Doctoral Programmes
Pursuing a PhD at the Centre for Doctoral Studies enables students to conduct doctoral research based on artistic and design practices.
Introduction
BAU is a pioneering institution in practice-based doctoral programmes in art and design. Here, we understand creation as a rigorous and legitimate way of producing knowledge.
Through the Centre for Doctoral Studies, we offer personalised methodological support and a research environment connected to the institution’s academic and creative community. Doing research at BAU means becoming part of a critical, interdisciplinary ecosystem committed to contemporary social, cultural, and ecological challenges.
The Centre for Doctoral Studies focuses on:
- Methodologies that emerge from creative processes themselves.
- Material exploration from a sustainable perspective.
- Crossovers between art, design, and new technologies.
- Approaches that understand aesthetics as a form of sensitive knowledge.
We promote situated research with social, political, and ecological implications, capable of engaging critically with its context.
Researching the present to imagine futures
In a context of constant transformation, BAU understands the PhD as a space to rethink how we inhabit the present and how we project alternative, affirmative futures. If you are looking for an environment where research and creation genuinely dialogue, BAU is your place.
Programmes
You can currently develop your doctoral thesis in three programmes, all supported by BAU’s Centre for Doctoral Studies:
PhD in Design and Communication
A well-established programme that integrates research, practice, and critical thinking.
Led by BAU (Doctoral Unit) and the Faculty of Business and Communication (Department of Communication) at UVic-UCC, this PhD welcomes practice-based research in design and art.
The doctoral programme is structured around two research lines:
- Design and society. Politics, art, and education.
- Communication and its environments. Corporations and institutions; media, networks, and territory.
PhD in Humanities Studies
(in collaboration with Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
This programme trains high-level researchers in the humanities, in both basic and applied research.
Humanities studies are understood as the study of documents linked to human experience—through philosophy, literature, religion, art, music, history, and language—in order to understand and record the world.
Its goal is to provide strong analytical and methodological training to enable rigorous, critical, and impactful research.
PhD in Anthropology and Communication
(in collaboration with Universitat Rovira i Virgili)
This programme offers intensive specialisation in the theoretical and methodological frameworks of anthropology and communication.
From multidisciplinary perspectives, it addresses topics such as transnationality, gender, health, risk, and social movements, among others.
The programme prepares candidates to carry out advanced research culminating in doctoral theses with a solid conceptual and methodological foundation.
Coordination
Coordinator of BAU’s Centre for Doctoral Studies: PhD Alejandra López Gabrielidis.
Research groups
To meet the programmes’ objectives and ensure the multidisciplinary approach sought for doctoral theses, the Centre for Doctoral Studies includes researchers who are members of:
Research infrastructure
Doctoral students have access to extensive infrastructure supporting their research activities, especially practice-based work. All researchers have access to a workroom equipped with desktop and laptop computers, a printer, and office supplies.
Students also have regular access to a wide network of specialised workshops and laboratories, including: the Graphic Production Workshop, Typography Workshop, Screen Printing Workshop, Fashion Workshop, Pattern Cutting Workshop, Knitting Machines Workshop, Painting Workshop, Sculpture Workshop, Ceramics Workshop, the audio booth, audiovisual studios, the audiovisual laboratory, the Interaction and Artificial Intelligence Workshop, the Maker Workshop, and the Materials in Transition Laboratory. These resources are essential for developing practice-based research methodologies, which are a central axis of the group’s activity.
Finally, researchers have access to the BAU library, integrated into a consortial network with documentation centres such as the Museu del Disseny and MACBA, among others. This system provides a collection of more than 10,000 documents specialised in graphic and spatial design, fashion, art, audiovisual practices, and photography, as well as cross-cutting fields such as cultural anthropology, economics, history, or iconography.
Career paths and professional fields
Key professional outcomes for the doctoral programmes include:
- Research in design, the arts, and other programme-specific fields (public or private institutions).
- Participation in European research projects.
- Academic teaching within the programme-specific areas.
- Employment in public/private institutions or administrations (local, national, or international levels).
Access, admission and enrolment
To undertake your thesis at BAU’s Centre for Doctoral Studies within one of the three available doctoral programmes, you must submit a research proposal prior to pre-enrolment. You can submit your proposal through this form.
Dates for the next enrolment period are:
PhD in Design and Communication (BAU - UVic-UCC)
- Pre-enrolment: 25 June to 9 July 2026
Submit your proposal before 25 July.
PhD in Humanities Studies (BAU - URV)
- Pre-enrolment: 14 July to 27 October 2026 (approximate dates). Pre-enrolment will be closed during August.
Submit your proposal before 14 July.
PhD in Anthropology and Communication (BAU - URV)
- Pre-enrolment: 14 July to 27 October 2026 (approximate dates). Pre-enrolment will be closed during August.
Submit your proposal before 14 July.
If you would like more information about BAU’s Centre for Doctoral Studies, contact us at [email protected].