Visual Arts

The program provides a period of intensive conceptual and technical development for those students wishing to pursue a professional career in advanced contemporary art. The M.F.A. degree is also the standard qualifying degree for teaching visual arts at the post-secondary level. The M.F.A. program is dedicated to helping students understand both the making and theorizing of the art object against the background of the diverse intellectual environment of a major university. Students in the program may work in any area of contemporary art production including painting, drawing, printmaking, performance, three-dimensional and installation work, photography, digital, multimedia, or in any interdisciplinary form.

Name Research Interests
Adriasola Munoz, Ignacio Alberto investigates responses by artists and intellectuals to the crisis of aesthetic and political representation triggered by the failed protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960, and in particular their reliance on depictions of the sexual and geographical margins in their articulation of an aesthetics of political disaffection.
Claxton, Dana film, video, photography, single- and multi-channel video installation, and performance art
Georgopulos, Nicole Art history and theory; French art; nineteenth-century art and visual culture; art and science; gender and early feminism
Gu, Xiong Fine Art. Transcultural identity and hybridity. Through the critical angle of visual art, my work encompasses other elements such as sociology, geography, economics, politics, literature; and finally, the dynamics of globalisation, local culture and individual identity shifts. These shifts do not merely constitute a simple amalgamation of two original subjects, but instead, seek to create an entirely new space., Installation, painting, drawing, photography, contemporary art theory
James, Gareth histories of iconoclasm in which the social divisions and inequities that mark and delimit artistic practice are registered most emphatically
Koh, Germaine Visual art
Makris, Georgios Arts of Byzantium; Material culture and archaeology of monasticism; Dissemination and usage of portable objects across the eastern Mediterranean; Medieval monastic culture
Mansoor, Jaleh Cultural Industries; Formalism; Marxism and Critical Theory; Marxist Feminism; Modernism; Twentieth Century European Art; Cultural Industries, Formalism, Marxism and Critical Theory, Marxist Feminism, Modernism, Twentieth Century European Art
Mitchell, Karice Visual art
Monteyne, Joseph Renaissance/early modern art and print culture; early modern landscape and eco-criticism; Renaissance/early modern art and print culture, early modern landscape and eco-criticism
Orell, Julia History of Chinese Art; Landscape painting of the Song and Yuan dynasties; Construction of place, site, region, and empire in painting and other visual media; Art and the production of knowledge; Cultural and historical geography; History of cartography; Art and the production of knowledge, Construction of place, site, region, and empire in painting and other visual media, Cultural and historical geography, History of Chinese Art, History of cartography, Landscape painting of the Song and Yuan dynasties
Peck, Alexandra Social and cultural anthropology; Other studies related to history and archaeology; Art history and theory; Native tribes and First Nations in the Pacific Northwest; historical Northwest Coast art; Salish (Coastal and Interior) art; Anthropology/anthroplogical methods; Material culture, archaeology, museums
Pina Baldoquin, Manuel Images
Porto, Nuno Self-representation of African identities in contemporary Afro-Cuban Art and in Kenyan photography, Modern and contemporary arts of Africa and the African Diasporas, Curatorship and social justice, Social museology, History of collections, Photography
Roy, Marina Intersection between materials, history, language, and ideology
Salgirli, Saygin Ottoman Art, Islamic Art, Medieval Art, Early Modern Art, Mediterranean Art, Architectural History; Ottoman Art, Islamic Art, Medieval Art, Early Modern Art, Mediterranean Art, Architectural History
Shelton, Anthony Mexican and Andean visual culture, critical museology, development of folk art, aesthetics
Shirazi, Sadia transregional histories of modernism and contemporary art; histories of art; art and activism; race and racialization; migration and diaspora; gender and sexuality; black and postcolonial thought
Silver, Erin Activism and visual culture; Artist or Author Social Identity; Artistic and Literary Marginality; Artistic and Literary Movements, Schools and Styles; Canadian contemporary art; Feminist art histories; Movement culture; Performance studies; Queer art; social movements; Activism and visual culture, Artist or Author Social Identity, Artistic and Literary Marginality, Artistic and Literary Movements, Schools and Styles, Canadian contemporary art, Feminist art histories, Movement culture, Performance studies, Queer art, Social Movements
Smith, Tai Arts and Technologies; Economical Contexts; Gender; media theory; Modern and Contemporary Art and Design; Politics of Media and Mediation; Textiles; Arts and Technologies, Economical Contexts, Gender, Media Theory, Modern and Contemporary Art and Design, Politics of Media and Mediation, Textiles
Starling, Dan
Thauberger, Althea Art history and theory; Curatorial and related studies; Visual arts and media arts; Biopolitics and institutional critique/reform; Media philosophy; Photographic history/theory; Settler decolonization, and site-based art and activism
Usher, Camille Art theory and analysis; Contemporary art; Indigenous visual culture; curatorial practices; Museum studies; feminism and performance; public art and graffiti