The School of Visual Culture is an interdisciplinary centre for teaching and research in humanities and social science disciplines with particular focus and expertise across the history, theory and criticism of art, design and visual culture.
The School creates a community that fosters lively exchange, scholarly discussion and critical debate. The mix of disciplines in the School enables ambitious enquiries into all aspects of art and design, representation, cultural production, cultural consumption, material culture, visual and spatial culture and cultural politics. Themes are explored through a variety of methodologies and with reference to many art and design practices and mass cultural forms. A programme of visiting lecturers further contributes to the dynamic culture of debate among researchers.
Recent and current doctoral research projects at the School include:
Urban renewal, representation and spatial culture
Public monuments, spatial culture and the construction of urban identity
Public Art as Cipher of Forgetting: Memory and Meaning in Public Art
The sculptor Seamus Murphy, his work and context
Transmedial Signification and Vast Narratives
Transcultural curating and documentary strategies
Costume for Ballet
Institutional History of Conceptual Art
Art Collecting and Contemporary Society
Remix and Tactical Media
Ethics and Aesthetics
Performance Art in Ireland
Materialising Modernity
Aesthetics and Politics
Art and Ecology.
PhD study normally requires a minimum of three years full-time study (but may require longer, given the high level of achievement required). The PhD thesis is typically 80,000 to 100,000 words in length.
The PhD programme at NCAD is a structured programme involving significant interdisciplinary and discipline specific input in the early stages of the research project, and active engagement with a community of researchers within and beyond NCAD.
The NCADs training, supervision and support processes for PhD candidates include:
Regular, dynamic student-led interdisciplinary PhD research seminars
Access to international PhD networks and exchange programmes
Supervised access to internal and external experts in the relevant field
Annual national PhD conferences in art and design
Public symposia and conferences in PhD research areas
Cross-institutional collaboration involving multidisciplinary research teams
Training in appropriate research methods.
Applicants for a PhD through Visual Culture are encouraged to identify members of college staff they would wish to work with as supervisor(s) to offer guidance in developing their research proposal.