Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies
Department of Art History and Department of Film and Media Studies
University of California, Irvine
Academic Year 2008-2009

INTRODUCTION

These guidelines are meant to explain, in some detail, the requirements for the Ph.D. in Visual Studies, offered by the Department of Art History and the Department of Film and Media Studies at UC Irvine. These guidelines supplement, but do not supplant, the UC Irvine General Catalogue and the Graduate Advisor's Handbook distributed by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, available at http://www.rgs.uci.edu/grad/staff/grad_hdbk.htm. Generally, in the case of any discrepancy between these guidelines and the Catalogue or the Handbook, the Catalogue and the Handbook take precedence. Students should also take note of the Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilities (PDF).

GOVERNANCE

The Graduate Program in Visual Studies is administered by the Visual Studies faculty, which consists of all regular members of the faculties of Art History and Film and Media Studies at UCI. Adjunct faculty and those holding other courtesy titles are welcome to attend Visual Studies faculty meetings but may not vote.

Since the faculty as a whole cannot and need not trouble itself with the daily running of the graduate program, for that task the Visual Studies faculty will nominate from among its own ranks, to be ratified by the Chair of Art History and the Chair of Film and Media Studies, a Visual Studies Graduate Committee (VSGC), which will consist of 4-5 members, with normally at least two representatives from each unit. One member of the VSGC will be designated the Director of Visual Studies for the program. In addition, a student representative to the committee will be selected by the Visual Studies Graduate Students (see below), although this representative will not be allowed to participate in committee discussions that involve the evaluation or funding of specific students.

The Director of Visual Studies and VSGC are the administrative arms of the Visual Studies faculty as a whole, with whom all policy decisions reside. Accordingly, the Visual Studies faculty as a whole will ratify all recommendations coming to it concerning such important matters as the graduate curriculum of the program, the selection of applicants to the program, and the allocation of fellowship funds and Teaching Assistantships to the program's graduate students. In practice, the Director of Visual Studies and/or the VSGC will frequently attempt to resolve minor issues without consulting the faculty as a whole. Since the Visual Studies Program has no independent budget or resources of it own (except certain funds for graduate student support), from time to time the Director of Visual Studies and/or the VSGC will petition the Chair of Art History and/or the Chair of Film and Media Studies, either for funds or resources controlled by the academic units, or with the request that an appeal to the Dean of Humanities be made on behalf of the Program in Visual Studies.

COURSEWORK

Please see the separate section on courses in Visual Studies, and the list of current seminars.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT

All students are required to demonstrate a reading knowledge of at least one foreign language and are strongly encouraged to develop competence in a second. Students will consult with the Director of Visual Studies and their principal advisor(s) to determine the appropriate language to be tested, based on their interests and program of study. Principal advisors, moreover, may require the demonstration of reading knowledge in additional languages according to the scholarly demands of their specific field. Language requirement must be met by the end of the second year. Students can demonstrate a reading knowledge of a foreign language in one of four ways:

• By passing the ETS-GSFLT Examination (Educational Testing Service, Graduate Student Foreign Language Test) with a score of 550 or higher. This test is offered periodically at various colleges and universities in southern California; currently, the ETS offers examinations only in French, German, Russian, and Spanish.
• By enrolling in and completing, with a grade of "B" or better, one of the following courses at UC Irvine: French 2C, German 2C, Italian 2C, Russian 2C, or Spanish 2C; Chinese 3C, Japanese 3C.
• By passing the program's foreign language examination. This test, administered by one faculty member for each language (appointed by the Director of Visual Studies in consultation with the faculties), consists of the translation of two passages, each approximately 250 words in length. In the case of European languages, one passage will be translated with the aid of a translation dictionary, and one without; in the case of Asian languages, a dictionary may be used for both passages. Students will be given one hour to work on each passage. The tests will be offered no more than once a quarter, in response to student demand. It is the responsibility of the student to inform the Director of Visual Studies within the first two weeks of a given quarter of his/her intent to take the examination for a particular language during that quarter.
• By petitioning the Director of Visual Studies. Grounds for such a petition might include such situations as the student being a native speaker of the language concerned, or the student having satisfied the language requirements of an M.A. program at a different institution prior to admission to UC Irvine. The recognition of language knowledge through such petitions remains at the discretion of the Graduate Advisor, although students dissatisfied with the determination of the Director of Visual Studies may request the petition be considered by the full faculty.

