PhD programme in Fine Arts

About the research programme

Candidates can study within two specialisations within the program. The intention is that the candidate will be offered theoretical and practical insight into arts, societal and creative/performing contexts which surpass their own academic basis.

Programme description

The doctoral degree programme is nominally 180 credits, which corresponds to a three-year programme of study. It comprises a training component totaling 30 credits, as well as a thesis component of 150 credits. The training component comprises one obligatory and one elective part.

The candidates can choose between two different thesis formats:

• a combined artistic-scholarly thesis which contains both a written and a performance-based/creative part
• or a scholarly thesis. The latter can be either a monograph or a compilation of several smaller pieces (an article-based thesis).

The PhD degree is awarded on the basis of:  

• Completed and approved training component
• Approved scholarly or combined artistic-scholarly thesis
• Approved doctoral degree examination (trial lecture and public disputation)

Under the PhD programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts, the following specialisations are offered:

Specialisation in Popular Music Performance

The aim of the PhD specialisation in popular music performance is to further develop the candidates’ qualifications within the subject area for the purposes of research – both artistic and scientific – and for other work within a field in which strict demands are made pertaining to scholarly insight and methodology. The specialisation is oriented towards expressions of popular music performance.

the term of the same name is synonymous with the internationally established research term “popular music”, and covers musical genres and styles like jazz, folk music, world music, roots, reggae, grunge, hip-hop, electronica, rockabilly, rhythm & blues, punk, country, metal, soul, house, blues, funk, dub etc.

In this way, a broad understanding of the performative aspect of popular music is situated as the basis of relevant research themes which might form a part of such a study programme. Included in this understanding are themes which touch upon studio practice and the recording industry (for example musician role, producer role, sound engineer role, recording studio as a music-cultural arena etc), popular music and multimedia (including film music and music videos), the rock festival as a cultural phenomenon, rock concerts seen from the stage and so on. In this context, the scholarly aspect is primarily based upon popular musicology as a subsidiary discipline of musicology, but also opens for interdisciplinary input from subject disciplines such as sociology, media studies, social anthropology etc. In other words, this means that even though the specialisation is focused on popular music, the specialisation allows for a broad academic approach to this research field. Our use of the term “musicology” consequently opens up the possibility of interdisciplinary methods of approach where theoretical and methodological choices can be brought in from fields such as sociology, social anthropology, media studies and so on.

Specialisation in Arts in Context (KiK)

Art in Context is an interdisciplinary and cross-aesthetic PhD specialisation. Its academic roots are in the three arts subjects, music, theatre, and the visual arts. The term covers the specialisation’s particular characteristic: contextual thinking. The objective is to train researchers who can design and implement artistic projects in which the subjects are practiced, understood and analysed in relation to complex arts, societal and performing/creative settings. These contexts are diverse, and the specialisation therefore operates with an open an dynamic context term.

The PhD specialisation KiK shall qualify candidates to carry out research within music, theatre, and/or visual subjects, and moreover within cross-aesthetic and interdisciplinary perspectives across these various fields. Interdisciplinary perspectives in which one or more arts subjects are studied in relation to other fields, for example didactice, health, and culture are central. The course offers theoretical and practical insight into arts subject-oriented, societal and creative/performing contexts which surpass the academic basis of the individual, even though each PhD project will, as a general rule, be rooted in one of the arts subjects.

Training component

The training component of the doctoral degree programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts comprises one obligatory and one elective part. The obligatory part of the specialisation in popular music performance comprises 15 credits, whilst the obligatory part of Arts in Context comprises 25 credits. In total, the training component makes up 30 credits.

The obligatory part covers the following courses:

• KF-616 Philosophy of science (5 credits) 

Further to this, the following courses are obligatory for the individual specialisation in question:  

• The specialisation in popular music performance:
  • KF-601 Analytical theory and method in popular music research (10 credits)
• Specialisation in Arts in Context:
  • KF-602 Arts in context: methods, Theory, methods and aesthetics (10 credits)
  • KF-615 Research methods in the art (5 credits)
  • A subject-specific course of 5 credits:
    • KF-612 Visual subjects in context (5 credits) (KiK)
    • KF-613 Music in context (5 credits) (KiK)
    • KF-614 Theatre in context (5 credits) (KiK)

It is possible to take a 5 credit-course at UiA or another national or international institution.

It is possible to choose the following courses with the specialisation in popular music performance for the elective part of the training:

• KF-604 Music technology and production (10 credits)
• KF-606 Ethnomusicology and world-music research (10 credits)
• An elective 5-credit course at UiA or another national or international institution.  

The training component shall include specialist and methodological schooling at a high scholarly level in order to qualify the candidate for work with their thesis and to ensure depth and breadth in the candidate’s academic competence. It shall contribute to assisting the candidate in further developing an independent and reflective relationship to his/her own research, as well as that of others, in addition to the role of the research in a wider context.

Candidates can, subject to an application, have alternative, relative courses approved at research schools and on other doctoral degree education programmes. In agreement with the supervisor, the candidate can freely choose amongst possible subjects offered by the University of Agder or at other institutions in Norway or abroad. The Faculty and the university collaborate with a number of researcher schools and other national and international partners. This provides the candidate with access to a range of courses from which to choose for the training component. This component shall normally comprise at least 15 credits from the Faculty’s own doctoral degree programme for the individual candidate in order to ensure continuity and integration. This can be deviated from in the case of longer periods of study abroad or if other pressing reasons exist. For further conditions see the Supplementary regulations for the PhD programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts.

All candidates are encouraged to apply for guest residencies at a foreign university as part of their thesis work.