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

Only applicants holding a Bachelor´s diploma in arts history or related fields can be admitted to this Master's study programme after passing the entrance examination

Detailed info can be found here.

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.