The SCA’s PhD in Contemporary Arts is a research-intensive program focused on interdisciplinary approaches to the fine and performing arts. The program supports both scholarly and practiced-based research, with students tailoring their degrees to their specific research interests.
Students pursuing primarily scholarly approaches to visual culture, media arts, sound studies, and performance studies will take existing graduate seminar courses and produce a substantial written thesis under the mentorship of leading scholars in their chosen field of study. Practice-based artist-scholars or researchers with a curatorial, programming, or public-facing practice will take a mix of seminars and studio-based courses and directed studies, resulting in the creation of an original artwork or a public presentation supplemented by a substantial written body of work incorporating students’ reflection and commentary.
In all cases, students will be interacting within a lively intellectual and creative environment, in which the exchange of ideas and methods will encourage and enrich both discursive practice and research-creation.
For information about applying to the program, please follow the links at the Future Students section of our site, or scroll to the bottom of this page.
Program Information
Students pursuing the PhD in Contemporary Arts are expected to complete the program in 12-15 semesters (4-5 years). Each student is matched with a potential supervisor, normally upon admission, and the supervisory committee should be formed during the first year.
The program consists of course work, qualifying examinations, a thesis prospectus, and a thesis (scholarly or practice-based), for a minimum of 35 units.
Students complete:
Professional Practices Seminar I
CA 890
A non-credit course for graduate students working in contemporary arts that foregrounds professional aspects of the discipline. Includes workshops on academic writing, research skills development, pedagogy, proposal and grant writing, peer critique, artistic production and management, academic and public dissemination of work, and presentations of works in progress. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
Professional Practices Seminar II
CA 891
A non-credit course for graduate students working in contemporary arts that foregrounds professional aspects of the discipline. Includes workshops on academic writing, research skills development, pedagogy, proposal and grant writing, peer critique, artistic production and management, academic and public dissemination of work, and presentations of works in progress. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Prerequisite: CA 890.
And:
Research Methods in Contemporary Arts
CA 821
Develops thinking across the media arts in a comparative perspective, synthesizing the historical and theoretical approaches of art history, cinema studies, performance studies, and computer-based media studies. Establishes bases for understanding the relationships among art forms that incorporate reproducible and digital media. Investigates some of the useful emergent methods for making comparisons among media, across history, and across cultures. Students with credit for FPA 821 may not take this course for further credit.
And at least three of:*
Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar I
CA 811
Critical study of contemporary issues in the fine and performing arts, with emphasis on concerns common to diverse artistic disciplines and the interaction between art and society. Students with credit for FPA 811 may not take this course for further credit.
Interdisciplinary Graduate Seminar II
CA 812
Continuation of CA (or FPA) 811. Students with credit for FPA 812 may not take this course for further credit. Prerequisite: CA (or FPA) 811.
Interdisciplinary Graduate Studio
CA 813
A selected topics studio course with an emphasis on interdisciplinary artistic projects. Students with credit for FPA 813 may not take this course for further credit. Prerequisite: CA (or FPA) 811.
New Approaches in Visual Art and Culture
CA 823
Empire follows Art, and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.
- William Blake, annotations to Sir Joshua Reynold's Discourses (ca. 1798-1809) For WJ.T. Mitchell, pictures have lives and loves. Instead of seeing images as inert objects that convey meaning, he urges us to see them as animated beings with desires, needs, appetites, demands, and drives of their own. In the past three decades, literature on visual culture has burgeoned in art history, cultural studies, critical theory, philosophy and anthropology, and recently it has taken on a "performative turn." For art history, which is traditionally concerned with the interpretation of art objects, the artists who make them and the interests of patrons, the interdisciplinary field of visual culture has opened up new ways of thinking about images of all kinds. In a culture in which the production and dissemination of images has grown exponentially, it has never been more necessary to pay attention to how images work and what they do. While histories of images tend to locate intentionality in the maker or the patron, this seminar seeks to bring forward the intentions of the image, how, for example, its formal material characteristics,
modes and contexts of circulation and use, reproducibility and referentiality, solicit responses: how images seem to take on, in Mitchell's words, "lives of their own."
For your paper, you can choose as your main object of study a work of art, a landmark exhibition, or a famous image drawn from popular culture. This image or event will be the subject of student presentations at the end of the term. The topic must be a visual phenomenon about which there is a substantial discourse in print, preferably in both scholarly and popular sources. The final paper will be based on your presentation and should address some of the critical issues and readings discussed in class.
Students with credit for FPA 823 may not take this course for further credit.
New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies
CA 824
Examines what are understood as the arts of the moving image: film, video, and other time based audiovisual media. A survey of emerging approaches in cinema studies relates these developments to the longer history of the discipline and the intermedial art forms that informed it, including theater, public spectacles, photography, painting, music, and sound recording. Additional topics include: how the practice, aesthetics, and reception change when cinema moves to television, both move to digital formats, and all these platforms move to handheld and social media; medium specificity in the moving-image arts in light of "media convergence"; what new forms emerge when moving images shift from the institution of cinema to museum and online contexts; new approaches to national cinemas and documentary; and cognitive and neuroscientific theories of moving images. Students with credit for FPA 824 may not take this course for further credit.
