Priority application deadline: January 1, 2014
Department of Visual Studies
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
202 Center for the Arts, North Campus
Buffalo, New York 14260-6010
T +1 716 645 6878
The MA/ PhD program in Visual Studies is a small, highly selective program for motivated, independently minded scholars invested in critical discourses that analyze and challenge the social norm. Designed for the student with an active politics—precisely the kind of student often alienated from more traditional art history doctoral programs—we especially welcome students interested in considerations of sexuality, gender and the body, and the technologies and sciences that underwrite and make visible our embodied self-understandings. Our program specializes in exploring those structuring ideologies that lurk beneath the visible and help select, order and make legible what can be seen—and what cannot be. Our new journal, Invisibilities, co-sponsored with the University of Copenhagen, is a continuation of this goal.
The Visual Studies PhD program prides itself on close faculty/student contact, more in a European than American pedagogical model. We admit no more than three students annually and we work closely with them not only through the degree program, but also afterwards towards securing a position. Instead of a standardized program with requisite steps, we will meet with you frequently and tailor a program that builds from your interests. This means you can take any course offered in the graduate school for credit, and there is active encouragement to explore subjects from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Yet this is a highly rigorous doctorate with the traditional emphasis on research and writing; it is not a studio program.
visualstudies.buffalo.edu/graduate/phd
The MA in Visual Studies is a two-year, 36-credit program of study designed for a small, highly selective body of students who have already identified an intellectual project in keeping with faculty specializations. If admitted to the Visual Studies MA, you will work closely with faculty in developing an interdisciplinary course of study. Though a terminal degree, the MA in Visual Studies should be viewed as a stepping-stone to an eventual PhD, though acceptance in the MA program in Visual Studies does not guarantee ultimate admission to our PhD program: visualstudies.buffalo.edu/graduate/ma
All students admitted to the PhD program will receive a full tuition scholarship for at least three years, as well as living expenses and health care, in exchange for teaching and research responsibilities. In addition to this support, highly competitive applicants are eligible for supplementary stipends awarded by the offices of the President and Dean.
Deadline for admission with funding is January 1, 2014.
Faculty include:
Charles Carman, Millie Chen, John Jennings, Jonathan D. Katz, Steve Kurtz, Gary Nickard, Elizabeth Otto, Stephanie Rothenberg, Jasmina Tumbas, Livingston V. Watrous, Bruce Jackson
Recent visiting artists and critics include:
Ryan Trecartin, Catherine Opie, Lyle Ashton Harris, Carolee Schneemann, Rebecca Schneider, Karen Finley, Douglas Crimp, The Yes Men, Lorraine O’Grady, Xu Bing, Maurizio Cattelan, Mel Chin, Stan Douglas, Kent Monkman, Trevor Paglan, William Pope L.
For more information, please contact the Director of the Doctoral Program:
Dr. Jonathan Katz
[email protected]
Visit the Department of Visual Studies to learn more about these and other programs: www.visualstudies.buffalo.edu
Department of Visual Studies, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
202 Center for the Arts, North Campus
Buffalo, New York 14260-6010
T +1 716 645 6878
