Our Undergraduate Program
Visual Studies Undergraduate Minor (effective Fall 2007)
Student, Migrant School, Mae Sot
©2004 Tracy Xavia Karner
The University of Houston’s Visual Studies program examines the aesthetic, ethical, historical, philosophical, psychological, social, and symbolic issues raised by visual images. Our primary interests involve not only the ways that creators of visual sources construct and encode images, but also how viewers perceive and interpret these images. Drawing on faculty from across the campus, the program combines the methods and perspectives of architecture, art history, cognitive science, communication, cultural, literary, and media studies, education, history, informational technology, optometry, perceptual psychology, semiotics, visual anthropology and visual sociology.
The Visual Studies program’s undergraduate curriculum divides into three sequential stages.
- The first foundational stage consists of the program’s interdisciplinary, team-taught introductory course, VS 1300. This course, which is designed to insure a common background for the program’s students, will include components on vision and light; the philosophy of art; aesthetics; modes of interpretation; and the use of visual sources in ethnographic investigation.
- The second stage will allow students to choose from a series of relevant approved courses taught by affiliated UH faculty that involve the interpretation of visual images, visual methods and analytical approaches, or research employing visual sources.
- The program culminates with a third stage, capstone experience, VS 4300, which will consist either of a substantial research project, under the direction of a faculty mentor, or an internship with community organizations supplemented by an essay or final project exploring the significance of this placement.
The Visual Studies minor is housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and is directed by Dr. Tracy Xavia Karner (Sociology) and Dr. Jerome Crowder (Anthropology and TLC2).
Visual Studies Minor Requirements
A minor in Visual Studies consists of eighteen (18) hours in designated visual studies courses (12 hours (9 advanced) + VS 1300 + VS 4300). At least twelve (12), nine (9) of which must be upper division, of the eighteen (18) hours must be taken in residence. A minimum cumulative 2.25 grade point average is required for all courses completed towards the minor.
The interdisciplinary nature of this minor requires that students not confine course work to any one department or college. No more than six (6.0) hours of approved coursework from any single department will count towards the fulfillment of the minor. A partial listing of regularly offered coursework which counts toward the minor is included below. In addition, courses listed in each semester's schedule are considered approved courses for the minor, even though those courses may not appear on the list below. A maximum of six (6.0) hours approved transfer substitutes will be accepted toward the minor.
*No more than six (6.0) semester hours in a student's major may apply to a minor in Visual Studies.
