Visual Studies Initiative

Michelle Sullivan, the first student to declare the Visual Studies major
(photo: Jack Edinger)

A Major in Visual Studies will focus on, but will not be limited to, the following areas:

1. visual literacy from antiquity to the contemporary;
2. histories of technologies of visualization from antiquity to the present (ancient “pointing” systems, 16th “Century “camera obscura,” photography, television, avant-garde film and video, virtual reality, the Internet and Cyberspace;
3. problems in scientific visualization from micro to macro imaging (thermal, X-Ray, Very Large Array, Hubble) to visualizing contagion, etc.);
4. popular cultural products and practices from Roman spectacle and Byzantine dress codes to contemporary fashion, advertising, political cartoons, and industrial design;
5. the body as performative of visual expression, experience, and culture;
6. visualization of race, sex, gender, class, and trauma;
7. exhibition and museum culture; and
8. histories and theories of vision and visuality, including theories of the gaze, surveillance practices from the panopticon to satellites, and other forms of scopic regimes.

The Major in Visual Studies requires an introductory and capstone course: VISUALST 100D (Introduction to Visual Culture), which introduces students to the rhetoric of images and the broad scope of visual culture; VISUALST 200S (Theories of Visual Studies) is a capstone course focusing on advanced theories in Visual Studies and individual senior projects (which may be undertaken as theses or visual production).

• Major Bulletin Description

The Visual Studies major requires thirteen courses, at least eight of which must be at the 100-level or above. Courses required for the major include VISUALST 100D (Introduction to Visual Culture) and the capstone course VISUALST 200S (Theories of Visual Studies), as well as eleven additional courses to be divided as follows: 3 courses in Visual Studies (VISUALST); 2 courses in Art History (ARTHIST 69,70, or 71 [Survey Art] and one 100-level course); 2 courses in Visual Arts, ARTSVIS 54 [Introduction to Visual Practice] and one 100-level); and 4 previously approved cross-listed courses in any of the departments participating in this major.

• Minor Bulletin Description

A student is eligible for a Minor in Visual Studies (VISUALST) by taking five courses to be distributed as follows: any three courses at the 100 or 200-level in VISUALST and any two courses in any cross-listed discipline previously approved for the Visual Studies major.

“I became fascinated with visual studies fall 2007 while taking the course “Introduction to Visual Culture.” I’m really inspired by the way this multi-disciplinary field engages images within society and culture. Visual studies is the examination of all things visual, and what fascinates me the most is how applicable it is to understanding everything from fashion to biology to cultural anthropology to physics. Visual studies goes beyond what art history or any other major at Duke examines. It allows one to recognize, understand and, finally, subvert the visual constructs we encounter everyday in society. To me, it is imperative to gain the type of insight visual studies courses offer because it enables one to reexamine with a critical eye both academic subjects and images we face daily. I believe that in the future what is taught through Visual Studies will become an integral part of education itself, and I am very excited and proud to be a part of such a significant initiative.”

– Michelle Sullivan, Trinity ‘10