University of the Arts Utrecht

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) is increasingly recognized as an important approach to make research on complex environmental and sustainability issues such as climate risks and biodiversity loss more societally relevant and actionable. Deliberately designing early stages of TDR– phase-0 – is considered essential to its overall success. However, limited knowledge is available about how to shape and undertake phase-0 of TDR. We provide a detailed account of TDR processes in the WildlifeNL project, which were designed with explicit and extensive attention to phase-0. We saw that designing and shaping the project was a constant process of decision-making about delineation; defining consortium composition and participation of others outside the consortium (‘who’), selecting cases and sites (‘where’), and determining model systems, questions, and approaches (‘what’). We demonstrate the interwovenness and interdependency between these dimensions based on several examples from WildlifeNL. The WildlifeNL team primarily focused on diverse stakeholder representation and building on existing partnerships. They thereby prioritized the ‘who’ dimension, while leaving ‘what’ and ‘where’ more flexible to adapt. The interconnectedness and interdependency confront those designing and implementing TDR with the question how to balance and prioritize the different dimensions, which defines how they make decisions on who, where and what are included and excluded in their TDR. We advocate for reflection and transparency about these messy and power-laden processes and suggest our framework as a structure for doing this. We argue that different TDR objectives and impact orientations (‘why’) may also prompt assigning different relative weight to the ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘what’ dimensions. • We analyzed phase-0 of the transdisciplinary research project WildlifeNL, which examines human-wildlife coexistence. • Phase-0 is a dynamic and non-linear process of delineating the ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘where’ of transdisciplinary research. • WildlifeNL prioritized the ‘who’ dimension to favor diversity and trust in support of the project’s transformative ambition. • We argue that different impact orientations of transdisciplinary research may prompt different delineation priorities. • We advocate for more transparency about the messy and power-laden phase-0 of transdisciplinary research projects.

Abstract Ancient DNA is a valuable data source for the understanding of our past. However, to effectively interpret this data, it is essential to know the age of the samples from which the DNA is obtained. Although the field of palaeogenomics has been recognised for its robust open data sharing practices, dating information associated with analysed samples is not reported consistently across palaeogenomic studies, nor is it included as metadata in most genetic data repositories. Here, we describe the addition of standardised precise dating information for ancient microbial genomes into the AncientMetagenomeDir metadata repository of published ancient metagenomic samples. This extension currently includes dating information for over 700 ancient microbial genomic datasets, of which 333 are dated using historical, contextual, or stratigraphic methods, and 405 are radiocarbon dated. We quantitatively assess the quality of radiocarbon date reporting and find that, despite established reporting conventions, radiocarbon dating information is often reported inconsistently across ancient metagenomic studies. This new resource provides ancient microbial researchers with standardised dating information that facilitates more accurate and consistent analysis of metagenomic sequencing data. The dataset also highlights the need for greater standardisation of radiocarbon date reporting in original publications in order to allow effective reuse of this and future ancient microbial data.

This article builds on the “geographies of hope” (Hazlewood et al., 2023) to better understand and address the gendered challenges posed by AI technologies in the Global South. AI-powered surveillance and technology-facilitated gender-based violence have reshaped digital geographies, leading to the rise of non-consensual synthetic intimate images—often called “deepfakes” or “deepfake pornography”—that disproportionately target women, LGBTQI+ communities, and racialized groups. These harms reveal the urgent need for inclusive AI safety and AI regulation frameworks that reflect the diversity of material and cultural geographies across the Global South. Through a cross-regional analysis of emerging AI safety policies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, this article critiques the limitations of top-down, risk-based governance models and introduces a cross-cultural Gen(der) AI Safety framework rooted in decolonial and feminist praxis. Using critical discourse analysis, it identifies three systemic challenges—exclusionary legal-technical architectures, overreliance on individual responsibility, and entrenched power asymmetries. In response, the article proposes “geographies of hope” that emphasize localized, community-driven, and pleasure-positive interventions to counter digital harms. By centering intersectional and decolonial approaches, it calls for an AI safety agenda that affirms gender agency, collective joy, and justice.

This multimedia exchange explores the politics of citation beyond traditional academic formats, engaging with issues of citational justice through text, drawings, collages, maps, and knitted data visualisations. Through an email correspondence, we reflect on the tensions between quantification and the lived, relational nature of scholarly influence. While citation counts and diversity metrics can reveal biases, they also risk abstracting knowledge into numbers. This article asks what it means to do justice to the people, ideas, and experiences that shape academic work. Turning to alternative metaphors—carrying and mapping—we reconsider citation as an embodied and material practice. Carrying evokes the ways knowledge is gathered, held, and moved with over time, while mapping traces connections, highlights omissions, and navigates shifting terrains of influence. These approaches make space for sources that may not fit conventional reference lists: fleeting conversations, students’ insights, artistic works, or moments of observation. Through text, image, and craft, we explore a citational practice that embraces complexity and multiplicity. Ultimately, we propose an expanded citational practice that acknowledges a wider range of influences and explores how other formats might better accommodate these forms of knowledge. The exchange results in a “reference map” in which we experiment with an alternative strategy for citation.

ABSTRACT While research on disinformation in Africa is starting to gain attention, only a few of these studies have sought to uncover its connection to conflict contexts, an important area we seek to draw attention to with this study. Furthermore, barely any studies have uncovered journalists and other media workers’ perceptions of disinformation, particularly in countries dominated by conflict. This article uses participatory action research, specifically focus-group interviews with over 30 Malian and Ethiopian journalists to uncover rarely discussed perceptions and contestations emerging from authoritarian contexts dominated by both disinformation and conflict. Our aim is to make a significant contribution in the field of journalism studies by studying the rapid rise of disinformation within a context marked by both authoritarianism and conflict. We believe our findings, which reveal previously unknown evidential pointers to journalists, journalism educators and other news media workers’ perspectives on disinformation in a non-democratic contexts potentially have wider applicability given disinformation is a problem that even democratic countries are also currently grappling with. Our findings show that there are varying actors in the disinformation landscape. Also, conflicting notions on disinformation exist while there is a noticeable lack of established truth-telling institutions. Besides, ethnicity influences people's perceptions of truth.

This article explores the emergence of TikTok as a central issue in contemporary debates on foreign interference, platform regulation, and the governance of transnational data flows. Both the European Union and the United States have expressed concerns about TikTok’s potential risks and have implemented various regulations. Through a comparative analysis of EU and US regulatory discourses, this article examines how claims to digital sovereignty are mobilised in efforts to govern the Chinese-based platform. In doing so, this study advances ongoing debates on the regulation of large-scale digital platforms and data infrastructures. Our analysis reveals that whereas the EU emphasises regulatory autonomy, public health, and democratic integrity in governing cross-border data flows, the US frames TikTok in a more overtly securitised approach rooted in techno-nationalism and strategic infrastructural decoupling from China. More broadly, the article also argues that when framed as a countermeasure to foreign interference, digital sovereignty is increasingly rearticulated as a security-centric concept that subsumes broader societal harms, and it risks assuming authoritarian connotations.

Taking inspiration from literary studies, this article examines how the seasonal mode has been taken up in video games by exploring, first, how seasonality impacts gameplay practices which are sensitive to spikes in temperature, and second, by analyzing an emergent trend in popular game design that points to a growing engagement with climate change. This trend, which this article dubs “dark seasonality,” describes the increased thematization of unseasonal and dangerous weather in popular media, reflecting anxieties and concerns about the climate crisis. Rather than engage with extreme weather as a singular, spectacular occurrence, dark seasonality portrays extreme weather events to fall within new seasonal norms, dictating different styles of gameplay that are more cautious, more focused on the long term, and more attentive to environmental uncertainties. In this way, dark seasonality offers players a space to familiarize themselves with tumultuous weather-worlds, whose disturbed seasonal rhythms echo the more protracted ones felt around the globe.

This paper explores the design of expressive movements for service robots in fine-dining restaurants, using a performative approach to understand how robots can be integrated and accepted in complex real-world settings. Drawing on dramaturgical principles, we conducted three research and design activities-speculative enactments, scenario building, and extended reality (XR) simulations-to examine how specific movements of a restaurant service robot and the contexts in which they are performed influence the experiences of guests, serving staff, and managers. We propose that such robots can be conceptualized as “ensemblists,“ capable of adopting multiple roles and collaborating with humans in a larger choreography of service delivery. The study concludes by reflecting on the strengths and limitations of performative approaches in HRI, emphasizing the need to move beyond traditional one-on-one human-robot interaction models and, instead, to consider how robots perform their roles in complex, dynamic environments involving multiple actors.

Malaria has been a leading cause of death in human populations for centuries and remains a major public health challenge in African countries, especially affecting children. Among the five Plasmodium species infecting humans, Plasmodium falciparum is the most lethal. Ancient DNA research has provided key insights into the origins, evolution, and virulence of pathogens that affect humans. However, extensive screening of ancient skeletal remains for Plasmodium DNA has shown that such genomic material is rare, with no studies so far addressing potential intra-individual variability. Consequently, the pool of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) or genomic sequences for P. falciparum is extremely limited, with fewer than 20 ancient sequences available for genetic analysis, and no complete P. falciparum mtDNA from Classical antiquity published to date. To investigate intra-individual diversity and genetic origins of P. falciparum from the Roman period, we generated 39 sequencing libraries from multiple teeth and two from the femur of a Roman malaria-infected individual. The results revealed considerable variability in P. falciparum recovery across different dental samples within the individual, while the femur samples showed no preservation of Plasmodium DNA. The reconstructed 43-fold P. falciparum mtDNA genome supports the hypothesis of an Indian origin for European P. falciparum and suggests mtDNA continuity in Europe over the past 2000 years.

The objective of this case study was to investigate if respiratory ratios derived from non-invasive exhaled breath measurements could be used as a tool to detect dairy cows at risk for impaired postpartum health. Measurements of exhaled breath from individual cows took place during visits to a concentrate feeder from 2 wk prepartum until 6 wk postpartum (Veterinary Metabolism System, Relitech). Per measurement, concentrations of oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4) (vol%) were measured. Subsequently, daily average respiratory exchange ratio (RER; CO2/O2), CH4 exchange ratio (MER; CH4/O2) and CH4-to-CO2 ratio (MCR; CH4/CO2) were calculated per cow. Cows were scored clinically twice weekly from 2 wk prepartum until 6 wk postpartum on 19 clinical signs. Blood β-hydroxybutyric acid was determined twice weekly, and additional blood samples were taken in week 1 and week 5 after calving to determine clinical-chemical parameters. A total deficit score (TDS) was assigned to each cow based on blood values and clinical scores. Per health score (e.g., decrease in body condition score (BCS) after calving, β-hydroxybutyric acid values, and TDS values), cows were divided into two categories (high or low). Differences in exhaled breath composition between these categories were evaluated using mixed models. The RER was lower in cows with a high reduction in BCS during the first 6 wk after calving, which can result in ketosis and fatty liver caused by the increased body fat mobilization. For TDS Locomotion, TDS Metabolic, TDS Liver, and TDS Macro-minerals, MER was lower in cows with a higher TDS compared with cows with a lower TDS, which may be related to decreased feed intake in cows at risk for disease leading to a decreased methane production. Prepartum MER was lower in cows with a high decrease in BCS, high TDS Total, or high TDS inflammation compared with cows with low values in these categories. The MCR was inconsistent for different disease categories. Based on the results of this experiment, respiratory ratios derived from non-invasive exhaled breath measurements seem to be promising indicators to detect cows at risk for disease around calving, but further validation of breath measurements is required. Variables such as individual daily milk production, dry matter intake, and time lag between breath measurement and feeding time should be taken into account in future research to improve the interpretation of results.