UAL Research

18/09/2026

UAL Professorial Platform Lecture

Professor Andrea Luka Zimmerman: Intuitive Cinema, Possible Film? A Poetics for the Politics of Now.

Join us at Central Saint Martins for a lecture by Professor Andrea Luka Zimmerman, presenting their making of what has been called Intuitive Cinema. This term has been applied to their work as a way of understanding its inter-relation of the embodied, the experienced and the engaged. Considering the wider formal and thematic possibilities of moving image practice, this illustrated talk will explore how film can advocate for the marginalised, the 'other' - both human and not - in a world of multiple crises.

Welcome by Professor Rathna Ramanathan, Provost of CSM and Executive Dean for Global Affairs.

Introductions by Michiko Oki, CSM Senior Lecturer, BA Performance Design and Practice.

Presentation followed by an in-conversation with Nadine Monem, CSM Lecturer, BA Culture Criticism and Curation.

Tuesday 6 October 2026

6.30pm - 8.45pm

Lecture: 6.30pm - 7.45pm
Reception: 7.45pm - 8.45pm

Location: Platform Theatre, Central Saint Martins, 1 Granary Square, London N1C 4AA

RSVP: https://www.arts.ac.uk/whats-on/professorial-platform-lecture-intuitive-cinema,-possible-film

Through an illustrated presentation covering their recent moving image works (While the Gods Were Busy with Another Child, here and not here, Wayfaring Stranger and earlier titles), Andrea Luka Zimmerman will argue for these works as Intuitive Cinema, a form of Possible Film, which seeks a radical re-engagement with a world in turmoil. Centring those routinely marginalised and 'othered' - whether through class, race, geography or gender - by hierarchies of power, this event will draw from Zimmerman's own biography to reflect on both the potentialities and limits of structural engagement. Investigating what it means to be fully attentive, and how to make work ‘in relation’, to seek the ‘with’ (not about), Zimmerman will centre ideas of gratitude and justice in analysing the structural, social and cultural contexts from and into which the work emerges.

Join us at Central Saint Martins for a lecture by Professor Andrea Luka Zimmerman, presenting their making of what has been called Intuitive Cinema. This term has been applied to their work as a way of understanding its inter-relation of the embodied, the experienced and the engaged. Considering the...

28/08/2026

UAL partnership featured in Arts Professional

An opinion piece by Clare Connor, chief executive of The Place and London Contemporary Dance School, discusses the school's partnership with UAL, which is now entering a new phase after 5 years of formal collaboration. The article shares why the collaboration has continued to succeed and the importance of meaningful partnerships in the cultural sector.

A joint PhD programme is available: https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/phd-programme/

https://www.arts.ac.uk/research/phd-and-mphil-degrees

Read more in Arts Professional:
https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/feature/creativity-through-collaboration?utm_source=All+staff+list+%5BDO+NOT+DELETE%5D&utm_campaign=bd67c73f65-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_08_28_09_44&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-bd67c73f65-564044420

Join UAL's vibrant community of researchers. We offer theoretical and practice-based research programmes, leading to an MPhil or PhD.

01/05/2026

Learning to Collaborate:
Exploring collaborative skills development for meeting complex challenges

Thursday 28 May 2026

PGR event from 1pm
Speaker event from 2.30pm

UAL Chelsea College of Arts
London

Hosted by the Complex Collaborations Design Research Hub

The need for more collaboration is undeniable. The environmental and societal problems we face are too complex. The promise of solo endeavour is fading and the need for multiple perspectives, joint efforts and collective knowledge is evident. If we are to meet the complex challenges of polycrisis, learning to collaborate must be an explicit endeavour.

Join us to explore how complexity challenges the way we foster collaborative skills with four speakers, each on a pathway to foster collaborative capabilities with communities, with emerging and established creative practitioners, and between institutions, through formal and informal pedagogic practice.

This event will also be an opportunity to learn from the findings of two pedagogic research projects from the Complex Collaborations Hub.

Speaker panel:
Adam Lusby
Rachel Bronstein
Kieran Mahon
Judah Armani

Tickets available via eventbrite:

Exploring collaborative skills development for meeting complex challenges

27/03/2026

It began with a dress.

In 2013, UAL Professor Helen Storey was approached by the climate scientists at the UK MET Office and challenged to create a piece of work that could capture public imagination towards an informed understanding of climate change and all it means for our planet. The dress was first exhibited at a key moment in time, at the gateway to COP21 – United Nations Climate Summit, Paris, in 2015.

