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Faculty
George Bauer, Ph.D. Princeton University, Professor of Art History (Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture)
Linda Freeman Bauer, Ph.D. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Professor of Art History (Renaissance and Baroque art)
Rhona Berenstein, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, Director of the Program in Film Studies and Associate Professor of Film Studies (television studies, film genres, gender and popular culture, queer film and TV)
Anne Friedberg, Ph.D. New York University, Associate Professor of Film Studies (film history and theory, film and postmodernism, avant-garde and experimental film, visual culture and new technologies)
Anna Gonosová, Ph.D. Harvard University, Associate Professor of Art History (Byzantine and Medieval art and architecture)
James D. Herbert, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of Art History (Modern European art, critical theory)
Judy C. Ho, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of Art History (Chinese art, critical theory)
David Joselit, Ph.D. Harvard University, Assistant Professor of Art History (Modern and contemporary art, critical theory, gender studies)
Margaret M. Miles, Ph.D. Princeton University, Associate Professor of Art History (Greek and Roman art, archaeology)
Fatimah Tobing Rony, Ph.D. Yale University, Assistant Professor of Film Studies (documentary film, race and representation, film history and criticism, film production)
Sally A. Stein, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of Art History (American art, photography and mass media, feminist theory)
Dickran Tashjian, Ph.D. Brown University, Department Chair and Professor of Art History (American art and literature, American and European avant-garde, art and technology)
Judith A. Wilson, Ph.D. Yale University, Assistant Professor of African-American Studies and Art History (African-American visual culture, post-colonial art and theory, race representation in American visual culture)
Bert Winther-Tamaki, Ph.D. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, Assistant Professor of Art History (Modern Japanese art, Asian American art, East/West discourses in modern visual culture)
Affiliated Faculty
Stephen Barker, Ph.D. University of Arizona, Professor of Drama and Director of the Arts Interdisciplinary Program, School of the Arts (theory, criticism, literature)
David Carroll, Ph.D. The Johns Hopkins University, Department Chair and Professor of French (literary theory and twentieth-century French literature)
Rey Chow, Ph.D. Stanford University, Professor of Comparative Literature (Chinese literature, Asian literatures and cultures, contemporary critical theory, film)
Laura H. Y. Kang, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, Assistant Professor of Women's Studies and Comparative Literature (Asian American literature and culture, feminist theory, ethnic studies, gender)
Susan B. Klein, Ph.D. Cornell University, Assistant Professor of Japanese (premodern and modern theatre and dance, Japanese religions, feminist critical theory)
Marcia Klotz, Ph.D. Stanford University, Assistant Professor of German (German film and cultural studies)
Catherine Lord, M.F.A. State University of New York, Buffalo (Visual Studies Workshop), Professor of Studio Art (critical theory, feminism, photography)
Julia Reinhard Lupton, Ph.D. Yale University, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Director, Humanities Out There (Renaissance literature, literature and psychology)
Liisa Malkki, Ph.D. Harvard University, Associate Professor of Anthropology (historical anthropology, nations and nationalism, refugees and exile, ethnicity and transnational identity; East and Central Africa)
William M. Maurer, Ph.D. Stanford University, Assistant Professor of Anthropology (anthropology of law, globalization, transnationalism, citizenship and nationalism, finance capital, identity, Caribbean)
Alejandro Morales, Ph.D. Rutgers University, Professor of Spanish (Latin American and Chicano literature, film studies, creative writing)
Gonzalo Navajas, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, Professor of Spanish (eighteenth- through twentieth-century Spanish literature; film and visual arts; aesthetics and contemporary culture)
Mark S. Poster, Ph.D. New York University, Professor of History and of Information and Computer Science (modern European intellectual history)
John Carlos Rowe, Ph.D. State University of New York, Buffalo, Professor of English (American literature, modern literature, critical theory, comparative literature)
Nancy Lee Ruyter, Ph.D. Claremont Graduate School, Associate Professor of Dance (dance history, Spanish dance, choreography, and research methods)
Patrick Sinclair, Ph.D. Northwestern University, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Classics (Latin prose, lexicography)
Robyn Wiegman, Ph.D. University of Washington, Director of the Program in Women's Studies and Associate Professor of Women's Studies, African-American Studies, and English (American literature, women's studies, queer theory)
Jonathon M. Wiener, Ph.D. Harvard University, Professor of History (recent American history, theory and history)
The graduate program in Visual Studies, administered jointly by the faculties of the Department of Art History and of the Program in Film Studies, offers students the opportunity to pursue a doctorate in the cultural analysis of visual artifacts and experiences. Visual Studies synthesizes methodological insights from both component disciplines in order to examine the social practices of visual representation and visuality itself. The program leads to a Ph.D. degree in Visual Studies. While the program (in certain instances) grants an M.A. to students on route to their Ph.D., it admits only those students intending to complete their doctorate at UCI.
The program is open to students applying with either a bachelor's or a master's degree, and applicants must meet the general requirements for admission to graduate study at UCI. A recent sample of academic writing--such as a representative undergraduate paper, or the master's thesis or a major research paper written at the master's level--should be submitted with the application packet.
