MRes Visual Cultures

The MRes Visual Cultures is ideal if you have already completed an advanced course of study in art history and theory but would like to further develop your thought and research projects before studying at MPhil/PhD level.

• This programme is for students who have a special interest in contemporary visual culture. It offers a challenging, flexible, and advanced scheme of study that explores a range of theoretical perspectives that shape attitudes towards visual culture understood globally in the late 20th and early 21st century.
• The MRes qualifies you to carry out higher research, but is also a degree in its own right and can be tailored to suit your requirements.
• Invigorated by current research, the programme encourages students to engage in an exploratory interrogation of the relationships between critical theory and visual practice understood broadly.

Contact the department

If you have specific questions about the degree, contact Dr Anthony Faramelli.

You should normally have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in a relevant subject.

You might also be considered for some programmes if you aren’t a graduate or your degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level.

International qualifications

We accept a wide range of international qualifications. Find out more about the qualifications we accept from around the world.

If English isn’t your first language, you will need an IELTS score (or equivalent English language qualification) of 6.5 with a 6.5 in writing and no element lower than 6.0 to study this programme. If you need assistance with your English language, we offer a range of courses that can help prepare you for postgraduate study.

MRes students graduating from the Visual Cultures Department go on each year to undertake research degrees in art history, visual culture, cultural studies, performance studies, philosophy and related subjects both in the UK and abroad.

Others find employment – again both here and abroad – in the spheres of arts administration, curating, teaching, arts journalism, community arts projects and other museums and galleries work.

Some students opt to do a PGCE and go on to teach art/art history in schools and further education colleges.

In this way, the department’s MRes provision provides for pathways into many institutions of contemporary art and culture at various different levels.