Master in Visual Culture

Master in Visual Culture is one of 14 English-taught Social Sciences & Psychology programmes at master’s level in the register, offered by 5 institutions. 8 of them list an annual fee for students from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland; this programme lists EUR 1,453 a year. 8 are at a public university, where EU, EEA and Swiss students pay no tuition within the standard duration plus two semesters.

What you study

The Master's in Visual Culture at the University of Klagenfurt is a research-led programme. Teaching rests on current scholarship, and you work with methods and theories for studying visual culture rather than just looking at images.

The programme links several fields: art history, image studies, film and media studies, and cultural studies. Visual culture here covers both popular visual culture (film, photography, television, the internet, computer games, exhibitions) and the fine and performing arts.

Three areas run through the curriculum. One is how moving and still images are received, appropriated and transformed. Another is how visual artefacts sit in society and how they are evaluated. The third looks at the political and public side of visual culture, the intercultural and global dimension of moving images, and the documentary and fictional narrative structures behind visual works.

The overall aim is competence in joining theoretical and empirical image analysis. You learn to connect a concept to a concrete image and to test one against the other.

Admission, language and next steps

There is no entrance examination for this programme. You apply directly to the University of Klagenfurt, and the university's own page gives the application period and the documents you need. The register does not record an intake, so check the programme page for when students start.

The teaching language is German and English, so the programme is partly taught in English. Check with the institution which parts are held in which language before you apply.

The degree is a Master of Arts, MA, worth 120 ECTS and lasting two years over four semesters. The programme is taught in Klagenfurt. As a public university, EU/EEA and Swiss students pay no tuition within the standard duration plus two semesters; other students pay a fee per semester.

Das Masterstudium Visuelle Kultur dient der Vermittlung wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse auf Grundlage der forschungsgeleiteten Lehre. Der Fokus des Studienprogramms liegt auf der interdisziplinären Verknüpfung von Zugängen der Kunstgeschichte, der Bildwissenschaften, der Film- und Medienwissenschaften sowie der Kulturwissenschaften. Dem Programm liegt dementsprechend ein Verständnis von visueller Kultur zugrunde, das sowohl visuelle Populärkultur (Film, Fotografie, Fernsehen, Internet, Computerspiele, Ausstellung) als auch Bildende und Darstellende Kunst umfasst. Insbesondere werden Wissen und Erkenntnisse im Bereich Methoden und Theorien der Erforschung visueller Kultur, im Bereich der Rezeption, Aneignung und Transformation von (bewegten) Bildern sowie im Bereich der gesellschaftlichen Einbettung und Bewertung visueller Artefakte vermittelt. Darüber hinaus werden die politischen und öffentlichkeitsrelevanten Aspekte visueller Kultur, die interkulturelle, globale Dimension von (bewegten) Bildern sowie die dokumentarischen und fiktionalen Erzählstrukturen visueller Gestaltungen betrachtet. Grundlegendes Ziel des Studiums ist die Vermittlung von Kompetenzen in der Verknüpfung von theoretischer und empirischer Bildanalyse.

There is no central application portal in Austria: you apply to the institution, here University of Klagenfurt. A public university sets the admission requirements and dates for this level, so read them on the programme page. Entrance examination, as the register states it: No. Entry requirements and language tests are set by the institution, so start from the official programme page. Our guides cover tuition fees, the student residence permit and housing.