Deadline for international applicants: 1 April (or 1 March if applying to the VU Fellowship Programme)
Arts and Culture: Visual Arts, Media and Architecture (VAMA) is an international two-year research Master’s programme at VU University Amsterdam. The interdisciplinary programme is aimed at sharpening student’s critical faculties and academic skills in the fields of art history, architecture history, visual culture and media studies. VAMA focuses on recent developments in these fields from both theoretical and historical perspectives and examines the complex relationships between visual art, architecture and media throughout (early, high, late) modernity and in the present.
A two-year full-time programme of 120 ECTS-credits, VAMA consists of a compulsory component of two general courses spanning all three fields of research—Imagining the Image and Critical Issues in the Cultural Industries—three field-specific research seminars and a seminar on research methodology, as well as an optional component consisting of electives and tutorials. The programme is concluded with a Master’s thesis. Throughout, the emphasis is on providing a stimulating environment in which students can garner experiences in researching, writing, and publishing.
Staff includes:
Dr. Ivo Blom (Comparative Arts and Media Studies; focuses on film and intermediality; working on a project on Visconti);
Prof. Dr. Koos Bosma (History of Architecture and Heritage Studies, currently managing a research project concerning the transformations of Schiphol airport);
Prof. Dr. Wouter Davidts (Modern & Contemporary Art, currently working on a book project on size and scale in postwar art and architecture);
Dr. Fredie Floré (Architecture; specializes in the history of and discourse on housing, home and interior design);
Dr. Sven Lütticken (Visual Art, with a focus on art and media theory; current projects on the temporalities of moving images since the 1960s and on art and thingness);
Prof. Dr. Frits Scholten (Museum Policies and Curating);
Prof. Dr. Timo de Rijk (Design Cultures; specializes in design history and Dutch design);
Prof. Dr. Ginette Verstraete (Comparative Arts and Media Studies, with a thematic focus on mobility, globalization, and geography).
Research does not take place in vacuum. In addition to participating in academic conferences, VAMA staff members collaborate with museums, curate exhibitions, edit journals and volumes, and play advisory roles in the field of heritage. Students are involved in many of these activities. Staff members also share their current research interests in the VAMA research seminars. Recent seminar topics include “Art in the Netherlands, 1960–present”, which aimed at a critical re-reading of existing accounts of Dutch art; “Séances: Film Sessions Past & Present”, which investigated various screening practices in the historical avant-garde, the neo-avant-garde and recent art; and “Tinguely and Transmissibility” by Jae Emmerling, guest professor in the programme “Art at the End of the First Machine Age”, a project of Métamatic Research Initiative, hosted by VU University.
In addition to hosting the Métamatic guest professors, VAMA regularly welcomes guest speakers. Recent guest speakers include: Nora Alter (Temple University, Philadelphia), Guy Julien (University of Brighton), Gert Jan Kocken (artist), Andrew Leach (Griffith University, Australia), Terry Smith (University of Pittsburgh), Wendelien van Oldenborgh (artist), Jorinde Seijdel (editor of Open, Amsterdam), John Welchman (University of California, San Diego).
For further information visit the website. Also take a look at the admission requirements, and application procedure, or contact [email protected].
VU University also offers a number of other Master’s programmes, including Design Cultures and Comparative Arts and Media Studies.
