Department of
Interdisciplinary Arts
Fine Arts Doctoral Program (Art)
Fine Arts Doctoral Program (Art)
The Art track of the Fine Arts Doctoral Program centers on art praxis, which we define as theoretically informed action aimed at creating change in academic, social, and community contexts. We have chosen the word "praxis" instead of "practice" to signal a different relationship to theory than assumed by the theory-practice binary, and to indicate a fundamental difference between MFA programs in studio practice and the PhD. For Aristotle, praxis meant an action that is valuable in itself, as opposed to that which leads to creation, and for scholars of modernity from Marx to Lefebvre, praxis was, and remains, infused with an ethical and political imperative, and designated a more grounded and intentional mode of social and political transformation.
The Art track is part of a College-wide Fine Arts Doctoral Program, which includes students focusing on music, theatre, dance, and visual art. All areas of the Fine Arts Doctoral Program require a series of core courses that bring together students from across the College for innovative interdisciplinary and collaborative inquiry. These core courses support the art area's commitment to blurring disciplinary boundaries through original modes of investigation.
Students conduct interdisciplinary research integrating methodologies from a home discipline related to Art with methodologies from disciplines of Music, Theatre, and Dance housed at other Schools in the J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts or the University at large. Such interdisciplinarity is not simply additive, but transformative, blurring the chosen disciplines and even fundamentally altering them.
This program is for
- studio artists who want to transform their approach to making into a methodology for research,
- scholars who want to intervene in their home discipline by proposing novel ways of conducting research,
- curators and cultural practitioners who want to do community-engaged projects, and
- educators who want to rethink inquiry and develop meaningful practices organized around art and images that transform engagement through interdisciplinary initiatives.
admissions
HOW TO APPLY
- For acceptance into the doctoral program, the applicant must have completed a Master's-level degree, or its equivalent, with experience and training in some area of the arts (whether or not directly connected with the Master’s degree), and demonstrate strong scholarship and professional competence.
Fine Arts PhD Applications are completed in the Texas Tech Graduate School Application Portal. In that portal, you will be asked to provide the following:- Transcripts from all previous college-level study
- 3 letters of recommendation
- CV/Resume
- Scholarly writing sample: 10-30 pages of your best research or academic writing
- A portfolio and/or GRE scores (varies by track).
- Cover letter/Personal Statement
- Possible supplemental questions (varies by Track)
- What does the admissions committee need to know while considering your application? Tell us the part of your story that is not in the application documents.
- Which advisor are you hoping to work with and why?
- Briefly describe the aspects of your background relevant to your interest in applying to this program. This might include your undergraduate studies and any other graduate study or relevant professional work, if applicable.
- The Fine Arts Doctoral Program offers a unique interdisciplinary education in Art, Music, Theatre, and Philosophy; and provides a comprehensive approach to doctoral study of the arts. These final questions are of high importance to the FADP admissions committee:
- Explain why this program interests you.
- Describe your interest in the interdisciplinary core of our doctoral program.
- Is there something in your background that demonstrates your interest or expertise in a) multiple art forms, b) the relationship between the arts and the humanities, AND/OR c) the relationship between the arts and the sciences? If so, what is it?
- Finally, an interview with the graduate faculty overseeing the desired FADP Concentration, either in person or via video conference, is typical and required in some Tracks.
ENTRANCE QUALIFICATIONS
For acceptance into the doctoral program, the applicant must have completed a master's degree, or its equivalent, with emphasis in some area of the visual arts. Every effort is made to select candidates who show strong scholarship and professional competence. Applicants who have not taken at least 15 hours of art history, art criticism, art education, arts administration, aesthetics, and/or visual culture courses at the college level may be required to meet the 15-hour minimum in the form of leveling courses taken here at TTU, which will not count toward the 60-hour minimum in the doctoral degree plan.
DEADLINES
While the Fine Arts Doctoral Program (Art) takes applications year-round, please take into consideration the following dates:
JANUARY 15th for Fall semester entry, with full financial consideration.
OCTOBER 15th for Spring semester entry, with available/limited financial consideration.
curriculum
Student Success
SCHOOL OF ART ALUMNI
Class of 2012
Sara Peso White
Class of 2015
Bryan Wheeler, dissertation: “Painting ‘Section’ or Painting Texas: Negotiating Modernity and Identity in the Texas New Deal Post Office Murals.” Lecturer in the School of Art and College of Media and Communication.
Class of 2016
Yuan-Ta Hsu
Lina Kattan, dissertation: “Conflicted Living Beings: The Performative Aspect of Female Bodies' Representations in Saudi Painting and Photography.” Associate Professor of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Class of 2017
Norah Alqabba, dissertation: “Globalization and the Role of the Sharjah Biennale in the Transformation of Saudi Contemporary Sculpture”
Class of 2019
Kimberly Jones, dissertation: “Women in Contemporary Israeli Cinema”
Katharine Scherff, dissertation: “The Virtual Liturgy: An Examination of Medieval and Early Modern Ritual Objects as Media Technology.” Full-time Lecturer at TTU, Art History and Global Art Program, Affiliated Faculty Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center.
Jared Stanley, dissertation: “Working Through Grief: Continuing Bonds in the New Golden Age of American Television.” Division Chair, Division of Art and Design, School of Fine Arts and Communication, Bob Jones University.
Class of 2020
Niloofar Gholamrezaei, dissertation: “Photographic Images, Distanced Realism, and the State of Being Modern in the Works of Mohammad Ghaffari and Otto Dix.” Assistant Professor of Visual Arts and General Education, Regis College.
Class of 2021
Ahmad Rafiei, dissertation: “Objects in Motion: Global Interactions and Cross-Cultural Exchange from Safavid to Twentieth-Century Iran.” Curatorial Fellow, Toledo Museum of Art, 2021-2024.
Sylvia Weintraub, dissertation: “Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Online: Why Making Matters on Pinterest.”
Assistant Professor of Art Education in the department of Visual and Theatre Arts at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
Class of 2022
Corina Carmona, dissertation: “Re-membering a Coyolxauhqui Pedagogy: Creative and Cultural Praxis at the Intersection of Ethnic Studies and Fine Art”
Deepika Dhiman, dissertation: “Using Autoethnography and Visual Storytelling to Examine How Identity is Informed by Social Normative Behavior in India and the United States”
Class of 2023
Kathryn Kelley: “Creatives Engage with Spontaneous Self-Affirmation as a Part of Their Writing Practices”
Department of Interdisciplinary Arts
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Address
School of Theatre & Dance Building | Box 45060 | 2812 18th Street STE 222 | Lubbock TX 79409 -
Phone
806.742.0700