magazine’s scrupulous editorial process limited the writers’ experimentalism and capitalized upon their stories’ Irishness in order to appeal to a largely American readership. This criticism, however, risks overstating the popular magazine’s supposed “conservatism.” As a middlebrow publication that aimed to inform and entertain at the same time, TNY navigated the liminal—yet richly evocative—space between highbrow culture and lowbrow humour, revealing an ambivalent attitude towards both radical reforms and middleclass complacency. Drawing on periodical studies and theories of middlebrow culture to establish my theoretical framework, I consider this metropolitan magazine’s fraught relationships with the experimental arts and its intimate involvement in the experience of modernity. I argue that it was not TNY’s “conservatism,” but its ambivalences towards modernity that resonated with mid-twentieth-century Irish writers.Re-inserting the fictional works of the Irish writers into the textual space of TNY—alongside the cartoons, advertisements, and journalistic reports—this project advances our understanding of the Irish short story in relation to metropolitan and transatlantic modernity. It offers the first fully contextualized literary–biographical account of the relationships between the TNY editors, the Irish writers, and their American peers." "Understanding eating disorders from an anthropological point of view" "Karel Arnaut" "Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology" "Many people with an eating disorder experience barriers to specialized care, causing treatment to be postponed or not started at all, which is detrimental for a good outcome. Such barriers can be either personal, societal or cultural and reflect some critical gaps in treatment, including poor eating disorder literacy among primary health care providers and the lack of inclusive therapy. By interviewing patients and therapists in Flanders, Belgium, this anthropological research aims to identify barriers and disparities in access to care and work towards a more inclusive, lower threshold therapy."