Students will not be allowed to take the Qualifying Examinations, and in no case will they be advanced to candidacy, until they have satisfied all language requirements.

AWARDING of the M.A. DEGREE

All graduate students, whether arriving with a B.A. or an M.A., have been admitted as doctoral students; the faculty expects that all students entering the program plan to complete the Ph.D. at UC Irvine. Nevertheless, for the sake of avoiding anomalous curriculum vitae for continuing students and to provide a fitting terminal degree for those students for whom it has been determined (either by the faculty or by the student him/herself) that further studies are unwise, the program has devised a method of granting an M.A. to those students admitted initially with a B.A. only.

By the end of the fall quarter of their second year (if possible, by the end of their first year), all students, in consultation with their advisor(s), should select one of their completed research papers that they would like to refine and expand into an essay of near-publication quality, approximately 30 pages in length. They will then sign up for 4 units of VS 296, Directed Reading during the winter quarter (or, in some cases, the fall quarter) of their second year for the purpose of revising the essay under the supervision of a faculty member (normally, the student's principal advisor). The Director of Visual Studies will ask each student to name the advising faculty member; the Director of Visual Studies will then assign two additional readers to each student, taking into account both requests from the students and need to balance workload across the Visual Studies faculty.

Final essays will be due to the VS staff person by Friday of the first full week of spring quarter. Papers will then be distributed to advisors and additional readers. Each advisor and reader will write up an evaluation of the essay, which will be placed in the student's file, and which must be made available to the student within three weeks of the essay's submission to the program. The language requirement must be fulfilled in order to be granted an M.A. degree.

The faculty, at a following meeting, will discuss each essay and its evaluations, as well as assess the overall academic performance of each student petitioning for an M.A. degree. Normally, the faculty will agree at this time to grant the student the M.A. and authorize the student to proceed on to the Ph.D. In exceptional circumstances, the faculty will recommend that the student be given the M.A. but be precluded from continuing in the program, or that the student not be awarded the M.A. If any member of the faculty is preparing to recommend one of these final two possibilities, s/he need inform the Director of Visual Studies and the principal advisor(s) at least one week before the full faculty meeting.

Students petitioning the faculty to obtain the M.A. need to prepare an "Advancement to Candidacy/Final Report for the Masters Degree" Form, which they can obtain at the Office of Graduate Studies web site at www.rgs.uci.edu/grad. Complete the form (which can be done before you complete your M.A. paper) by listing all your classes, and check the "non-thesis" option. The form should then be submitted to the VS staff person several days before the deadline listed in the Schedule of Classes. Think ahead on this: the deadline for a spring degree is usually during the final week of instruction of winter quarter. This form will go through byzantine bureaucratic channels, and will not be finally signed-off until the faculty has discussed the progress of students (and the quality of their Master's papers) sometime during spring quarter. If, for some reason, the form cannot be forwarded, faculty or staff will inform the student of the difficulty. Otherwise, all students can assume that their degree forms will be processed according to schedule.

QUALIFYING EXAMINATIONS

An advisor will be assigned to each graduate student at the time of first enrollment; the default advisor will be the Director of Visual Studies. All graduate students will meet at least once with their advisor each quarter in which the student is enrolled. By the end of the second year for students entering with a B.A., or the end of the first year for those entering with an M.A. - in most cases, the final quarter of standard course work - the student will begin to work informally with the principal advisor to establish a five-person committee consisting of the principal advisor, who will supervise one examination field; two additional faculty members supervising examination fields, at least one of whom must be a member of the Visual Studies faculty; a fourth member from the Visual Studies faculty who will not supervise an examination field but will participate in the oral examination, and a designated 'outside' member who must be a member of the UCI faculty but cannot hold either a primary or joint appointment in Visual Studies, Art History, or Film and Media Studies. Except in extraordinary circumstances (to be adjudicated by the program's Graduate Committee), students are required to include at least one member from Art History and one from Film and Media Studies among the three faculty members supervising examination fields.

