Call for applications: CRESS residence programme in Paris

EHESS gathers together researchers and students from across the world with the aim to create a dialogue between all social sciences for an in-depth understanding of societies, in all their complexity. Candidates should originally have permanent residence outside the French territory to support their engagement in a collaboration with researchers based at EHESS. The residencies may be divided into two stays.

The work produced by means of this collaboration is intended to be multidisciplinary, and it should emphasise the articulation of social sciences with the issues of innovative and creative narratives. The laureates are thus offered the opportunity to involve themselves in Campus Condorcet project, an intellectual and artistic hub located only 15 minutes by metro from Paris city centre, and partake in the new dynamic of the urban and cultural development of the Paris Metropolis.

Campus Condorcet hosts 11 research institutions and 80 research units in the humanities and social sciences. Nearly 5 000 doctoral students and 4 200 researchers, many of whom hail from across the world, work on the campus, making it one of the world’s leading research hubs in the humanities and social sciences.

The CRESS programme aims to establish the framework where collaboration between social science researchers and artists can be fostered, thus turning EHESS and Campus Condorcet into an international platform for research-creation. The programme includes three components: production – consisting of one-month residencies for researcher-artist partners with a view to a joint deliverable; training for students and researchers; and staging of events such as roundtables, exhibitions, screenings, restitutions, etc.

Fully audio-visual equipped spaces will be provided in order to offer the best of working conditions throughout the residencies, at Campus Condorcet (in the facilities of Hôtel à Projets, Humathèque, Espace associatif et culturel, the EHESS building), as well as into a set of creative spaces in Aubervilliers and in Seine Saint-Denis more widely (Les laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Le studio, le 6B, etc.).

In order to anchor this dialogue between the arts and social sciences in the cultural areas explored at EHESS and the practice of fieldwork, the programme also includes the possibility of one-month (maximum) missions, that may be divided into two periods, allowing the partners to immerse themselves in a field related to their creative project. This collaborative field experience will be scheduled before the residency and may lead to the constitution of a corpus (whether textual, photographic, sonic, filmic, graphic, etc.) to be mobilised in view of elaborating the final outcome during the residency.

Terms and conditions of eligibility

• Researchers are to belong to one of the EHESS research centres: full member researchers, postdoctoral fellows (contractors with EHESS at the time of application as well as during the residency), EHESS doctoral candidates (whether contractors or not).
• Artists and researchers are to collaborate in order to create an original work or a new project. To be eligible, artists are to reside outside the French territory.
• Projects that consolidate links with EHESS partners or develop links with new cultural institutions based in the Ile-de-France region for production and/or exhibition will be valued.
• Collaborations are to result in exhibitions, in a form to be determined, at the end of residencies.
• This common production will have to be within the financial and technical resources of EHESS. It is reminded to the project leaders that the institution does not have the production resources of an artistic institution.

Residency and fieldwork mission

The residency grants will include:

• For artists: transportation fees, accommodation at the Maison des Chercheurs of Campus Condorcet and a flat-rate mobility allowance equivalent to one month’s stay as part of the Visiting Professorship programme (between 3700 and 4000 euros for a 28-day period).
• For researchers: coverage of mission expenses for a maximum of a one-month fieldwork, as well as compensation of the expenses related to accommodation in case researchers reside outside the Ile-de-France region (transportation if necessary, per diem).
• If the selected projects involve fieldwork, CRESS will cover the costs of the artists’ and researchers’ fieldworks for a period up to a month.

A budget intended to cover the practical needs generated by the project (space rentals, material, equipment, etc.) may be allocated. An estimate of these additional costs should be provided. The researcher represents EHESS and must ensure that communication flows smoothly between the institution and the artist, including by mobilising their language skills.

Application and selection

The call for applications is open until 20 December. The application must be written in French or English and submitted by email to the following address: cress@ehess.fr.

It will include the following elements:

• General information about the applicants (CVs of the researcher and the artist, examples of previous works).
• The project application, including a summary of the project and its detailed description (2 000 words max.).
• A detailed budget estimate for the project implementation (production costs, events, etc.). Budgetary, technical and logistical expertise will be mobilised to assess the project and its feasibility.
• A technical sheet for creation and restitution stages of the project.
• Additional information on the project (themes, approaches, disciplines, etc.) as well as on the cultural institutions proposed for the production/exhibition of the project and on the spaces to be invested on Campus Condorcet.

A review committee composed of EHESS researchers, artists and members of cultural institutions will be in charge of selecting the projects.

Schedule

• The residencies, for a total duration of four weeks, and fieldwork missions shall take place between March 2023 and November 2023 (except over the summer period, i.e. July and August).
• The precise period will be set according to the availability of the selected partners as well as the members of the CRESS programme.

Note: The residencies will entirely depend on the health situation related to COVID-19 in France and in the host countries, but also on the recommendations of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.

View the original call here.