The dress was created from a decommissioned UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) refugee tent, that once housed a displaced Syrian family at Zaatari Camp in Jordan, and was gifted to the project by UNHCR.

As the dress began to tour more widely, it was the unanswerable questions from children about the piece that, in 2016, took Helen to the gates of Zaatari to find answers – there, life changed entirely.

This film ‘For Our Time’, by David Betteridge, captures highlights of the 10-year journey that followed, in collaboration with Deepa Patel and a team which grew to over 200 people, and finally across 3 continents.

It is a story of wild collaboration and what can happen, at the edges of us all.

It began with a dress. In 2013, Prof Helen Storey was approached by the climate scientists at the UK MET Office and challenged to create a piece of work that...

26/03/2026

UAL leads the world in undergraduate creative education for the 8th year running.

For the eighth consecutive year, UAL is the highest-ranked undergraduate arts and design educator in the world.

UAL is ranked 2nd in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026 for art and design. The Royal College of Art, dedicated exclusively to postgraduate study, continues to hold first position.

Professor Karen Stanton, Vice-Chancellor, said: "Behind every ranking are the students who chose to trust us with their creative education and the staff who come to work every day to make that education extraordinary.

“Eight years at the top of the world rankings tells you something important, not just about UAL, but about what happens when a society invests seriously and consistently in creativity. Individual institutions cannot do this alone – we need to rely on a pipeline that makes creative education available to all. To maintain the UK’s world class creative industries, supporting arts education in this country has never been more important. Our graduates go on to power the economy through entrepreneurial start-ups that create more jobs and through using their creative skills to solve problems of the future.

“Our 2032 strategy is our commitment to go further, widening access so that more people at every stage of life can experience a UAL education and become part of our community, deepening our global partnerships and ensuring our students are equipped to navigate and shape a world being transformed by technology. The creative industries are one of the fastest-growing parts of our economy. The world needs what our graduates create and UAL's job is to make sure they are ready."

Image: Myah Hasbany, 2025 BA (Hons) Fashion Design: Communication, Central Saint Martins, UAL

11/03/2026

UAL Professorial Platform: Taking Heart in a Time of Hatred.

Professor Pratāp Rughani asks what happens to art & education in a time of heightened polarisation?

Introduced by UAL Vice Chancellor, Professor Karen Stanton.
Lecture followed by an In-Conversation with Professor Mark Sealy OBE.

29 April 2026
17:30
London College of Communication

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ual-professorial-platform-lecture-taking-heart-in-a-time-of-hatred-tickets-1895946640439?aff=oddtdtcreator

As the drift towards ‘toxic othering’ today spills from social media to British streets (echoing the 1970s - hopefully not the 1930s) what can our communities’ artists and creative practitioners; audiences, students and teachers do to tilt our cultures towards reconnection, repair and healing?

Professor of Documentary Practice, Dr Pratāp Rughani, asks what happens to art and education in a time of heightened polarisation?

09/03/2026

TrAIN Open Lecture

iLiana Fokianaki - Director Kunsthalle Bern

11 March 2026

6pm - 7.30pm
Online

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/train-open-lecture-online-iliana-fokianaki-tickets-1984455554985?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

Since 2020, through her research platform The Bureau of Care, iLiana Fokianaki has examined the concept of care and its political and ethical dimensions in relation to environmental and social justice, and their implications for curating and institution-making.

As Founder and Director of State of Concept Athens (2013–2024), she transformed the Athenian art scene, bringing artists such as Laure Prouvost, Sanja Iveković, Forensic Architecture, Kader Attia, and Kapwani Kiwanga to the Greek capital.

She has curated exhibitions for Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; e-flux, New York; KADIST; Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; and the Museum of Contemporary Art Ljubljana, as well as public projects for institutions including the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, New York.

In 2022–23, she served as Artistic Director of Survival Kit 13, a large-scale contemporary art festival organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art. She lectures regularly at academies, independent spaces, museums, and institutions worldwide, and has convened discussions with thinkers including Silvia Federici, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Jodi Dean, and Yanis Varoufakis.

She publishes regularly in e-flux journal and has contributed to numerous books and publications. A series of her books will be published by Archive Books in 2025.

https://www.arts.ac.uk/research/research-centres/TrAIN Research Centre

Photo © Kunsthalle Bern, Yoshiko Kusano

Please join us for a talk by iLiana Fokianaki, Director of Kunsthalle Bern.

03/03/2026

Moving Image in a Doctoral Frame

Professor Pratāp Rughani in conversation with Edwin Mingard and Alessandra Ferrini. In association with the Moving Image Review and Art Journal (MIRAJ).

25 March 2026
4.30pm - 6.00pm
followed by a reception

UAL London College of Communication, Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6SB

RSVP: https://www.arts.ac.uk/whats-on/moving-image-in-a-doctoral-frame

"Why make moving image practice in a Doctoral frame?

What can film-making mean as research?

Join LCC Doctoral researchers to explore the journey of moving image making as experienced by students and supervisors. Why do it and what's possible?"

Featuring artists’ documentary work within the context of a PhD highlights not only the finished creative outputs but also the reflective, critical, and methodological processes that underpin them and informs Knowledge Exchange.

Image Credit: Film still, Gaddafi in Rome: Anatomy of a Friendship (Alessandra Ferrini, 2024).

29/01/2026

Information session about the PhD programme offered by UAL in partnership with London Contemporary Dance School at The Place

Thursday 5 March 2026
12noon – 1.45pm
Zoom Webinar

RSVP: https://www.arts.ac.uk/whats-on/phd-programme-offered-by-ual-in-partnership-with-london-contemporary-dance

You are invited to join an online information session to find out more about the PhD programme offered by UAL in partnership with London Contemporary Dance School at The Place.

https://theplace.org.uk/lcds-courses/phd-programme

The PhD programme enables researchers to benefit from the interdisciplinary arts research of UAL and the professional environment, advanced training and artistic research culture of London Contemporary Dance School and The Place.We aim to promote dance, choreography, performance and movement research and to provide student-researchers with a distinctive sense of community. We welcome proposals that place dance, movement and choreography at the centre of their enquiry, while opening out to other research areas, arts practices and disciplines.

We are especially interested in projects with a close relationship to practice and we anticipate that proposals will seek to navigate some of the challenges of contemporary life, such as environmental sustainability, social justice, health and wellbeing, and the use of new and old technologies in art and life, as a way of generating wider evidence of the societal value of dance, movement and embodied practice.

This online information session will be led by Professor Vida L Midgelow, Dean of UAL’s Doctoral School, and Dr Efrosini Protopapa, Director of Research at The Place. There will also be an opportunity for you to ask questions about the application process and the programme.

29/01/2026

TrAIN Open Lecture: Devika Singh - International Departures: A transnational history of art in India

Introduced by art historian, museologist and TrAIN Member, Anjalie Dalal-Clayton, UAL Decolonising Arts Institute.

📅 Wednesday 11 February
🕓 6-8 pm


📍In-Person: Chelsea Lecture Theatre, Chelsea College of Arts, John Islip St London SW1P 4JU
🔗 Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/in-person-train-open-lecture-devika-singh-tickets-1981006208898?aff=oddtdtcreator


🖥 Online: via Zoom
🔗 Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-train-open-lecture-devika-singh-tickets-1981012027301?aff=oddtdtcreator


Abstract:
The talk will take Devika Singh’s book International Departures: Art in India after Independence as a starting point to discuss transnational readings of art in India. Described as a major contribution to a new, transnational history of art, this captivating and richly illustrated account presents together for the first time the work of Indian and foreign artists active in India after independence in 1947. It engages with the many creators, critics and patrons of the postwar Indian art worlds and opens up new ways of thinking about Indian art, closely examining artworks and analysing how they were received in India and abroad. Analysing a range of previously underused sources, this provocative enquiry explores how artists in India participated in global modernism during a crucial period of decolonization and nation building.

Bio:
Devika Singh is an art historian, art critic and curator who focuses on art in South Asia and the transnational history of 20th-century art. She is a Senior Lecturer in Curating at the Courtauld Institute, where she co-leads the new MA programme in Curating, and was previously Curator, International Art at Tate Modern. Singh has curated exhibitions and collection displays in a broad range of international contexts spanning the Dhaka Art Summit, CSMVS (Mumbai), Dubai Design District, Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge), Tate Modern and Paris Photo. She is a joint editor of the Oxford Art Journal and the author of International Departures: Art in India after Independence (Reaktion Books, 2023) and has published widely in exhibition catalogues, art magazines and journals.

International Departures: A transnational history of art in India