An Erasmus University Rotterdam perspective through the words of PhD candidate Seline Westerhof
In December 2025 PhD students from across the UNIC alliance came together in a Blended Intensive Program Hidden cities, held both online and at University College Cork to explore artistic research methodologies and their applications in urban contexts.
The hybrid program was organized in collaboration thanks to UNIC, the European University Alliance of Cities in Post-Industrial transitions.
Erasmus University was a significant contributor to this program: Thomas Calkins III served as a teacher in this program, while Pauwke Berkers co-coordinated the event. The program was attended by several PhD students from Erasmus University, including Seline Westerhof, a PhD candidate at the Erasmus school of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Seline reflects on her experience:
"The Hidden Cities program was a great way to engage with material, practice, theory, and 'the city' all at once. Throughout the course, different layers gradually built on each other, coming together in the final week abroad. During that city visit, we learned, shared, and created together, which really brought everything into focus. With the readings in our back pockets, we stepped into courses centered on embodiment and creation, not only in classrooms, but out in the city itself. Research here meant something more than analyzing from a distance; it became a way of being present, paying attention, and engaging with the city as a living environment, which we were part of. Instead of just walking through it, we immersed ourselves in it and related to it in new ways, with tools and concepts we learned throughout the course. All in all, the course offered fresh perspectives on city life and helped us notice things we might otherwise take for granted.”
Beyond the classroom and the streets of Cork, the program included a mix of workshops and collaborative sessions, allowing participants to experience and apply artistic methodologies to city contexts. The interdisciplinarity of the group, drawn from universities across the UNIC alliance, fostered an engaging exchange of perspectives that can only occur when universities collaborate across borders.
Here you read a UNIC's perceptive on this activity.
