Kunstacademie & Toneelacademie Maastricht, teacher and researcher
Researcher at research centre What Arts Knows (previously AOK), under Ruth Benschop, since 2018
Core-team member research centre, since 2021
Development of and supervision within “Embodied Methods” research track, since 2025
Development of an “ethics instrument” for artistic research, with Ties van der Werff, September 2020 - June 2021
Teacher bachelor Interdisciplinary Arts: development and teaching of bachelor course “The Body as Research Instrument” and “Performativity and the body in the arts”, since 2019
Development of the bachelor curriculum about the body in the arts, Interdisciplinary Arts since 2021
Bachelor thesis and final artistic project supervision, since 2021
Teacher and supervisor artistic research, Master in Theatre, since 2019
Teacher research skills, Master in Theatre, since 2019
Examination committee member, Master in Theatre, since 2020
Selection committee member, Master in Theatre, since 2020
Committee member and organiser Scriptiekunst: thesis award for final theses in the arts, since 2020
Intership Supervisor University College Maastricht, 2019-2021
Guest lectures about artistic research (e.g., at HKU, UM, UvA), since 2019
University of Amsterdam, teacher and researcher
Development and teaching of the honours module “Feeling Science”, Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, since 2021
Development and teaching of Short Intensive Courses for PhD’s at Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, since 2018
Organisation of monthly Walking Seminars, 2017- 2019
Contribution to the development of the “Transition Toolbox”, sinds 2022
PhD-researcher 2018-2022
MERIAN (Maastricht Experimental Research In and through the Arts Network), PhD supervisor en vice member
Vice member steering committee, since 2021
PhD supervisor, since January 2023
Other institutions
Supervision and mentoring of artistic research projects for different institutions (Artez, Fontys, HvA, ATD, Minerva) and individual artist, since 2023
Publications
Scholtes, U. (forthcoming). Butoh Notes: daily imagery for porous sensitivities. Academizines!
Scholtes, U. (2024). Meer dan een methode: het lichaam als onderzoeksinstrument. The Embodied Educator Podcast, #28, december 2024.
Scholtes, U. (2024). Working Words: Words as tools to visualize embodied labour. Journal of Writing in Creative Practice
Scholtes, U. (2024). Het Lichaam als Onderzoeksinstrument. Cultuur+Educatie, De kracht van belichaamd leren en doceren in kunsteducatie.
Scholtes, U. (2023), Finding Words for Feeling Bodies. Exploring drawing techniques in Dutch care practices, in Medical Anthropology.
Pols, J., Ruettgers, P., Scholtes, U., Benschop, R. (2023), Art, science & philosophy: a festival, Unexpected Subjects festival, University of Amsterdam
Scholtes, U. (2022), PhD Dissertation Feeling Techniques – making methods to articulate bodily practices, Amsterdam: UvA
Laurent, J., Human, O., Domínguez Guzmán, C., Roding, E., Scholtes, U., De Laet, M., Mol, A. (2021), Excreting Variously, On Contrasting as an Analytic Technique. Experimenting with Ethnography: A Companion to Analysis, Duke University Press.
Seminars and conference presentations
Teaching Bodies and Boundaries to Blur: attuning Bodies and Worlds through The Leaky Bodies Archives, ELIA biennale Conference, Milan, November 2024
Panel Artistic Research as Generous Practice, with Ties van de Werff, EASST/4S, July 2024
Presentation Porous skins for connected worlds, EASST/4S, July 2024
Roundtable Affect, Power, and the University, EASST/4S, July 2024
The Body as Researching-Teaching Instrument, Embodied Education Conference, Aarhus University, May 2024
Presentation at Summerschool Supervising artistic and arts-based research, Universiteit Utrecht, August 2023
The Bodies that we Become, Plenary session for Studium Generale Spring Festival, Wageningen University, May 2023
Exercising Body Awareness as Artistic Research Skill, End of Year Symposium AOK Maastricht Institute of Arts, June 2021
Feeling Techniques - feelings done in practice, words and drawings, 4S/EASST conference,
August 2020
Teaching Body Awareness for Artistic Reseachers, Openingsymposium AOK Maastricht Institute of Arts, October 2020
On Sensitizing your Audience, Caring for Experimentation workshop, UvA Anthropology Department, August 2019
How do you feel? Wording and Drawing (as) Feeling Wording sensitivities; The performativity of words and the practice-specificity of bodies and minds, Exploring Ecologies of Mind in (Mental) Health: Eco-Pathologies and Onto-Politics of Healing Economies, Freie Universität Berlin, May 2019
Techniques, Symposium on Artistic Research, Maastricht Institute of Arts, May 2019
How do you feel? Feeling as artistic practice. MERIAN conference, May 2019
Maastricht Style Artistic Research, Artistic Research Conference MERIAN Jan Van Eyck Academie,
September, 2017
Articulating Sensitivities – Touch as Feeling Technique, EASA Lisbon, July 2017
Sensitivity as practice, Sensing Plants Seminar, UvA, May 2017
Workshops, courses, lectures
Gathering Leaky Bodies Speculations: het mengen van praktijken. With Theo Ploeg, What Art Knows, kunstacademie Maastricht, October 2024
Workshop Writing Intuitions: practicing intuition through writing and zine-making. Design department, kunstacademie Maastricht, September 2024
Lecture ECHO avond ‘Knowing Intuitions’, POST Nijmegen, June 2024
