[iDC] Praxis-based Ph.D.s

[Mary Anne]

Hello to All on IDC.
 
Margaret invited me to post on this list due to my work on the proposed
Ph.D. in Electronic Arts in my department, the Department of the Arts at
Rensselaer.  [I have been Chair of the Ph.D. committee, am the Graduate
Director of our M.F.A. Program in Electronic Arts, and with in-put from our
department's faculty have overseen the writing of the proposal. I have a
"traditional" Ph.D. from the Graduate Center, C.U.N.Y. in art history.]

The following is a rather formal (and in response to some comments in the
previous discussion), yes, a lengthy post, which is slightly out of
character for me, but I feel necessary to lay out a sense of this degree.
 
Our Electronic Arts Ph.D. has passed all the hurdles within Rensselaer,
which includes outside reviews (Margaret was one of our evaluators). The
proposal is now at the State level and we are awaiting final approval.
 
Much of what Margaret wrote mirror's our department's perspective regarding
the need for a Ph.D. in the Arts or a Praxis-based Ph.D. In terms of the
internal workings of the department and departmental make-up, however,
Rensselaer's situation is a bit different: I am the only
tenured/tenure-track member of the department who is not an artist. We have
a number of what Margaret describes as "hybrids" artists/scholars.
Rensselaer's Arts Department is, according to our findings, the first
integrated electronic arts program within a research university in the
United States. Often referred to as "iEAR" (integrated Electronic Arts at
Rensselaer), for more than twenty years the department has featured the
study of aural and visual arts, and, for most of this period, its focus has
been on the multidisciplinary electronic arts. We have offered a M.F.A.
since 1991, an Electronic Arts B.S. since 1992, and a B.S. in Electronic
Media, Arts, and Communication (EMAC) with our Language, Literature and
Communications Department since 1996.
 
To get to the heart the matter:
 
Several years ago, we began working on this new degree due to changes we saw
taking place within the university; arts education, production, and theory;
our diverse professional fields; and the world at large.
 
We saw these transformations in related to:
 
--the proliferation of interdisciplinary research
--an increased integration of technology within
  aesthetic fields
--and a maturation of arts practice, scholarship, and
  administration within the university and professional
  organizations/institutions
 
Faced with what are often two year M.F.A.s (a relatively brief period of
time for a terminal degree) and these transformations in the aesthetic,
professional, and social landscape, we felt a Ph.D. was becoming necessary
for the proper development of the type of creative research that was now
taking place in many arts departments. The "skills" attained with a Ph.D.
were becoming necessary--not for all, but certainly many--individuals who
wanted to work as artist/researchers, professors, curators, or
administrators. 
 
Most of you reading this list are, most likely, contributing to these
transformations. 
 
Although the music fields have offered the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in
music theory and composition and Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) for
decades, the M.F.A. has been the terminal degree for the visual arts. The
introduction of an arts Ph.D. raises a lot of issues within the field.
First, a case had to be made that it is not intended to make M.F.A.s
obsolete. Second, due the fact that the field was art, and a relatively new
type of degree, there were more questions and challenges regarding getting
approval within academia and the state.
 
Some of the professionally-based examples we gave to demonstrate the need
for Arts Ph.Ds. are as follows:
 
 1) Many artists are now exploring new domains of creativity which
necessitate advanced research in a variety of fields--communication
technologies, biology, and gaming--to just name a few. (In our department, a
number of our faculty and grad students are working in the so-called
"Bio-Art" area. I am overseeing a 2007 exhibition dealing with this topic.)
 
2) In the university teaching market, many art and interdisciplinary arts
departments have expanded what were previously positions filled only by
those individuals with M.F.A.s to candidates who hold Ph.D.s.
 
3) There are a number of institutions for advanced creative study such as
Institute for Studies in the Arts, Herberger College of Fine Arts, Arizona
State University (Tempe, Arizona); L'Ircam (Institut de Recherche et
Coordination Acoustique/Musique) at Centre Pompidou, (Paris); and Banff
Centre (Alberta, Canada) that offer research positions for individuals with
Ph.D.s in the creative arts.
 
4) Curatorial positions in museums and university galleries, which were
previously filled primarily with art historians with M.A.s or Ph.D.s and
artists with M.A.s, would be a professional option for individuals with an
interdisciplinary arts Ph.D.
 
 
The curriculum will combine creative experimentation with research. The core
of the program is the student's own creative work, enhanced by course work,
and culminating in a dissertation. The dissertation can be in two formats.
It can be either a traditional humanities or social science text presenting
original research in the electronic arts or an innovative creative project
coupled with a dissertation text. In the case of the latter, the project and
text augment and illuminate each other. We imagine that most, if not all, of
our students will be the latter format, that is a Praxis-based Ph.D.
 

As I said, much of the above is quite formal; however, I felt this was
necessary to set up a framework for discussion.

best regards,

Mary Anne