MELA45460: Dissertation in Visual Arts and Culture

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• MELA45360

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• To allow students to explore in considerable detail an aspect of visual art and culture.
• To enable students to conduct extensive individual research.
• To produce a piece of well-presented scholarly writing that demonstrates familiarity with relevant theoretical frameworks and the ability to apply them to the study of an appropriate object of study.

• The precise content of the dissertation will depend on the students' particular preferences, and will be agreed in conjunction with the supervisor.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Critical understanding of key theories of visual art and culture
• Knowledge of visual objects of different types, from a range of historical periods and geographical locations
• Knowledge of image-making practices

Subject-specific Skills:

• Ability to engage critically with theories of visual art and culture
• Ability to describe and analyse a wide range of visual objects, attending to their formal specificity and particular socio-historical provenance
• Ability to draw upon theories of visual art and culture to analyse visual objects, while also deriving theoretical insights from close analysis of visual objects
• Competence in critical visual literacy
• Competence in handling visual material of different kinds

Key Skills:

• Ability to engage in close reading of a wide range of challenging texts
• Developing independent research skills
• Ability to synthesize complex material from a wide range of sources in order to communicate effectively in a range of forms
• Competence in information technology skills at an appropriate level to support MA learning and research
• Demonstrate professional conduct

• The project will be discussed with the relevant supervisor before the dissertation commences, to ensure that the project is of sufficient scope and is realistic within the time-frame of a master's programme.
• A Dissertation proposal of 1500 together with an annotated bibliography, due in Term 2, will constitute 10% of the overall mark for the Dissertation module.
• Regular supervision by a scholar actively engaged in research in relevant studies will ensure that the plan of study is adhered to, whilst allowing scope for independent research. Students will be required to submit draft chapters as the dissertation progresses, and oral feedback will be given on these. Each supervision will conclude with agreed action points, to be carried out by the student in advance of the next supervision
• Key research skills such as the bibliographical skills necessary for the research and presentation of academic research papers will be covered in the core module Visual Arts and Culture: Theory and Practice.
• Dissertations will be submitted at the end of the Programme and will constitute 90% of the overall mark for the Dissertation module.

Regular discussion of work in progress, on the basis of either oral reports, or of short written assignments agreed between the supervisor and the student.

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