Hill Scholte( Minor coordinator)

INTRODUCTION: Engage in City-Making: Research, Imagine, and Act.
This minor calls on you to take an active role in the city as a site of engagement, transformation and action. The city is not a finished product, it is contested, lived, and constantly in the making. In this minor, you are invited to critically reflect upon and enact a value-based journey to city-making: to imagine, identify and to explore, with approaches to city-making that celebrate the values of sustainability, inclusion, and beauty. You are mentored to take on the role of designer, activist, and researcher, using creativity, theoretical knowledge, embodied and lived experience, and collective action to engage with urgent urban challenges.

 CONTENT 
Truly transformational change starts from bottom-up, from lived experience, local knowledge, and shared responsibility. You will work with communities and stakeholders engaging with grassroots initiatives that contribute to a just transition, socially, ecologically, and democratically together with peers from arts and science. The minor encourages participants’ and stakeholders’ mutual learning and combined experiences, knowledge and disciplines as a way to address complex societal challenges. Students work in interdisciplinary teams involving local stakeholders and together develop a civic action for the common good.

This inter-institutional Minor (EUR, Codarts, Willem de Kooning Academie) connects artistic practice and scientific education. It is embedded within day-to-day lives and local societal challenges and opportunities in Rotterdam South. Guided by transformational city making paradigms, including the New European Bauhaus and its core values of sustainability, inclusion, and beauty, you will use the art and design together with science as tools for questioning, imagining, and intervening.

Over eight weeks of collaborative exploration, you will work in small groups to apply the knowledge of first period to design a public initiative that brings the neighborhood to life. The first period invites personal reflection, while the second opens up to the stories and experiences of others. Together, your project could be a performance, campaign, product, or conversation piece, anything that sparks curiosity, invites interaction, and reveals new ways of seeing and using the neighborhood.

This is not about finding answers: It is about asking better questions and acting on them.

KEYWORDS 
interdisciplinary, social, art-design, real-urban context, participation, intervention, just transitions, narratives, on location. 

LOCATION 
All meetings and workshops are planned in the renovated building at the Putselaan, Culture&Campus location situated in the heart of Rotterdam-South.
 
PARTICIPANTS: EUR, WdKA, Codarts, the Municipality of Rotterdam and other societal stakeholders and local communities. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES 

By the end of this minor students are able to:

• Understand and engage critically with a value-based approach to city making, by engaging with local practices in Rotterdam neighborhoods.
• Identify and analyze complex city-making challenges from a multi-stakeholder and disciplinary perspective
• Critically appraise individual and institutional positioning and practices in sustainable, inclusive and beautiful city-making, through the examination of challenges relating to growing inequalities, health and wellbeing, gentrification. 
• Applying course learnings to a public city-making collaborative action that combines ethics, theory and artistic practice.

WHAT WE OFFER 

• Regular meetings and field visits alongside individual and project work.
• An interactive workspace that merges knowledge and skills from both the arts and  
•  social sciences.
• Collaboration in interdisciplinary teams with students from Erasmus University,
•  Codarts, and Willem de Kooning Academy.
• Engagement with theoretical, practical, and embodied methods to explore
•  inclusive city-making.
• Opportunities to investigate local situations and develop collaborative actions with
•  stakeholders.
• Insights into just and sustainable urban transitions.
• Exploration of the role of creative placemaking.
• A chance to present your work at a public event.
• Networking opportunities to meet new people and expand your professional connections

WHAT WE EXPECT:

• We’re looking for students who are eager to challenge themselves in an interactive, interdisciplinary environment where ideas flow freely. 
• You take initiative, actively engage with stakeholders, and help shape meaningful processes.
• You embrace new perspectives, think critically, and reflect on personal biases.
• Most importantly, you approach the journey with a curious, respectful, and analytical mindset, always open to growth and deeper understanding 

DELIVERABLES:

• Midway through the term, you will present a personal narrative that reflects on your role and position within the project (45% of the grade). In addition, you will submit your individual fieldwork and reading notes, accompanied by a critical reflection on the ethical considerations and the impact of your work (25% of the grade). The first period of the minor concludes with a group presentation (30% of the grade). Together, these components are assessed and account for 15 EC of the minor.
• At the end of the second period, you will present a final work that demonstrates your participatory engagement with local stakeholders within the initiative, highlighting the impact of meaningful collaboration (60% of the grade) in a public setting. The initiative is complemented by a written artistic manifesto that reflects on the future potential and direction of the initiative (40% of the grade).
  Together, these components are assessed and account for 15 EC of the minor.

For questions and how to register please contact: Hill Scholte h.a.g.scholte@hr.nl  

APPLICATION PROCESS (KOM)

Are you a student from another educational institution and would you like to follow a minor at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences? If so, you must apply in two steps:

Step 1
Register for the minor of your choice via the blue Apply button. You can find this button at the top right of the minor’s page.
Download the learning agreement and complete it.
Submit this learning agreement to the examination board of your study programme.
Once the examination board has granted approval, register for the minor in Step 2 no later than 01-07-2025 at 9:00 a.m.

Step 2
After approval, register via OSIRIS Application of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences using the link below (first create an account).

https://osiris.hr.nl/osiris_aanmeld_hrprd/Welkom.do?proces=KOM2609&opleiding=MINOR-WDK-VT 00

Part of the application process is uploading the following documents:

The learning agreement, signed by you and by your institution;
A scan or photo of your passport or ID card.
 
You will be informed by Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences whether your application has been approved.

In OSIRIS Application, you must also upload the Proof of Paid Tuition Fee (BBC) for the academic year in which you wish to follow the minor. This can be done from 01 May 2026onwards. You can request the BBC from your institution after you have signed or issued an authorization for the payment of the tuition fee for the relevant academic year. You may also choose the option for your institution to send the BBC directly to collegegeld@hr.nl.

You will receive a notification from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences once your application has been approved.