Workshop Writing Bodies – Writing Spaces, Universiteit van Amsterdam, June 2024
Panel discussion screening ‘Alreadymade’ documentary Barbara Visser, Lumiere Maastricht, April 2024
Workshop Embodied Methods, Master Anthropology UvA, March 2024
Laban Audiowalk, workshop and internal publication, iArts, January 2024
Viewpoints Audiowalk, workshop and internal publication iArts, April 2023
Workshop Feeling Science, ACDC meeting Universiteit van Amsterdam, November 2023
Workshop Articulating Sensitivity, at MUSTS Symposium for the Senses, University Maastricht, July 2023
Workshop Drawing Ways of Seeing, at Unexpected Subjects: art-science-philosophy cross-over festival, June 2023
Workshop The Body as Research Instrument, Wageningen University SG Spring Festival May 2023
Bachelor Course The body and performativity - Interdisciplinary Arts, with Nina Willems, Maastricht Institute of Arts, February – June 2023
Research seminar Researching Skills, Master in Theater Maastricht, February
Honours module, Feeling Science, with Ellen Algera and Sonja Jerak-Zuiderent, Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, UvA, Octobre – February, 2022/2023, April – June, 2022, September - December 2023
Workshop Bodily Knowledge, Master in Theatre Maastricht, October 2019, October 2020, October 2021, October 2022
Guest lecture Becoming a Sensitive Research Instrument, HKU minor Creative Research, October 2022
Workshop Writing Sensitivities, DIS_SEMINAR: Kunst is Onderzoek seminar on dissemination,
November 2022
Workshop Writing Matters, with Ruth Benschop, MUSTS conference: science, technology and the non-human, October 2022
Workshop Documentation for Artistic Research, With Ruth Benschop and Marlies Vermeulen, Bachelor Design, Maastricht Institute of Arts, September 2022
Bachelor Course The Body as Sensitive Research Instrument, Interdisciplinary Arts, Maastricht Institute of Arts, April – June 2019, April – June 2020, April – June 2021, September – December 2021, September 2023 - May 2024
Guest Lecture Feeling Techniques, Drawing Instruments, and Methodologies in the Making, Master Medical Anthropology and Sociology Universiteit van Amsterdam, November 2021
Prototyping an Ethics Instrument for Artistic Research, with Ties van de Werff, AOK Maastricht Institute of Arts, June 2021
Workshop Drawing Spacial and Bodily Sensitivities – the training kit, with Marlies Vermeulen, 4S/EASST conference, August 2020
Workshop Drawing Sensitivities, Bachelor Fine arts and design in education, Maastricht Institute of Arts, A workshop on drawing as a sensitizing research methods, October 2020
Workshop Caring for Experimentation (aka a multi-modal workshop) (together with Andie Thompson, Sarita Jarmack and Ildiko Plajas), University of Amsterdam, August 2019
Guest lecture Drawing as Instrument, Bachelor Antropology University of Amsterdam, May 2019
Short Intensive Course Sensitivities at (field)work, UvA Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, April 2019
Putting Bodily Knowledge to Paper – on drawing as a practice-specific way of thinking, Kenniskring Fieldnotes, Lectoraat AOK, March 2019
Sensitivity as Research Skill, MUSTS skillshare workshop, Maastricht University, June 2018
Sensitivity as Research Skill, Marres Maastricht, June 2018
Short Intensive Course Body works for “talking minds”, UvA Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research, May 2018
Workshop Sensory Knowledge – an exploration of thinking through feeling, Theater Academy Maastricht, October 2018, October 2017
Workshop Body Awareness, Innovation Art Education conference, Maastricht Institute of Arts, March 2016
Academic education
June 13th 2022: Public defense Doctoral Dissertation "Feeling Techniques - making methods to articulate bodily practices"
2012 - 2013: Master Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU Amsterdam, Cum Laude
Thesis Title: “How to Dance Ethnography? Juxtaposing the embodied act of dancing butoh and the embodied act of writing about it”
2011 - 2012: Premaster Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU Amsterdam
Thesis Title: “I Dance Therefore I Know: A Research on Butoh Dance as a Case Study for Bodily Anthropology”
2008 - 2010: Bachelor Arts and Culture, University of Maastricht
2004 - 2008: Bachelor Fine Arts/Design Education, Academie Beeldende Kunsten Maastricht
Movement Education
2012 - present: Mime/physical theatre with individual teachers
2012 - present: Butoh training with individual teachers in Europe/Japan
2010 - present: Training with individual dance and acting teachers in Viewpoints, Action Theatre, Body Weather, Contact Improvisation,
Meisner Technique, Laban and Bartenieff, Feldenkrais, Ideokinesis.
2017: Massage Certificate (Relaxation Massage, Indian Head Massage, Tui Na, Lomi Lomi – Zonnevlecht opleidingen, Wellness Academy)
2016: STOTT Pilates Certificate, Kdans, Den Haag
2015 - 2016: Somatic Coaching. Post-HBO Diploma, ATMA Institute
2015: Laban Movement Analyses Basic Course, CLMA
2014: Somatic Movement, Somatic Movement Institute
2014: Shiatsu Certificate, Zen Shiatsu Amsterdam
2010: Yoga Teacher Certificate, Ananda Yoga Center, Kathmandu, Nepal
Expertise & Skills
Body awareness
Artistic research
Aristic intervention
Social research
Movement
Teaching
Writing
Drawing
Language skills
German: Mother Tongue
Dutch: Native
English: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner