The President of the University of California system recently approved the History of Art and Visual Culture Department’s Ph.D. in Visual Studies. We hope to solicit applications during the 2009-10 academic year and to matriculate our first class in the fall of 2010.
The Visual Studies graduate program has three main objectives: to steep our graduates in the most theoretically relevant methodologies for understanding both the significance of visual artifacts and the socially produced qualities of human vision; provide students with exposure to a range of cultural perspectives and visual artifacts drawn from around the world; and cultivate in our graduates the necessary skills and knowledge to secure and excel in professorial and curatorial positions.
Our Visual Studies Program will take a lead in foregrounding the historically contingent qualities of sight, exploring how the vision of individuals and groups is guided by social contexts. With its focus on the links between vision and society, the program will employ a wide range of visual evidence for examination, without being constrained by traditional hierarchies of art. Fine arts, architecture, utilitarian objects, and popular entertainments all are appropriate primary sources for scholars in the field. The program at Santa Cruz will be particularly adept at illustrating significant differences in how disparate cultural groups interpret their visual records, given the breadth of cultural perspectives taught by our faculty. With scholars focusing on cultures in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific Islands, this program will offer students an unparalleled opportunity to consider the role of societies in guiding how and what their members see.