The student and principal advisor define three fields to be examined by the faculty. The fields should combine historical breadth and some variety in media. Over the course of the following two quarters, student normally enroll in eight to twelve units per quarter of Reading for the Qualifying Examination (Visual Studies 298) during which time they prepare reading lists in close consultation with their principal advisor and field supervisors, and complete the reading of those lists. The examination takes place near the end of those two quarters of study, normatively at the end of the academic year.

Before enrolling in VS 298, students must complete a degree check with the VS program staff person. After completing all of the readings for the qualifying examinations, each student assumes responsibility to schedule the written and oral examinations (finding available time in the schedules of the faculty examiners involved), and to work with the VS staff person to set up an appropriate location for taking the written examinations. Except in ordinary circumstances, the oral portion of the examination must take place during the regularly scheduled academic year; faculty members may refuse to participate in examinations over the summer or during any other inter-term break.

The first part of the examination consists of a written component, in which the student is called upon to respond to questions posed in the three examination fields. The written portion consists of nine hours of writing in a controlled environment, without access to books or notes. At the option of the student, the nine hours of examination may be split over three days, the work of each day being submitted at the end of the writing session; the student, in consultation with his/her advisor(s), can determine the order in which the questions will be administered. The questions to be answered in each area will be given to the student at the beginning of the appropriate testing session, and will be collected, on paper or on disc, precisely at the scheduled end of the session, with no extra time allocated for breaks, spell-checking, and so forth. The student's written response will be circulated to all five members of the committee, after which the original copies will be returned to the student.

A two-hour oral examination will follow normally within two weeks. It consists of questions prompted both by the student's reading lists and by the written examinations. The concluding portion (approx. 15 minutes) of the two hour exam will involve a preliminary discussion between the student and the faculty committee about the student's dissertation ideas. Based on the student's written oral performance, the committee will determine whether the student has successfully passed the examination: if so (and provided all language requirements have been satisfied), the student is then advanced to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree. The student and the committee will then need to determine the membership of the three-person Doctoral Committee. The three-person Doctoral Committee must have a 51% majority membership from Visual Studies faculty. The final vote and recommendation of the committee must be unanimous, and will be reported to the Office of Graduate Studies on Ph.D. Form I, to be prepared and brought to the oral portion of the Qualifying Examination by the candidate; copies of this form can be downloaded at www.rgs.uci.edu/grad. After examination the student assumes responsibility for returning Form I to the Office of Graduate Studies, and for paying the nominal Advancement to Candidacy Fee at the campus Cashier's Office. The normal time for advancement to candidacy is three years. If the committee is not satisfied with the student's performance, it may also decide to reexamine the student on one or more fields after a specific interval. Except in extraordinary circumstances, no student will be given more than two chances to pass any given section of the examination.

The DISSERTATION PROSPECTUS

In a timely fashion after passing the Qualifying Examination normally, within six months-the student must submit to members of the Doctoral Committee a prospectus that defines the scope, approach, and rationale of his/her proposed dissertation. The student and members of the committee should then convene as a group to discuss the prospectus. The student must obtain approval of all three members of the committee before proceeding with the dissertation.

A student entering the program without an M.A. must submit his/her prospectus no later than four years after entering the program; a student entering with an M.A. must submit his/her prospectus no later than three years after matriculating.

