MA Visual Culture looks across time and place to offer you the opportunity to develop your knowledge of visual culture and arts, and to understand how and why we interact with objects and images.
Looking across time and place, this interdisciplinary MA in Visual Culture offers you the opportunity to develop your knowledge of visual culture and arts and your understanding of how we perceive and interact with objects and images around us.
By studying examples such as fine art, film, photography, architecture as well as scientific imaging practices, you will be able to explore the uniqueness of objects, images and events, understand how to appreciate them and consider how other people may respond to them in the context of the working practices found in cultural institutions including museums, galleries and heritage organisations.
The course is delivered over one year full-time and two years part-time through a mixture of lectures, interactive seminars, skills development workshops and field trips. It consists of core and optional modules and a dissertation which will cover both theory and practice in visual culture.
Your learning will benefit hugely from the University’s strengths in the subject, including the Centre for Visual Arts and Cultures, which hosts a wide range of events and brings together researchers across departments and faculties. You will also have access to University institutions such as the Oriental Museum and Palace Green Library.
This course has been created to prepare you to be able to continue your studies in visual culture at a higher level with a view to pursuing a research career in academia but it will also provide you with a qualification which will act as a springboard to a career in the vibrant and fascinating cultural sector.
Course structure
All the MA programmes offered by the Faculty of Arts & Humanities consist of three components:
a Major Research Project to the value of at least 60 credits
Core Modules to the value of 0-90 credits, depending on the programme
Elective Modules, making up the total number of credits to 180; some of these modules will be defined as Recommended Electives for particular programmes.
For students studying the MA in Visual Culture, the Dissertation (your Major Research Project, 60 credits)) is an opportunity to explore and research, in depth, an aspect of visual art and culture of your choice. It enables you to demonstrate your familiarity with relevant theoretical frameworks and your capacity for independent thought, critical thinking and analysis.
You will also be required to take the following 60-credit core module:
Visual Culture: Theory and Practice will provide you with an overview of visual culture and arts, and key research skills, including an introduction to working practices in museums and galleries and will offer you the opportunity to develop your own specialised research interests within the broad field of visual culture and arts. You will be expected to produce a piece of scholarly writing that demonstrates your familiarity with relevant theoretical frameworks and the ability to apply them in research.
Finally, you will choose 60 credits of elective modules from across the Faculty of Arts & Humanities so that your total number of credits adds up to exactly 180.
Learning will be delivered through lectures, seminars and workshops and there will also be an opportunity to take part in field trips and further develop your skills through work placements.
You will be given every opportunity to develop your own area of interest in visual culture in the seminars that are highly interactive and through the workshops which aim to develop your skills and knowledge.
You will be expected to learn about the presentation of visual culture during field trips, to visit museums and galleries where you will learn about displays and meet curators.
There is also a requirement for you to undertake guided reading in advance of seminars and a dissertation will be completed under supervision in an area of interest to you.
Assessment
Assessment is rigorous and may include a book review exercise, an exhibition to analyse for your fieldwork report and an object, which will be the subject of a critical commentary that you will write. You will also complete a dissertation of between 12,000-15,000 words.
In your assessments, you will apply the contents of the seminars in order to explore an aspect or aspects of visual culture that particularly appeal to you.
Entry requirements
Students will normally be required to have an Honours Degree, usually at 2:1 level or higher or overseas equivalent from a recognised national or international university in an arts, humanities or social science subject.
The course assumes no prior knowledge of visual arts and culture, but previous interest or experience of visual culture would be an advantage.
The tuition fees for 2025/26 academic year have not yet been finalised, they will be displayed here once approved.
The tuition fees shown are for one complete academic year of study, are set according to the academic year of entry, and remain the same throughout the duration of the programme for that cohort (unless otherwise stated).
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/study/individual-course-and-cta-images/Postgraduate-Prospectus.png)
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/study/individual-course-and-cta-images/Postgraduate-Scholarships.png)
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/study/individual-course-and-cta-images/Postgraduate-Meet-Students.png)
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/study/individual-course-and-cta-images/Book-an-Open-Day.png)
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/study/individual-course-and-cta-images/R002.jpg)
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/study/individual-course-and-cta-images/R9K107.jpg)