PhD

In 2019, I received a PhD in the Humanities grant awarded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). “Imagining the Climate Crisis- The Visual Arts to the Rescue?” is the title of my PhD research and doctoral thesis, which I successfully defended in November 2024. Explained in one sentence, I researched the role of the visual arts in addressing climate-related topics.

Short description of the research

Humanity has entered a new era, often labelled the Anthropocene -the human epoch- or Capitalocene -the era of capital, although they have not been officially defined as geological epochs. Their wide use and temperature/extreme weather record after record, however, show that humanity and its exploitative practices pose a significant threat to the ecological integrity of the planet, particularly through human-caused climate change.

This research studies the visual arts in relation to climate change. The visual arts have – amongst others – the potential to attend to the world in aesthetic ways, imagine other worlds and futures, visualize the invisible, insensible, remote, abstract, to foster human-nature relations. Nevertheless, they also face challenges in engaging with this topic.

The emerging and innovative field of the Environmental Humanities has started to investigate the role of the visual arts in addressing climate change. The Environmental Humanities can re-frame environmental problems, such as climate change, as not merely environmental, but also human, social and cultural. The modes of inquiry from the Humanities can help in addressing problems that frame human-nature relations, such as intangibility of and alienation from environmental issues, scientific and negative framings and separation of the ‘environment’. Reflections on how humans and nature relate include concepts such as entanglements between human and nature, countering notions of human/nature dualism, human control of nature and nature as something external. Such deep understandings allow a better understanding about how social and ecological crises originate.

This PhD research attempts to contribute by answering the following questions:

What are the goals and practices of artists making climate-related art?
How are climate-related visual artworks addressing climate topics?
How is climate-related art covered in news media?
How are climate crisis themed exhibitions perceived by exhibition visitors?

Courses

Courses that I taught:

Sustainability in the Visual Arts & Crafts
- Co-coordinator and lecturer
- Erasmus University Rotterdam
- Beginning September until end October
Recognition in the Visual Arts
- Coordinator and lecturer
- At Erasmus University Rotterdam
- February to April
Introduction to Statistical Analysis
- Tutorial teacher
- At Erasmus University Rotterdam
- November until January
Excerpt of guest lectures:
Guest Jury Member (21.10.2024) ESHCC, EUR | Rotterdam
• In the BA program ‘International Bachelor Arts and Culture Studies’, course ‘Sustainability in the Visual Arts and Crafts’
Guest Lecturer (07.10.2024) ESHCC, EUR | Rotterdam
• In the BA program ‘International Bachelor Arts and Culture Studies’, course ‘Sustainability in the Visual Arts and Crafts’
Guest Lecturer (17.05.2024) Radboud University |Nijmegen
• In the MA program course ‘Organising the Creative Industries’
Guest Lecturer and Workshop Facilitator (22.01.2024) Rotterdam Arts and Sciences Lab (RASL) |Rotterdam• In the minor ‘Re-imagining Tomorrow through Arts and Sciences’
Guest Lecturer(18.01.2024) RASL | Rotterdam
• During RASL Experience Day for prospective RASL students
Guest Lecturer(13.11. & 14.11.2023) Royal Academy of Art |The Hague
• In the MA program ‘Photography & Society’
Guest Jury Member (23. 10.2023) ESHCC, EUR | Rotterdam
• In the BA program ‘International Bachelor Arts and Culture Studies’, course ‘Sustainability in the Visual Arts and Crafts’
Guest Lecturer (15.10.2021) Radboud University |Nijmegen
• In the MA program course ‘Working in the Creative Industries’
Guest Lecturer (2018) RASL |Rotterdam
• I gave a presentation about my PhD proposal on climate-related visual art to RASL students
Guest Jury Member ESHCC, EUR | Rotterdam
• I functioned as jury member at the MA ‘Cultural Economics & Entrepreneurship’ competition on the topic “The creative industries and waste and pollution”

Courses that I followed:

Seminar Contemporary Art – Anthropocene Art (at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Environmental Humanities (at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Curating Art and Nature: The Knowledge of the Curator (at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 25 May to 14 September 2021)
Imagining the image (at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
English Academic Writing (at EGSH)
How to get your article published (at Erasmus Graduate School of Social Sciences and the Humanities (EGSH))
Responsible research data management (at EGSH)
Self-presentation: focus, structure, interaction and visualisation (at EGSH)
How to engage your students with storytelling and theatre skills (MicroLab course)
Communicating your research: lessons from BiteScience (at EGSH)
Professionalism and integrity in research (at EGSH)
PhD Career Swifters programme (through Erasmus University, in collaboration with THRIVE Institute)
Dutch courses A2.2, B1.1. and B1.2 (at Language and Training Centre LTC)

Publications

Art-based research and academic writing on visual art and climate change:

• Hahn, U., & Berkers, P. (2025). Artists on Climate Change: Their Intended Impact and Audiences. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 43(1), 188-208.

• Brandellero, A., Loots, E., Schueler, J., van den Brink, E., Dijkhuizen, E., Schaap Enterman, J., Bomers, I., Buizer, B., Hahn, U. & Amador Valdez, J. (2023). Parading through a Circular Area Development with Arts and Sciences. DYSFUNCTION. Critics, ethics and challenges in Art-Based Research dissemination, 8-9, 13-14

• Hahn, U. & Vermeylen F. (2023). Mirror or Hammer? News Media Coverage of Climate-Related Art. Environmental Communication.

• Hahn, U. (2022). Artistic Imaginations of Climate Change: From the Far Away to the Here and Now. Environmental Justice, (20221202).

• Hahn, U., & Berkers, P. (2020). Visualizing Climate Change: An Exploratory Study of the Effectiveness of Artistic Information Visualizations. World Art, 11(1), 95-119.

• Hahn, U. (2018). The Art of Circular Economy: Participatory Art for Sensemaking and Planning of the Circular Economy Community [Master thesis]. This thesis was finalist in the Rotterdam Thesis Award 2019.

• Hahn, U. (2017). (Artistic Information) Visualizations and Climate Change [Master thesis]

Interviews about my research comics project:

• Hahn, U., Augé, A., & Butler, R. (2025). Research comics for science communication: Interview with Dr. Ulrike Hahn. Multimodality & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/26349795251345278

• Hahn, U., & Phuong, H.L. (2023). Interview with Ulrike Hahn from ResearchIN’ Comics. Retrieved from https://www.eur.nl/en/eshcc/news/interview-ulrike-hahn-researchin-comics

Zine contributions on the intersection between art, imagination and the climate crisis:

• van Beek, L. et al. (2025). TWIG – The What If Garden – A Field Guide to Radical Imagination [Zine]. Lorentz Center. https://doi.org/10.17613/jn9xc-9gh16

• Ashby et al. (y). Communicating Climate Hope [Zine; to be expected in 2025]

Writing about human-nature relations and art (blog): See here

**Sustainable Transitions in Culture & Societies (STiCS)**

During my PhD, I was part of the Sustainable Transitions in Culture & Societies (STiCS), which is a research cluster at Erasmus University, School of History, Culture & Communication bringing together researchers exploring sustainability transitions.

Let’s connect.

Get in touch!

This PhD project received funding from the PhD in the Humanities programme of the Dutch Research Council NWO, Project number: PGW.19.010/8366

Promoters: Prof. dr. F.R.R. Vermeylen, Prof. dr. dr. P.P.L. Berkers (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Prof.dr. K. Kwastek (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)