The deadline for application is January 15, and the program accepts applicants for admission during the fall quarter only. Additional information is available from the Graduate Advisor for the Visual Studies program.
All students are required to demonstrate a reading knowledge of at least one foreign language and are strongly encouraged to develop competence in a second. Students consult with the Graduate Advisor and/or their principal advisor(s) to determine the appropriate language to be tested, based on their interests and program of study. Advisors, moreover, may require the demonstration of reading knowledge in additional languages according to the scholarly demands of the student's specific field. All language requirements must be satisfied before students are advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.
Beyond the core series (Visual Studies 291, 292, 293), students admitted with a B.A. are required to complete an additional 11 courses for a total of 14 courses. Out of this total, at least 10 courses (including the core series) must be within the program in Visual Studies (i.e., bearing Visual Studies, Art History, or Film Studies course numbers) and at least two courses are to be from outside the Visual Studies discipline. In order to establish a level of expertise in one conventionally defined discipline, students entering with a B.A. must take (among their 10 courses noted above), at least three Art History courses or at least three Film Studies courses.
Students admitted with an M.A. must complete an additional five courses beyond the core series, for a total of eight courses. While students may accrue units both for University Teaching (Art History 399 or Film Studies 399) and Reading for the Qualifying Examination (Visual Studies 298), these do not count toward the required number of courses.
By the end of the second year for students entering with a B.A., or the end of the first year for those entering with an M.A., students must reach agreement with one or more of the program's professors to serve as principal advisor(s). During the fall quarter of the following year--in most cases, the final quarter of standard course work--the student will work informally with the principal advisor(s) to establish a five-person committee consisting of the principal advisor(s), additional faculty members to bring the total of examiners up to four (at least three of these four must be members of the Visual Studies faculty), and a designated "outside" member who must be a member of the UCI faculty but cannot hold either a primary or joint appointment in Visual Studies, Art History, or Film Studies. Except in extraordinary circumstances (to be adjudicated by the program's Graduate Committee), students are required to include at least one member from Art History and one from Film Studies on their examination committee.
The student and principal advisor(s) define four areas to be examined by the faculty; no faculty member may supervise more than two of the four areas, and in no case may the "outside" member serve as a supervisor. The topics should combine historical breadth and some variety in media and special fields. Over the course of the following two quarters, students normally enroll in eight to twelve units per quarter of Reading for the Qualifying Examination (Visual Studies 298) during which time they prepare reading lists in close consultation with their principal advisor(s) and area supervisors, and complete the reading of those lists. The examination takes place near the end of those two quarters of study, normatively at the end of the academic year.
The first part of the examination consists of a written component, in which the student is called upon to respond to questions posed in three of the selected topics. The student's written responses are circulated to all committee members. An oral examination follows, normally within two weeks, and consists both of a set of questions posed orally about the remaining unexamined topic, and of questions raised by the student's written responses to the initial three topics. Based on the student's written and oral performance, the committee will determine whether the student has successfully passed the examination; if so (and provided all language requirements have been satisfied), the student is then advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. If the committee is not satisfied with the student's performance, it may also decide to reexamine the student on one or more topics after a specific interval. Except in extraordinary circumstances, no student will be given more than two chances to pass any given section of the examination.
Within six months of advancement to candidacy, each student must submit a prospectus that defines the scope, approach, and rationale for a proposed dissertation. The student and the principal advisor(s) consult to determine the composition of a doctoral committee of three members including the principal advisor(s), which then must unanimously approve the prospectus before the student proceeds with the dissertation. The doctoral committee, on the basis of the candidate's past academic performance and proposed dissertation topic, may require additional course work or other forms of preparation for the dissertation. The doctoral committee, under the direction of the principal advisor(s), supervises the student's research program and ultimately approves the dissertation. The normative time for completion of the Ph.D. program is five to six years.
Additional graduate courses satisfying the requirements of the Ph.D. program in Visual Studies are listed in the Department of Art History and the Program in Film Studies sections.
291 Theories of Vision and Visuality (4). Introductory seminar surveys the key theories of vision and visuality. Examines the theoretical texts that have, over the past several decades, enabled the emergence of the hybrid discipline of Visual Studies, and addresses the recent polemics written in support of and opposition to this new disciplinary practice.
292 Visual Studies and Historiography (4). History of art history and film studies to 1980. Examines the ways in which the visual has been constructed and places these constructions in their institutional and cultural contexts. Examines historiographic questions by interrogating the evidentiary power of visual artifacts.
293 Topics in Visual Studies (4). The exploration of a special topic in Visual Studies. Seminar is designed to demonstrate the range of application and methodologies that can be practiced in the study of visual artifacts and experiences. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
295 Graduate Seminar in Visual Studies (4). May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
296 Directed Reading (4). Directed reading on a specific topic agreed upon by student and instructor. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit as topics vary.
298 Reading for the Comprehensive Examination (4 to 12). Directed reading in preparation for the qualifying examination. Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory only. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit.
299 Dissertation Research (4 to 12). Research and writing of the dissertation. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit.
398 Teaching of Visual Studies (2). Readings, lectures, and practical training designed to prepare graduate students to teach in the field of Visual Studies. Corequisite: Art History 399 or Film Studies 399.
