Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Theatre without continuity: the text in postdramatic performance arts." "Kurt Vanhoutte" "Research Centre for Visual Poetics" "The development of theatre in the twentieth century can be seen as a transition from 'dramatic' theatre to 'postdramatic' theatre. Whereas current research mainly emphasises the physicality of postdrama, this project aims to explore the consequences on the way text is handled in contemporary theatre practice. The focus of this practice based research is on the specific way time elapses in current postdramatic narratives." "The essay following the new documentary turn in performing arts: Tracing the essay in contemporary theatre and performance practices." "Christel Stalpaert" "Department of Art, music and theatre sciences, Department of Literary Studies" "In the 16th century, Michel de Montaigne developed the essay. This new literary genre was characterized by the abrogation of judgment, the questioning of authority, the overlap between fact and fiction, a mixing of styles and a heavy use of quotations. In an age marked by upheaval, he tried through writing comprehend his superfluous time. To essay means to assay, to weigh but also to challenge, to test and to attempt. Montaigne thus reflected on religious, social and political problems in his essays and challenged the fixed ideas of his time. In the following centuries, many authors followed Montaigne’s example and brought the essay to the level of an established literary genre. The qualities of the essay did not remain unnoticed for other artistic disciplines. In the 20th century, filmmakers borrowed strategies and methods from the written essay and adapted them to their practices. The transformation of the written essay to experimental film was defined as ‘Essay film’. Today we see a similar trend in documentary practices in performing arts. Many of the strategies, methods and discourses used by documentary-artists are derived from the essay. Although the essay and its theorization has been extensively studied in literature and film studies, a similar theoretical framework is lacking in theatre and performance studies. My research fills this theoretical lacuna by constructing a new theoretical framework for the study of the rise of the essay in contemporary performing arts." "Material matters: Towards a New Materialist Approach to Contemporary Performance Art." "Research Centre for Visual Poetics" "21st century questions about the ways in which we produce and consume our material environment have given rise to a new focus in contemporary performance art. A growing group of artists are taking the stage to explore the performative entanglement of human beings and material objects, often in order to critically question the interplay of nonhuman actors in everyday life. By doing so, these performances also ask for new modes of performance analysis and interpretation that incorporate an understanding of (nonhuman) materiality as inherently performative. To this day, most performance scholars are still of the belief that the co-presence of human beings is the most fundamental characteristic of performance art, which often results in the reduction of material objects to their decorative status or to their function as documentation of the live performance that is lost for good. This project aims to encounter these present-day performances through the recent insights of new materialism(s). New materialism is a contemporary theory that, simply put, articulates the idea that all matter has the ability to act in this world, and that agency is distributed amongst materialities in space and time. This indicates a remarkable shift: objects are no longer defined as passive things, ruled and interpreted by human subjects, but are valued as vital and unstable entities that can exert an influence on other (human) entities. Subsequently, new materialism also embodies a transversal gesture that experiences the relationship between meaning and matter, culture and nature, and subject and object as non-hierarchical and co-constitutive (Coole and Frost 2010; Dolphijn and van der Tuin 2012). By connecting these concepts of new materialism to traditional key-notions within the debate on the ontological characteristics of performance art and performance experience, this project pursues to establish a mode of analysis that allows for a focus on how human and nonhuman agencies intertwine and generate new meanings within this performative entanglement." "Material matters: Towards a New Materialist Approach to Contemporary Performance Art." "Research Centre for Visual Poetics" "21st century questions about the ways in which we produce and consume our material environment have given rise to a new focus in contemporary performance art. A growing group of artists are taking the stage to explore the performative entanglement of human beings and material objects, often in order to critically question the interplay of nonhuman actors in everyday life. By doing so, these performances also ask for new modes of performance analysis and interpretation that incorporate an understanding of (nonhuman) materiality as inherently performative. To this day, most performance scholars are still of the belief that the co-presence of human beings is the most fundamental characteristic of performance art, which often results in the reduction of material objects to their decorative status or to their function as documentation of the live performance that is lost for good. This project aims to encounter these present-day performances through the recent insights of new materialism(s). New materialism is a contemporary theory that, simply put, articulates the idea that all matter has the ability to act in this world, and that agency is distributed amongst materialities in space and time. This indicates a remarkable shift: objects are no longer defined as passive things, ruled and interpreted by human subjects, but are valued as vital and unstable entities that can exert an influence on other (human) entities. Subsequently, new materialism also embodies a transversal gesture that experiences the relationship between meaning and matter, culture and nature, and subject and object as non-hierarchical and co-constitutive (Coole and Frost 2010; Dolphijn and van der Tuin 2012). By connecting these concepts of new materialism to traditional key-notions within the debate on the ontological characteristics of performance art and performance experience, this project pursues to establish a mode of analysis that allows for a focus on how human and nonhuman agencies intertwine and generate new meanings within this performative entanglement." "Wagnerian Networks beyond France: New Perspectives on Gender, Art and Spaces of Performance around 1900" "Juliet Simpson, Dominique Bauer" "History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture" "Richard Wagners oeuvre was a touchstone for new creative and cultural memory making at the turn of the 20th century. Yet the reach and impact