COMPLETING and FILING the DISSERTATION

During the years of researching and drafting the dissertation, the Ph.D. candidate should keep in regular contact with his/her principal advisor(s). As a Ph.D. candidate nears the completion of the thesis, s/he will reach an understanding with his/her principal advisor(s) about how and when to present the manuscript to the secondary reader(s) on the Doctoral Committee. When all three members of the Doctoral Committee are satisfied with the quality of the thesis, they will each sign the signature page of the completed dissertation. After the dissertation has been approved by the Doctoral Committee, the Ph.D. student must submit a final copy of the dissertation to the Manuscript Advisor in the University Archives, Room 525 in the Main Library. The final copy must meet the university's requirements for style, format, and appearance before the degree can be conferred; the Manuscript Advisor can advise the Ph.D. candidate on these matters.

The Ph.D. candidate needs to be aware of the deadlines imposed by the university each quarter for the conferral of degrees, and s/he is responsible for budgeting his/her preparation time accordingly. The Ph.D. candidate must allow each of his/her three readers at least six weeks from the time the reader receives the manuscript until the reader's signature is needed; the faculty will not assume responsibility for missed deadlines and additional enrollment fees if this six week reading period is not provided by the Ph.D. candidate. The Ph.D. candidate should also allow him/herself sufficient time to comply with the university's manuscript requirements.

Upon approval of the dissertation, the Doctoral Committee recommends, by submission of Ph.D. Form II, the conferral of the Ph.D., subject to final submission of the approved dissertation for deposit in the University Archives.

FINANCIAL AID: FELLOWSHIPS and TEACHING ASSISTANTSHIPS

All decisions concerning all forms of financial assistance from the graduate program are the sole responsibility of the faculty members of the Program in Visual Studies. The faculty allocates available financial assistance to members of the entering class based on merit as exemplified by each student's application dossier, with full recognition that the dossiers can only provide a partial profile of the applicants' intellectual strengths and scholarly interests. No student-funded or unfunded-will be admitted unless the faculty has full confidence that s/he will thrive at UCI, and no one-faculty, staff, funded students, or unfunded students-should interpret the level of any student's funding as an indication of his/her long-term academic prospects.

In principle, the program will attempt to continue financial support to all funded students who are making satisfactory academic progress, and will seek additional sources of funding for those students who matriculate with no or only limited financial aid. Our resources are quite constrained, however, and no student should enter the program on the assumption that his/her financial aid package will improve significantly in future years.

Some students, mostly those in their first year, will receive all or some of their funding in the form of fellowships. Where applicable, these funds will be applied first to non-resident tuition and then to student fees; this arrangement gives the student a tax break, since funds applied directly to tuition and fees are not subject to taxation. Any remaining funds will be paid out at the beginning of each quarter, and these payments are subject to taxation.

Students receiving financial assistance in the form of Teaching Assistantships will usually be given a .50 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) TAship, although in some cases the program may choose to assign a TAship at some smaller increment. Each TA will be assigned to a specific undergraduate lecture class, and will be paid and supervised accordingly either by the Department of Art History or the Department of Film and Media Studies. The .50 FTE TAship entails approximately 20 hours of work each week during the school year; the TA normally attends the lectures of the department's or program's undergraduate lecture course to which s/he is assigned, leads required section meetings, holds office hours, and grades the papers and examinations of the students in his/her sections. TAships assigned at a smaller increment will perform proportionally less work. All TAs, regardless of their level of FTE, should enroll for 4 units of University Teaching (AH399 or FS399) each quarter in which they teach. TA stipends are paid monthly, and-as a form of salary-are subject to taxation. All TAships at .25 FTE and above receive a significant reduction in student fees.

Faculty members submit a brief written evaluation of each graduate student they have supervised as a TA to the student and Director of Visual Studies at the conclusion of each quarter. These evaluations will be part of the student's ongoing file.

Students can expect program support to drop off after the completion of the qualifying examinations. Students at this stage become eligible for a variety of fellowships granted by outside agencies, and for TAships offered by the Humanities Core Course. The program will do its utmost to assist students in locating and applying for these awards, but students should also take the initiative to locate opportunities on their own. The Visual Studies Graduate Student Association may maintain a fellowship file available to all students.

