Visual Cultures and Art History

The goal of this tuition fee-paid program is to create a place of excellent training into the field of visual cultures and art history. The main ambitions of the program are: 1) to train students to a complex understanding of visual cultures from the Middle Ages to the present day, with a deep focus on the role of visual media in constructing and shaping the analysed societies; 2) to promote skills in collective work, scholarly research, intellectual independency, and cultural mediation in both academic and non-academic institutions (i.e., museums, galleries, research institutes, editing houses); 3) to put forward a transdisciplinary approach to visual, material, and ritual cultures, at the core of research in Bildwissenschaft and art history; 4) lastly, to create an international network of institutions collaborating around this master, conceived in an avant-garde way both on theoretical and practical bases.

“Visual studies as applied humanities”

Practical training

Special focus on practical know-how, both academic and non-academic, will be an integrative part of the master’s programme. As part of their curriculum, students will be doing a – a semester long – mandatory traineeship in a cultural or scholarly institution. These can be ranging from outstanding museal poles (with all possible jobs related), international research institutes, cultural foundations, or editing houses. As such, the practical training will be related deeply to the type of institution chosen for the internship, proposing a broad range of possibilities. Furthermore, during the collective work on a research project, part of the curriculum, students will be introduced to the practical aspects of scholarly work, going through all the steps of the intellectual elaboration throughout the publication of an original scientific project.

Further information

https://www.phil.muni.cz/en/studies/study-programmes-in-english

• Cultural management and monument care
• Art consulting
• Tourism
• Journalism (press and publishing, radio, television, online services)
• Pedagogy (high schools, teaching to adults, university) and mediation of art
• Cultural Mediation

Eligibility Criteria

This degree program is open to:

1. Students of the Department of Art History at MU who have had excellent results in the defense of their Bachelor’s thesis (evaluation A–B) are admitted to the follow-up master’s program without admission interview.
2. If a student from another programme or another university applies, he/she should present a written motivational letter, explaining the reasons for his/her interest to study in the Department of Art History. Furthermore, he/she must have successfully defended a B.A. in art history or in other related disciplines, with an excellent evaluation of his/her thesis (A–B), and with a focus on the Mediterranean, Caucasian, Euro-American art and visual cultures. He/she will then undergo an oral examination by a committee of the Department of Art History professors.

Terms of Admission

Entrance exam

The evaluation of the applications will be done in two steps:

1. Evaluation of the submitted documents (Motivation letter, B.A. thesis in format PDF, a written evaluation of the thesis by the supervisor, copy of the B.A. or equivalent degree).
2. Interview.

During the interview, the candidate will present her/himself as well as her/his intellectual path. The general assessment of the commission is based on the overall evaluation of the following criteria:

• the candidate will explain the reasons for her/his decision to join the Department of Art History at MU, she/he should show her/his familiarity with the research and intellectual objectives of the Department and its units;
• the interview will be held in English, but at least passive knowledge of the other main languages of scholarly research in the visual arts, i.e., German, Italian, French, and possibly Spanish and Russian are additional positive points;
• the evaluation of the student’s written bachelor’s thesis at her/his home institution also has informative value for admission;
• part of the admissions procedure is the determination of the specialization the student chooses and a project assessment of the future MA thesis. For this last point, the admission procedure features a brief defense of the intended further and a presentation of the potential thesis project.

Application Deadlines

1 January - 30 April for the enrollment in the Fall semester
1 July - 31 October for the enrollment in the Spring semester

Documents set out above in the Terms of Admission are required to be provided in digital form and attached to the online application by April 30th or October 31st.

Contact

admission@phil.muni.cz

Students trained within the master’s programme will present a highly competitive profile for applying to a Ph.D. programme at a Czech university, abroad, or in co-tutoring between a Czech and foreign university. The training in intellectual independency, know-how of visual cultures, but also their practical knowledge and the multidisciplinary approach promoted by the programme will allow the conception of an enticing Ph.D. project, already suited for international competitive contexts. The preparation, as part of the programme, of a publishable scholarly article as well as the first connexions established with a professional international network will enhance the possibilities of future Ph.D. candidates. Students trained in this master’s programme are also ideal candidates for further studies in the adjacent fields of the milieus related to visual studies, media, art history, and mediation of culture.