Course summary

The information provided on this page was correct at the time of publication (November 2024). For complete and up-to-date information about this course, please visit the relevant University of Oxford course page via www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/ucas. The DPhil in Fine Art is designed to support research in contemporary art making (through the practice-led DPhil) and contemporary art history and theory (through the DPhil by written thesis only). The Ruskin School of Art provides an exceptional research environment that enables artists, art historians and art theorists to work closely together in a world-leading, research-intensive university. Its intimate size and its dedication to contemporary art practice and theory within a stimulating and dynamic cross-disciplinary structure allows it to sustain close relations with other academic departments and faculties, distinguishing it from other, larger art schools, and allowing for a wide range of interdisciplinary and collaborative work at DPhil level. The Ruskin DPhil programme includes two strands: the contemporary art history and theory DPhil (by written thesis only) and the practice-led DPhil (which also includes a substantial written component). In the case of the contemporary art history and theory DPhil, the Ruskin can offer supervision across a wide range of research projects. These may include aspects of exhibition curating and organisation, as well as the historiography of twentieth-century art and the theorisation of contemporary artistic practices. In the case of the practice-led DPhil, art work will be undertaken as the central component of the registered research programme, and will be presented in relation to written work that engages with the relevant theoretical, historical, technical, or critical context. The department can offer supervision in most areas of contemporary art practice including moving-image, painting, performance, sculpture, installation and writing. The two strands of the programme are brought into a productive dialogue, both in a structured way at the regular DPhil research seminars and informally in the studios. For an indication of the range of practical, historical and theoretical topics that are addressed in the Ruskin School of Art, please see the Ruskin website. A series of specifically designed Ruskin research seminars complement the students’ independent research by offering an opportunity to present research projects, both studio and theoretical. The research seminars follow a small workshop format in which students can present new research work in innovative and experimental ways. The School also has a regular visiting speaker series in which leading artists, scholars and thinkers discuss their latest work. Ruskin students also participate in the Oxford Centre for Research in the Humanities (TORCH), which offers a stimulating range of interdisciplinary activities.