STUDENT RECORDS and TEACHING EVALUATIONS

Academic and financial records for all students enrolled in the program will be maintained in the offices of the Department of Art History. These records are highly restricted, and can be viewed only by members of the program faculty, and by students interested in reviewing their own dossiers. All contents of a student's dossier are available for such reviews.

Each spring, at a meeting devoted to the purpose, the program faculty will review-orally and informally-the progress of all enrolled students. There will be no formal report to the students on the results of this discussion, and (unless they hear otherwise) all students should assume that their progress has been deemed satisfactory by the faculty. In those cases where a student is determined not to be performing satisfactorily, the faculty will assign one of its members to write a formal report, which will be shared with the student and entered into his/her file.

FACILITIES and PROGRAM RESOURCES

Both departments have office and mailbox space available to TAs. The Art History TA Office is located in HIB 79 and the Film and Media Studies TA Office is located in HIB 209. The Art History TA Office will contain the mailboxes of the graduate students (with the exception of Film and Media TAs who will have their mailboxes placed in the Film and Media Studies workroom). All students in residence will be issued a key to a designated office. Normally, TAs holding Office Hours will be granted first priority in use of these rooms.

The Art History and/or Film and Media Studies department office is accessible to graduate students whenever the office is open and staffed; the photocopy room and the faculty workrooms, however, are reserved for faculty and staff use only. Students wishing to place documents in the faculty mailboxes (which are located in the faculty workrooms of both departments) may leave them with the staff in the main rooms of the Art History office and the Film and Media Studies office. TAs needing to have photocopies made for the teaching of their Art History or Film and Media Studies sections may request this service from the VS staff person; in virtually all cases, the VS staff person will be able to comply with such requests within two hours.

The Art History Conference Room and/or the Film and Media Studies Seminar room may also be used for academic functions by graduate students who reserve a time slot through the VS staff person for Art History and the FMS staff person for Film and Media Studies. If a study room is needed, students may book the Art History Conference Room with the VS staff person.

If a student reserves the Conference Room at a time when the Art History and/or Film and Media Department Office is closed, s/he will temporarily be issued a key to the room, which will need to be returned to the staff as soon as possible after use.

The program will provide to the Visual Studies Graduate Students (see below) PC and Mac versions of electronic letterhead, which VSGS will make available to all graduate students having need to correspond in the name of the graduate program, or that of VSGS. If a student desires to use official university letterhead for some purpose (e.g. job applications), s/he should voice that request to his/her principal advisor(s).

VISUAL STUDIES GRADUATE STUDENTS

The graduate students have organized themselves into the Visual Studies Graduate Student Association (VSGSA). The purpose and activities of this group are largely for the graduate students themselves to decide, although the faculty assigns to the organization one specific task: selecting two non-voting representatives, one of whom will attend the Visual Studies faculty meetings, and the other of whom will participate in the deliberations of the Visual Studies Graduate Committee. These representatives serve several purposes: they bring the concerns of the graduate student body to the attention of the faculty; they voice the interests of the graduate students in discussions concerning the running of the program; and they communicate back to the graduate students decisions reached at the meetings that might affect the graduate students. The representatives do not vote on departmental or program matters, and will not be allowed to participate in discussions on certain confidential matters, such as faculty promotions or the awarding of financial aid to graduate students and the assessment of their progress.

STUDENT GRIEVANCES

If a student feels some procedure in the program has not been properly followed, or has some other grievance concerning his/her treatment within the program, s/he has several avenues to pursue redress. All students should feel free to approach with their concerns (in roughly this order): the staffs of Art History and Film and Media Studies, the instructor of a particular course, their principal advisor(s), the Director of Visual Studies, the Chair of the Art History Department or the Chair of Film and Media Studies, and the Office of Graduate Studies. Students also have recourse to the Office of the University Ombudsman, which serves as the place of both first approach (helping students think through the problem and devising a plan for addressing it) and final appeal (intervening when nothing else has succeeded). With whom a grievance should be raised depends, of course, on the nature of the complaint, although it generally makes sense to attempt to resolve any difficulties at the lowest possible level of the academic hierarchy.