Applications now closed for 2016-2017
Admission to the FCT-International Doctoral Program in Culture Studies 2016, see here intdcs-results
Download the Application handbooks: PhD_Application Guidelines_2016-2017
The International Doctoral Program in Culture Studies is a 4-year and dual-degree programme in Culture Studies awarded by the Catholic University of Portugal, the University of Giessen and the University of Copenhagen. It builds from different disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, thereby assuming the interdisciplinarity of contemporary modes of knowledge production focused on problem-oriented and practice-based research.
Background – What is Culture Studies?
Culture Studies have come of age over the last two decades. Within the framework of the crisis in the humanities and the growing call for renewed arts-based forms of knowledge production, the study of culture has changed from being a frame for humanities’ disciplines into gaining prominence in its own right. Two developments triggered this change. On the one hand, the rise of cultural studies in the 1960’s drew attention to the social-political dimension of culture, to its ordinariness and the many ways in which power was blended into creation. On the other, over the course of the 1980’s a new metadiscipline Kulturwissenschaft (science of culture) drew on the interpretative skills of the humanities and the growing attention to forms of mediation in media studies to look at the multiple ways in which culture matters as driver of artistic creation and also address how societies represent themselves and view others, look at the past and prepare the future. Bringing together the sociological methodology that is proper to British cultural studies with the interpretative qualitative approach of Kulturwissenschaft, Culture Studies is by definition transdisciplinary. It has risen to become a problem-oriented metadiscipline, representing a new paradigm of integrated reflection on the artistic forms of expression of individuals and societies, across the visual arts, literature, cinema and the media.
Collaborative model
The program is born out of the commitment to develop a doctoral program that promotes both high level research training at the forefront of scientific interest and responds to the cultural sector’s growing call for highly qualified professionals. It is inspired by the ‘collaborative turn’ on two levels: firstly as a model of advanced research training that draws from artistic practice and cultural management to reflect on theory and in turn embeds practice in theoretically informed premises; secondly as a form of doctoral training that is transnational by definition, because the study of culture inevitably deals with diversity.
The programme works on a feed-back loop model, allowing the research methods and theories it devises to be tested in institutional practice by means of internships, curating and other applied projects (i.e. audience research, implementation of new strategies in museum services) while bringing artists, curators and cultural managers to reflect on their practice within scholarly work. These new training formats are specifically directed at tapping into the innovative potential of creative practices and combining these with research agendas that are challenge-based and object-based rather than discipline-based in a traditional sense.
The program intends to inspire students to customize their curriculum and is committed to support work placement. It will provide doctoral students with methodological tools for cultural analysis, challenging them to revise phenomena that are either “invisible” or undervalued by contemporary societies while encouraging a look into the humanist tradition to deepen the understanding about the discourses and creations that have moulded cultural history. Consequently, it aims to promote original and internationally relevant research and to integrate doctoral students into multinational research teams. In addition, it will support knowledge transfer, urging students to take their work outside the seminar room and interact with professional realities other than academia.
Mobility
As part of a tri-national network, students will benefit from up to two semesters at one of the partner institutions in order to conduct empirical or theoretical research. The stay abroad is part of the co-tutelle agreement and will also allow the candidate to work with the second supervisor. A work programme will be established for the duration of the stay at the partner institution. Within the framework of the many exchange agreements between the three partners universities, CECC and their international counterparts, candidates may apply for an additional stay as a visiting researcher, specially if these agreements are of particular importance to the research project.
Network
The Lisbon Consortium – Catholic University of Portugal
Program Director: Isabel Capeloa Gil
Graduate Center for the Study of Culture – University of Giessen
Program Director: Ansgar Nünning
Copenhagen Doctoral School in Cultural Studies – University of Copenhagen
Program Director: Frederik Tygstrup
External advisory committee
Andreas Huyssen (Columbia University, Villiard professor of Comparative Literature)
Mieke Bal (University of Amsterdam)
George Yúdice (University of Miami)
The program is entirely taught in English.
STRUCTURE
First Semester
Elective 1
Elective 2
Elective 3
-Publishing Strategies
-Managing Bibliographies
-Database Research
-Academic English-Career Development
Second Semester
Elective 4
Elective 5
Lisbon Summer School for the Study of Culture
Third and Fourth Semesters
Research Colloquium I and II
Dissertation Writing
Fifth to Eight Semester
Dissertation Writing
Elective Courses:
Methods for Cultural Analysis • World Literature • Visual Culture • Asian Visual Cultures • Cultural Entrepreneurship • Cultural Economics • Cultural & Creative Industries • Management of Cultural Projects • Culture and Globalization • Cyberculture • History of Film • Media, Society & Culture • Translation & Globalization • The Emergence of Asia and the Global Impact • East Asia: Tourism & Cultural Industries amongst others availabe at http://www.fch.lisboa.ucp.pt
Courses offered by the Department of Culture Studies are always offered in English. Coursed offered by other Departments are usually offered in Portuguese.
Academic English • Strategies for Publishing in English • Database research • Managing Bibliographies • Career Development
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