Master's Programme in Visual Culture
Programme code: HAVIC
Swedish title: Masterprogram i visuell kultur
Programme credits (ECTS): 120
Language of instruction: English
Programme syllabus (in Swedish)
Description
Today knowledge and experiences of the world are increasingly mediated through images. This master’s programme aims to deepen the student’s understanding of how and why images and visuality reflect and form life in modern and contemporary society.
A wide range of visual cultural phenomena are studied, such as artworks, news and documentary imagery, advertisements, scientific images, etc., in a variety of analog and digital media, like photography and film, video and television and urban environments. The programme teaches a multidimensional set of analytical methods and theoretical perspectives as tools to critically explore, understand and discuss these forms of visual culture in nuanced ways. Aspects covered include history, social power relations, (post- and de-)colonialism, gender, technological apparatuses, as well as different philosophical approaches to vision and images.
The programme contributes to a deeper understanding in the student and in society at large of the power of images and other visual expressions to produce and withhold knowledge, to fascinate and disturb, to persuade and repel, and to generate meaning, desire and fear in social, cultural and personal contexts.
The majority of the courses have a thematic focus, such as visual history, globalization, or the representation of nature, violence, or the human body, as well as a focus on certain theories and methods, like pictorial analysis, phenomenology, semiotics, discourse analysis, media archeology, psychoanalysis, of ethnological field studies. Every course also trains the student in a particular academic skill, like presenting at a conference, writing a journal article, writing for a general readership, designing a research plan, etc.
The programme prepares the student for PhD studies and a further career in academia as well as for a career in the cultural sector, broadly defined, with a focus on images, design and visuality.
Information about next admission
The programme starts next time: autumn 2026 (opens for applications in the middle of October 2025)
Type of studies: full time, day
Language of instruction: English
Study period: 2026-2028
Entry requirements: Bachelor´s degree in any of the following subjects (or in equivalent subjects from other or foreign universities): Art History, Visual Studies, Film studies, Design, Architecture, Musicology. English 6/English Course B.
Most of Lund University’s programmes require English Level 6. This is the equivalent of an overall IELTS score of 6.5 or a TOEFL score of 90.
