Film and Visual Culture

Our Research

Embedded in the scholastic traditions of a university founded in 1495, our Film and Visual Culture programme combines interaction with top researchers, an attractive teaching environment and excellent facilities. Students can also elect to engage with practice-based work at MLitt and PhD level, utilising our Media Lab HD production and post-production facilities.

Film and Visual Culture plays an important role in the George Washington Wilson Centre for Visual Culture (GWW), which brings together researchers form across our university. The GWW Centre acts as a vibrant hub for Postgraduate Research students engaged in visual culture research and fosters rich possibilities for interdisciplinary work.

Key research specialisms within the department include:

• African Cinema
• Art, science and technology studies (ASTS)
• Marginal American Genre Cinema
• Documentary
• Practice-as-research in filmmaking
• Post-traumatic sites in film and visual culture
• German and Austrian literature, film and visual culture
• Memory studies
• Science films, their festivals and archives
• Visual cultures of science
• Science in Cinema
• Film, visual culture and ecology
• Intermediality
• Representation of cultural identities in postmodern and contemporary visual and popular culture
• 20th-century cultural identities in Spain
• Arts-based approaches to petroculture
• The poetics of filmmaker Raúl Ruiz
• Film and exile
• Film and dream
• Visual medical humanities

However, Department members are keen to hear from potential applicants interested in pursuing a postgraduate degree (MLitt or PhD) related to any area of film and visual culture.

More detail of research activity within the department can be found on the staff pages.

Our Experts

Head of Research Area

Dr Calum Waddell, The University of Aberdeen

Other Experts

Dr Silvia Casini, The University of Aberdeen

Dr Katya Krylova, The University of Aberdeen

Dr Bárbara Barreiro León, The University of Aberdeen

Dr Alejandra Rodríguez-Remedi, The University of Aberdeen

Entry Requirements

Careers

Whether taught or research-based, postgraduate work in Film and Visual Culture at Aberdeen will prepare you for entering a variety of careers.

You will gain and deepen your knowledge and understanding of the field while specialising in the areas of Film and Visual Culture that most interest you. As you do, you will also be developing transferrable skills sought by a wide range of employers including project management, collaboration, creativity, presentation and communication across a variety of formats and audiences, working to deadlines and managing a diverse workload. Both within your studies and through the excellent student societies, including Granite City TV and the Aberdeen University Filmmaking Society, postgraduate students also have a wealth of opportunities on campus to learn or develop media production skills in a vibrant and supportive environment.

Developing expertise in the broad field of visual culture will position you well for a future in academia, arts management or production, the film industry, journalism and broadcasting, and areas relating to information and communication technology, but will also equip you with skills desired by employers across diverse industries.

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