All social systems are first and foremost visual systems. Thus, processes of social transformation necessarily transpire within the visual arena. Visuality serves to introduce change -- new creative models, new political paradigms, new relational possibilities, new poetic forms -- into social contexts.

This is what makes the ability to interpret visual information and promote critical revisioning so crucial during periods of transformation.

The Graduate Program in Visual and Critical Studies trains students to deeply engage visual culture by refining written and oral presentation abilities, sharpening critical faculties, fostering research skills, expanding methodological options, and furthering the development of both creative and traditional modes of critical expression.

This year’s cohort presents innovative and transformative research in the field of visual studies at the program’s capstone event, the 2013 VCS Spring Symposium. In this daylong public symposium, nine graduate candidates in the program will interrogate the politics and poetics of visual culture.