Goldsmiths - University of London

The Department of Visual Cultures provides a culturally diverse and intellectually challenging environment for exploring and producing new forms of contemporary art-theoretical practice.

We specialise in the histories and theories of modern and contemporary visual practices. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we look at art in an international context and consider the ways in which it engages with urgent social, cultural and political issues in the world today. We explore visual culture within a framework of critical theory, philosophy and cultural studies. Included are issues of cultural difference, performativity, visual display, aurality, encounters with audiences and the production of subjectivities.

Our approach to learning, teaching and research is exploratory and innovative, yet rigorous. All students are encouraged to develop independence of thought by discovering, evaluating and making appropriate use of a wide range of historical, theoretical, creative and often also collaborative approaches to research and writing.

It is both what we teach and research, and how we do so, that give our programmes their distinctive character in academia.

Our department has approximately 260 undergraduates, over 90 taught postgraduate students and over 60 MPhil/PhD candidates.