Structured PhD in Philosophy of Art and Culture

What is it about?                                            

This is an interdisciplinary, cross institutional PhD programme between NUI, Galway and Mary Immaculate College in the University of Limerick.

        This full time programme will provide students with a PhD following four years of thesis-orientated research and taught modules. Students will be registered at one of the host institutions but will attend classes provided by both.

        Over the four years, the programme will provide students with access to the expertise of a range of scholars within each institution, as they develop their research ideas and enhance their research skills.

        The programme draws on two main contemporary approaches to philosophical aesthetics and culture – the Anglo-American analytic tradition, and that of Continental Philosophy.        

         These two approaches rarely intersect. In consequence, their respective strengths are exercised in isolation, and often in contexts that fail to engage directly with theory and practice in the arts, and the broader cultural issues in which they are embedded.        

         This new research programme overcomes these divisions at all levels. Indeed, by blending expertise from the two institutions, the programme explores the philosophy of art and culture in an intellectually enriched setting. The programme is also able to give equal emphasis to visual art and literature, and to offer special strength in phenomenological and hermeneutical approaches.        

         There is an additional vital element. It is based on direct interaction with contemporary artistic/cultural practices through the Arts Community Internship core module at NUI, Galway. This module involves students working for a semester with some institution concerned with the practice, discussion, display, or conservation of art and culture (or, indeed, all these things).

What modules will I take?

The programme has the great advantage of allowing students to combine subject-specific philosophy courses, related academic studies, and generic skills modules, from those on offer at BOTH institutions.

Students will take a number of core and optional modules from the following:

Phenomenology of Art and Culture (NUI, Galway)

Arts Community Internship (NUI, Galway)

History and Philosophy of Pictorial Space (NUI, Galway)

Knowledge and Modernity (NUI, Galway)

Philosophy and the Subject (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick)

Literary Aesthetics (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick)

Introduction to Hermeneutics (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick)

Arts and Cultures of Display: Museums, Galleries, Curating (Mary Immaculate College, Limerick)

Assessment

Performance will be evaluated on the basis of a successful pass on all taught modules and a substantial research thesis. The examination of the thesis will include an oral examination by the External and Internal Examiners at the end of the programme.

How do I apply?

All applications must be made online, via the Postgraduate Applications Centre, http://www.pac.ie/, by mid-July 2011.

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