On the 16th January I was the Opponent in the public defence by the visual and socially-engaged artist Katja Yuhola, of her PhD project submitted under the title – International Socially Engaged Art Symposium: A Place of Creation, Shared Knowledge, and Conversational Art. Katja pursued her PhD research in the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Lapland, and was supervised by Professor Jaana Erkkilä-Hill.
Katja’s excellent thesis contextualised her symposium series ISEAS that she has led since 2017, supported by a series of published articles, and a solid discussion of the ethics and theories of socially engaged arts practice. We were hosted very well by the University of Lapland in Rovanienmi, and the public defence was well received by the audience and the institution. It was also very exciting to be in a snowy winter landscape in January!