of Wagnerism as an artistic, cultural and social phenomenon, opening new conceptions of its interactions beyond its Paris-centered networks, is still under-investigated. The objectives of this PhD scholarship will be to develop knowledge of Wagnerian constructs of the artwork, encompassing visual, music and literary arts experienced in semi-private and public spaces to create new imaginaries of self, gender, social identity and future-making. A key aim for this PhD study will be to investigate the potency of Wagnerian networks, theories and cultural practices, their interactions with changing gender identities, in particular, the importance of women as cultural agents and social networkers in the fin-de-siécle period. First, this project will explore the role of the aesthetic experience to analyse how and in what contexts music, visual and literary arts and their spatial organisation, stimulated new states of feeling, interiority and emotions via Wagnerian sites of aesthetic interaction and pilgrimage. Secondly, this PhD will consider key questions and approaches relating to reception by analysing sites and affects of Wagnerian artistic spaces and networks (notably in Brussels, London, Vienna and Copenhagen) through the investigating of key actors, archival sources and cultural transfer via periodicals. A third focus for this PhD will concern cultural identity: this may engage questions about routes to agency and creativity for women as artistic actors and patrons within the movement, and about Wagnerism itself as a site for new gender identities. The core ambition of this PhD is to shed light on Wagnerism's entangled canonicity, extending to Belgian and British sites of transfer, its international interactions, and its role in the construction, performing and shaping of the period's alternative expressions of cultural power, memory and social modernity." "Performance of community-based ART programmes for key populations in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa" "Plang Jwanle, Josefien van Olmen, Lut Lynen" "Health Policy, Institute of Tropical Medicine, HIV and Tuberculosis" "Key populations (female sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and persons who inject drugs) are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS and are at increased risk of contracting HIV compared to the general population. They are underserved and have limited access to quality HIV prevention, care and treatment services. To optimise access to quality HIV services among key populations (KP) and improve treatment outcomes (such as retention-in-care, medication adherence, and viral suppression), the World Health Organization recommended community-based approaches to HIV service delivery for KP. However, to inform the successful roll out and scale-up of community-based ART service delivery models for KP (KP-CBART), there is need to study the long-term outcomes and to explain the dynamics between the contextual factors and mechanisms that influence the outcomes for successful implementation. The overall aim of this PhD research work is to evaluate the performance of KP-CBARTmodels for key populations in sub-Saharan Africa and Benue State Nigeria. Findings from this evaluation will provide answers to the following questions: “what works?”, “how and why does it work?”, “for whom”, and “in what circumstances (context)” ?”.This PhD research project has two parts. The first part is a scoping review of the effect of community-base ART service delivery models along the cascade of HIV care on treatment outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. The second part is the outcome evaluation of KP-CBART service delivery in Benue State Nigeria using a realist impact evaluation approach. This study will be conducted in phases relying on both quantitative and qualitative research methods (mixed method design). Multiple case studies of KP-CBART will be evaluated and findings from each of the case studies will produce a programme theory that can be compared and redefined as a middle range theory. Findings from my studies will inform future adaptation of KP-CBART models to meet health needs of KP for optimal impact. As such this PhD project will provide evidence-based information on community-based antiretroviral service delivery to increase access of KP to quality HIV services and to improve their treatment outcomes, thus contribute to achieving the UNAIDS target of HIV epidemic control by 2030." "Development of new strategies for improving precision and mechanical performance of metal parts produced by laser powder bed fusion" "Brecht Van Hooreweder" "Manufacturing Processes and Systems (MaPS)" "At present, surface quality of metals parts produced by laser powder bed fusion is often limited and hence time- and cost-expensive post-processing is required in many cases. This limits the breakthrough of Additive Manufacturing for a variety of applications. This PhD research aims to address this by developing new strategies for improved precision of metal parts produced by laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). On the one hand, in-depth process insights will be gained to explore optimisation of current process strategies and process parameters for improving part precision while maintaining high density and mechanical performance. On the other hand, new process concepts will be studied and developed to improve metal AM part surface characteristics while printing in a layer-by-layer manner. Those new process concepts might include but are not limited to the exploration of different laser types (e.g. continuous wave and pulsed wave lasers), dynamic beam shaping, new scanning strategies, and new control strategies." "Measurement and analysis techniques for the evaluation and optimization of the quality and performance of bicycles and bicycle parts." "This project aims from a science-based measurement and testing facilities to offer the bike manufacturers to provide support for the entire process chain from design to after sales service. These services are tailored made to the requirements and priorities by the industry in order to make optimum feedback to the development of the scientific content of the project." "Closing the Product-Production loop for high performant injection moulded parts (PerIMPro_SBO)" "Mathias Verbeke" "Declarative Languages and Artificial Intelligence (DTAI), Mecha(tro)nic System Dynamics (LMSD)" "Closing the Product-Production loop for high performant injection moulded parts" "Antigone in/as Transition. A Study on the Performing Arts Status Quo in Europe (in its Transcontinental Contexts)" "Katharina Pewny" "Department of Art, music and theatre sciences" "Antigone in/as Transitions will provide a systematic and comparative analysis of six representative Antigone-performances in Europe and beyond (Turkey, Latin America). Through these performance analyses, the project will provide an investigation of the state of the art of European contemporary performing arts in some of their transcontinental contexts."