CVCPS

WHO ARE WE?

Founded in 2002, the Center for Visual Culture and Performance Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison supports curricular innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration from faculty and students in the emerging field of visual cultures. We sponsor a yearlong speaker series on topics of general and critical interest and invite members of the community and the university to meet speakers and participate in events and workshops. For students, we offer a Ph.D. Minor and a Graduate Certificate in Visual Cultures. Join us in exploring the multiple visual cultures around us and around the world.

WHY STUDY VISUAL CULTURES?

Students need the skills in visual literacy and criticality that we teach, if they are to participate and succeed in the rapidly expanding field of Visual Cultures. What we mean by this is that, while the study of visual cultures is an interdisciplinary field in its own right, its rise as a field stems from the fact that we live in an image-dominated world. As a growing consequence, a demonstrated capacity to analyze and critically and creatively intervene in that visual world becomes increasingly an aspect of professional demand for students pursuing degrees in a wide range of traditional disciplines from Anthropology to History. Thus, there are two primary reasons to pursue the Ph.D. Minor and its associated Graduate Certificate that we take into consideration. First, training in visual literacy and criticality enhances qualifications, and thus job prospects, for students across disciplines. Second, students across a range of disciplines pursue research for their home degrees (i.e., theses, M.F.A. exhibitions, dissertations) that requires skill in visual analysis training for which is not provided by their primary host degree program. The rigorous course work for the Ph.D. Minor and the Graduate Certificate ensures that students who complete the program have a solid understanding of critical methods, field training, and theories in visual cultures. The strength of the program is demonstrated by the professional success of its graduates.

MORE ABOUT THE VISUAL CULTURE AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES COMMUNITY ON CAMPUS

Over the years, the Center has been fortunate to host artists and scholars from around the world. Their visits have contributed significantly to the creative, academic atmosphere that we strive to foster on campus. The study of transdisciplinary and critical work with the visual and performative is radically dispersed across multiple schools and colleges. From its inception and largely for this reason of atomized dispersal, the Center has offered a way to create the kind of robust intellectual community necessary for advanced research and professional training. The lectures, exhibitions, and workshops that we host enable all students with interests in Visual Culture and Performance Studies to tap into a ready-made academic structure with a community of scholars, artists, and activists.

MINOR & CERTIFICATE

We offer a Doctoral Minor and a Graduate Certificate for masters and professional students. Students enrolled in a terminal M.A. or M.F.A. program are eligible for a Graduate Certificate whereas Ph.D. students are eligible for a Doctoral Minor.

Doctoral Minor

Graduate Certificate

The Doctoral Minor and the Graduate Certificate in Visual Cultures are intended for students from across the University who desire training in the interdisciplinary study of visual cultures. The field of visual cultures analyzes the social construction of images as well as their impact in our social world. Visual Culture Studies differs from other related disciplines in two ways: first, its field of inquiry includes an expansive array of visual cultural artifacts and practices; and, second, its methodologies focus on the constitution of power relations through visual markers of race, gender, disability, and nationality. As the world continues to become increasingly understood through, and reliant on, the visual (the internet, films, television, scientific graphs, data visualization, video games, and advertisements), the need for people trained with the ability to critically interpret, create, and evaluate those mediums is essential.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION STATEMENT

The Center for Visual Cultures thrives in its diverse and inclusive community in which individuals of any gender, race, ethnicity, caste, ability, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, cultural upbringing, language variety, and socioeconomic standing may flourish. Diversity, equity and inclusion are central to our core identity, our founding mission, and how we design our lecture lineup and academic program. We welcome diverse perspectives, especially of those who are marginalized or vulnerable members of society.

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT

Coming soon!

2025-2026
ANNUAL THEME:

“Performing Populisms and Fascinating Fascisms“

Our theme for the coming year grapples with fascisms old and new and compares them to the explosion of populisms in recent decades. Far from equating these two phenomena, we seek to explore the textured and historically specific variations of their different approaches to modern political and social formations that invest in “the masses.” In different ways, fascisms and populisms depend on visual cultures and performances for their power from charismatic icons that crystalize ideology to the sounds, choreographies, and framing of crowds as spectacle. Our invited speakers include scholars and artists who approach fascisms and/or populisms globally, in both historical and contemporary iterations.

Questions we will explore include: What aesthetic categories are most generative to understand modern and contemporary political forms? Who speaks for the many, and how is this speech shaped by visual cultures and performance? What roles do voice, rhythm, music, and noise play in constructing these political collectives? What is the role of new media platforms and/or global media conglomerates in the fomenting and sustaining of fascist or populist collectives, and how do they compare to earlier understandings of the crowd? How do emotions undergird and produce fascism and/or populism, or shape forms of living alongside or under them? How might the current upsurge in populisms and fascisms globally indicate unmet social needs, utopian promises of collectivity, or fantasies of the good life? How might art practice and theory help us explore, challenge, or otherwise rechannel these desires for a more democratic understanding of “the people” in all their complexity?