Introduction
The History of Art and Visual Culture Department offers a course of study leading to the Ph.D. in visual studies. The Ph.D. is designed to steep our graduates in the most theoretically relevant methodologies for understanding the significance of visual artifacts and the social and cultural qualities of human vision (termed visuality); 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 academic and curatorial positions. The program is both interdisciplinary and flexible. Students work closely with their advisers and the director of graduate studies to craft personalized courses of study that advance their intellectual and professional goals.
The program employs a wide range of visual evidence for examination, without being constrained by traditional hierarchies of art. Fine arts, architecture, photography, film, performances, rituals, utilitarian objects, and popular entertainments are among the types of primary material used in our curriculum for the investigation of visual culture. Our program at UCSC is particularly adept at illustrating significant differences in how disparate cultural groups interpret their visual worlds, given the breadth of cultural perspectives taught by our faculty. With scholars focusing on cultures in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Pacific Islands, visual studies at UCSC offers students an unparalleled opportunity to consider the role of social and cultural forces in guiding how and what humans see.
Advancement to Candidacy
Course Requirements
Students take a minimum of 60 credits during their first two years of study, comprised of three core courses and nine electives.
Take the following three core courses:
| HAVC 201A | Introduction to Visual Studies and Critical Theory | 5 |
| HAVC 202 | Introduction to Visual Studies Methods | 5 |
| HAVC 204 | Grant Writing | 5 |
Take nine electives:
Of the nine elective courses, at least five must have a visual studies designation (i.e., taught by core or affiliated faculty), and at least three must be drawn from departments outside of visual studies. Among the five visual studies electives, at least three must be from the HAVC courses numbered 212-282 and taught by core faculty, and at least one of the three must be a seminar course on a subject outside the student’s disciplinary focus. Only two of the five visual studies electives may be independent study courses. Please review the visual studies website for a list of electives offered in the current year.
Field Clusters/Field Specialties
Appreciating that most of our graduates will be required to fit themselves back into traditional disciplinary structures once they enter the academic job market, the program is designed to provide students with both new means of interpreting visual evidence and suitable depth of understanding in older disciplinary traditions. While all graduates will acquire a shared foundation in different approaches to visuality (attained through our core course requirements), individual student programs vary considerably depending on the type of department or other intellectual and professional context in which the student hopes to secure employment after graduation. In addition to completion of the core courses required of all students, students will develop a cluster of individualized field courses in consultation with their adviser based on their particular professional goals.
To provide our students with the disciplinary background to facilitate employment within curatorial departments in museums and non-visual studies departments at colleges and universities, each student is required to take a minimum of four 5-credit courses in a disciplinary cluster (beyond the core course requirements). This requirement pertains both to students entering with a B.A. and an M.A. Acceptable field cluster courses might center on a medium (i.e., painting or architecture), a temporal/stylistic category (i.e., Early Modern or Postmodernism), a cultural, national, or social group (i.e., Pacific Islanders or China), or a disciplinary approach (i.e., cultural anthropology or gender studies). Field clusters are developed in consultation with the student’s adviser based on the student’s intellectual and professional goals. To count toward the degree, field clusters must receive prior approval from the director of graduate studies.
Foreign Language Requirements
Students must demonstrate reading knowledge of one foreign language prior to the start of their second year (either by attaining a score of 550 or higher on the Educational Testing Service Graduate Student Foreign Language Test or by passing a reading/translation examination administered by the department).
Students are encouraged to master a second foreign language. Based on a student’s area of interest, and the joint assessment of the student’s adviser and the director of graduate studies, proof of proficiency in an additional language or languages may be required prior to the student being admitted to candidacy for the Ph.D. Should proficiency in additional languages be required, it must be demonstrated prior to the close of the student’s third year of study.
Qualifying Examination
After completing all coursework and passing one language examination, students are required to pass a qualifying examination prior to the close of the winter quarter of their third year, unless a petition for an extension, demonstrating reasonable cause, is approved by the visual studies director of graduate studies. The qualifying examination is divided into three topic areas, with each one including a written and an oral component. Each topic area should display historical breadth and variety of media. Two of the topic areas should ideally relate to the future dissertation topic, while one of the remaining must constitute an outside area, examining a topic that is chronologically, geographically, and/or methodologically distinct from the other two.
During their second year, a student should consult with their adviser to assemble a group of four faculty members who will serve as examiners and aid the student in assembling the necessary topic areas, compiling the needed reading lists, and preparing for the written and oral components of the examination in each area. The examination will have two parts. In part one, students will respond in writing to three general questions, posed by three of their examiners in the pre-arranged topic areas. In part two, students will gather together with their examiners to field questions probing and clarifying the previously submitted written component of the qualifying examination. In order to pass the qualifying examinations, students must receive the unanimous endorsement of the committee members.
Post-Qualifying Requirements
Dissertation Prospectus and Colloquium
After passing the qualifying examination, a student must complete an approved dissertation prospectus and a colloquium. The written dissertation prospectus is due no later than the end of the second quarter following the student’s completion of the qualifying examination. The prospectus is a brief, concise essay of approximately 25 pages (with bibliography) that defines the scope, methodology, and rationale for the proposed dissertation. It is prepared in consultation with the student’s dissertation adviser, who must approve of the document prior to sending it to the colloquium committee. The prospectus must be sent to the colloquium committee at least one month before the colloquium.
The dissertation adviser, in consultation with the student and director of graduate studies, will invite four to five faculty members, in appropriate fields, to be on the colloquium committee, attend the colloquium, provide input on the prospectus, and assess the student’s preparedness to begin researching and writing the dissertation. Faculty participating in the colloquium may or may not have been members of the qualifying examination committee, and should represent faculty whose expertise has bearing on the student’s project. A student will pass the colloquium after having demonstrated to the satisfaction of all colloquium committee members adequate preparation to begin researching and writing the dissertation.
Advancement to Candidacy
Advancement to candidacy follows and is contingent upon passing the qualifying examination, all needed language examinations, completing an approved dissertation prospectus, passing the colloquium, and the subsequent appointment of a dissertation reading committee of at least three members. The requirements for advancement to candidacy must be completed no later than the end of the winter quarter of the fourth year.
Dissertation
Dissertation
The dissertation must make a significant and original contribution to the field of visual studies, as judged by each dissertation committee member.
Dissertation Defense
An oral defense of the dissertation is the only final examination requirement, unless a petition to waive the oral defense, demonstrating reasonable cause, is approved by the student’s primary adviser and the visual studies director of graduate studies. The student’s dissertation committee, under the direction of an exam moderator, will conduct the examination. The moderator is selected in consultation with the faculty adviser and must be a visual studies core or affiliated tenured faculty who is not part of the dissertation reading committee.
Normative Time from Matriculation to Degree
The visual studies Ph.D. program at UCSC is designed to require six years of study. During the pre-candidacy period students will devote themselves to coursework, completion of the language examination, some teaching, preparation for and completion of qualifying examinations, completion of an approved version of their prospectus, passing their colloquium and selecting their dissertation committee. Requirements for advancing to candidacy must be completed by the end of winter quarter of the fourth year. Students will finish their dissertation and successfully defend it before the end of their sixth year.