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Art, Literature and Cultural Studies

The programme:

The programme covers a wide range of studies of the arts in the broadest sense: i.e. visual art and culture, including more recent media such as film, video and computer; theatre, including performance and dance; music, from classical music to modern rhythmic music and sound studies; and literature, from national and area-defined contexts to world literature, including children’s literature. The programme also welcomes studies of rhetoric, museological studies, trans- and intermedial studies, art and aesthetic theory, as well as more general studies in culture’s history and theory, including Cultural Studies. There are no chronological or theoretical barriers for the programme, which includes historical, contemporary and trans-historical projects. Likewise, the programme encourages both projects from singular disciplines and projects aiming at bridging different disciplines.

Affiliated centres and departments:

The programme is embedded within the School of Communication and Culture and is affiliated with the aesthetic disciplines Art History, Theatre Studies, Music Studies, Comparative Literature, Aesthetics and Culture as well as Rhetoric, Nordic and Roman languages, English and German. The programme is furthermore affiliated with the Centre for Museology and Centre for Children’s Literature and Media.

Examples of employment after graduation:

  • Researcher and teacher at Aarhus University.
  • Director of the playwright education at Aarhus Theatre.
  • Museum Inspector and Curator
  • Teacher in high school
  • Consultant in artistic and cultural projects
  • Manager of communication projects
  • Free lance writer
  • Director of publishing or editorial companies

Geographic location:

The programme has its own home, ”Forskerhuset” (the House of young researchers), at Langelandsgade 139, Bld. 1586. This building houses a lively environment with dedicated PhD students, and includes a seminar room and a kitchen. PhD students will be located either in this house or in local academic environments.

National cooperation:

The programme is part of a national PhD programme network in Arts and Literature:

  • PhD School, Faculty of Humanities, Copenhagen University
  • PhD Programme in Cultural Studies, Literature and the Arts, Copenhagen University
  • PhD Programme in Literature, Aesthetics and Culture, University of Southern Denmark

Furthermore the programme collaborates with ARoS, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, KUNSTEN Museum of Modern Art and Ordrupgaard.

International cooperation:

The programme participates in the literature network HERMES, an international collaboration between nine European and one American university. It has an annual meeting with around 30 PhD students and invited keynote speakers.

Approx. number of PhD students:

40-50


Assessment committee for applications:

Please find the members of the assessment committee under the relevant PhD programme.