M+ / Design Trust Research Fellowship 2023

28. 5. 2020

Now in its eighth year, the M+ / Design Trust Research Fellowship programme has supported original research projects investigating issues relating to design and architecture in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and Asia through a transnational lens. In addition to expanding the current body of knowledge in these areas, the findings from the fellowship will inform research on the existing collection, future acquisitions, and other programmes at M+.

Applicants of the fellowship should engage in advanced research on historical or contemporary topics related to either a single discipline (such as architecture, graphic design, industrial design, and urbanism) or cross-disciplinary developments, taking into consideration the region’s cultural, social, economic, and political conditions as well as its international and cross-cultural knowledge networks. While topics from the 1950s and onwards are preferred, exceptional proposals that focus on issues related to the beginning of the twentieth century will also be considered.

The M+ / Design Trust Research Fellowship 2023 will support two fellowship projects:

- Fellowship I supports a Hong Kong—based researcher’s original enquiry on topics specifically derived from M+ Collection Archives related to design and architecture. Although the archives represent the works of designers and architects in Asia and beyond, proposed research topics should resonate with issues pertaining to design and architectural developments and discourse in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area.

Preserving and cataloguing the archives continues to be an immense ongoing process. There are currently forty-three fonds that have been catalogued, of which the majority can be viewed online. For those interested in this fellowship, the archives and those yet to be published online can be accessed at the M+ Research Centre.

For supplementary information on the M+ Collection Archives, please click here.

- Fellowship II supports a researcher or practitioner engaged in historical or practice-based research that contributes to expanding the knowledge of the methods, processes, and impact of design and architectural practices in or across Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and Asia.

Successful applicants will be attached to M+ for three to six months in 2023, conducting independent research, preferably on a full-time basis. Fellows are encouraged to engage with the museum’s curatorial staff and participate in programmes at M+. The fellowship should result in:

  1. a paper (5,000 words or more) to be disseminated digitally or in print by M+ and Design Trust or an equivalent outcome in an alternative format and
  2. a lecture as part of the museum’s public programmes.

Eligibility 

We welcome applications from individuals or groups whose areas of research are in design, architecture, or a related field. Applicants who intend to conduct research in Hong Kong should be Hong Kong permanent residents or have the right to live and work in Hong Kong. This fellowship does not constitute employment, and M+ and Design Trust will not be held accountable for the sponsorship of work visas.

Applicants should either hold a postgraduate degree in a relevant discipline or an undergraduate degree with a minimum of three years relevant professional work or academic research experience. Proficiency in spoken and written English is also required.

Stipend 
The M+ / Design Trust Research Fellow will receive a lump-sum stipend of up to HKD 40,000 per month for three to six months (determined on a case-by-case basis) to cover research-related costs.

Assessment Criteria 

The following criteria are considered when assessing each application:

- original proposal that expands and reinterprets existing knowledge, or produces new knowledge, of design and architecture in or with an impact on Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and/or other parts of Asia, within a regional and global context,

- potential for expanding the understanding and scope of the museum’s collection, programming, and curatorial strategies in design and architecture, and

- proven ability of the candidate to undertake advanced research.

Review Process

The fellowship will be awarded on a competitive basis by a committee comprising representatives from M+ and Design Trust. After the initial screening process, shortlisted candidates will be invited to an in-person or remote interview.

How to Apply

Applicants are required to provide:

- a completed application form,

- a full curriculum vitae covering education, professional experience, honours, awards, and publications, and

- two letters of recommendation (academic or professional), submitted directly from the referees.

The deadline for submitting the application is 26 September 2022.

Please send applications in digital formats and all enquiries to designfellow@mplus.org.hk.

Notification
Interviews will be held during the weeks of 17 and 28 October 2022. Results will be announced on 28 November 2022. Applicants not notified within four weeks from the application deadline may consider their application unsuccessful.

Contact
If you have any questions about the application process, please contact designfellow@mplus.org.hk.

 

About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, we are building one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. Our aim is to create a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.

About Design Trust
Design Trust was established as a grant-funding and community platform in 2014 by Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design, a registered charity in Hong Kong since 2007. Design Trust supports creative projects that develop expertise and build research initiatives and content related to Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. Working across a multiplicity of design disciplines, from graphics, media, and architecture to the built environment, Design Trust aims to actively accelerate creative research, design, and the development of meaningful projects that advocate for the positive role of design.