New Approaches in Digital Art Studies
CA 825
This course will focus on the history and practice of digital art, with an emphasis upon the artistic outcomes of the new methodologies and practices within this field. Digital technology has fundamentally changed the process and products of contemporary creativity in art-making. Although a great deal of contemporary art involves some aspect of digital technology, this course will examine those artists and art-works in which digital technologies play an intrinsic part in the creative process, as well as the realization. A range of processes - from interactive systems through to algorithmic approaches (stochastic, deterministic, chaotic) - will be examined, with particular reference to artistic goals, approaches, and results. Students with credit for FPA 825 may not take this course for further credit.
New Approaches in Performance Studies
CA 826
Traces the interdisciplinary origins of performance studies and brings its concepts and methods to bear on dance, music and sound arts, theatre and performance arts, and media performance while introducing cross-disciplinary ideas from emergent areas such as neuroscience, cognitive science, and gaming, for example. Course assignments will involve case studies as forerunners for further research. Students with credit for FPA 826 may not take this course for further credit.
New Approaches to Sound and the Arts
CA 828
Scholarly research on sound ranges from studies on listening, more-than-human soundscapes, audio media archaeology, sound art, and sonic cultures. These works question and expand upon longstanding issues concerning the onto-epistemologies of sound, the status of the voice, the role of music in everyday life, the politics of sound, and sound's relationship to the imagination and other sensory domains. This seminar will entail an examination of current debates and changing methodologies in sound studies, especially as they pertain to the contemporary arts.
Selected Topics in Contemporary Arts
CA 877
Study of particular artistic techniques or issues. The topic varies from term to term.
Studio in Contemporary Arts I
CA 883
Intensive studio work, concentrated in a particular art discipline, but with opportunity to involve interdisciplinary materials and techniques. Students with credit for FPA 883 may not take this course for further credit.
Studio in Contemporary Arts II
CA 885
Continuation of CA (or FPA) 883. Students with credit for FPA 885 may not take this course for further credit. Prerequisite: CA (or FPA) 883.
Selected Topics in Contemporary Arts
CA 887
Study of particular artistic techniques or issues. The topic varies from term to term.
Directed Study in Contemporary Arts
CA 889
Students with credit for FPA 889 may not take this course for further credit.
And:
PhD Qualifying Examinations
CA 892
Qualifying examinations. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis.
And:
PhD Thesis Prospectus
CA 895
Thesis Prospectus. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Prerequisite: CA 892.
And:
PhD Thesis
CA 899
Thesis. Graded on a satisfactory/unsatisfactory basis. Prerequisite: CA 895.
* coursework may be substituted in consultation with the supervisor or Graduate Program Chair.
PhD PROGRAM APPLICATION
The SFU Graduate Studies application portal for prospective students is set to open on October 1, 2024.
The SCA's Internal PhD deadline is December 31, 2024.
If you have not submitted the online application, you will not be considered for the program. All graduate program applications are processed through Graduate Studies. In order to use the online application system, you will need to pay an application fee of $90 CAN (students with Canadian transcripts) or $125 CAN (students with international transcripts) by credit card (MasterCard or Visa). The online application includes a checklist of the documents that you will need to submit to us to support your application. This checklist will be updated online as we receive your documents. Please refer to the online checklist to ensure that all documents are received. NOTE: Due to the number of applications, it is not possible for us to monitor every applicant's checklist closely.
2. Official sealed Transcripts of all post-secondary education. Sealed transcripts should be sent directly to the address below by the academic institution. Non-English language transcripts must include an official English translation. (For the purposes of lowering costs, unofficial transcripts may be uploaded to an application for review. If an offer of acceptance is given, all official sealed transcripts will be required.)
Graduate Studies
Maggie Benston Student Services Centre 1100
Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada V5A 1S6
3. A Curriculum Vitae.
4. A Research Statement. This two-page document should indicate your academic/artistic background, the nature of your scholarly and/or creative practice, and the faculty members in the School who might supervise your work. It should also include an outline of the doctoral research you wish to pursue in our program, the significance of this research, and the contexts (artistic/scholarly/other) through which you are framing this research.
5. A sample of Academic Writing. Acceptable samples include MA or MFA papers or other academic writing, catalogue essays, published articles, and grant applications.
6. For students pursuing the practice-based PhD option: A Portfolio of your work, including a list which prioritizes the viewing/listening order of materials. You may upload video, audio, images, or PDF documents (less than 10 Mb each). Unfortunately, we are unable to accept physical media (DVDs, CDs, etc.). For works that involve a creation and production team, please make your role (Director, Choreographer, Curator, etc.) clear.
7. Three (3) Letters of Reference from (preferably) academic or professional sources. Letters can be uploaded online directly by each referee. Your referees will receive login information and instructions for uploading their letters once you have named them as a reference. We do not have a template for reference letters; your referees can use their preferred format.
9. International students: English is the language of instruction and communication at SFU. The School for Contemporary Arts requires English proficiency as outlined on the Graduate Studies website. Please note that we must receive test results directly from the testing agency. Copies of documents sent directly by students will not be accepted.
PhD FAQ
This is a rundown of the Fall 2024 fees (they tend to go up a bit each year). The application fee is $110 for applicants with Canadian transcripts, $150 for applicants with international transcripts. If accepted into the program, a deposit of $250 is needed to secure your place. It is a per-term fee schedule, not per-unit. Please note: international students pay the same tuition as domestic students.
These are the 2024 Fall Term fees in CND:
All terms:
U-Pass BC Transit pass Fee $184.00
GRAD Student Athletic Fee $86.64
GRAD Student Activity Fee $77.68
GRAD Student Services Fee $52.01
GRAD Tuition T2202A $2107.43
Graduate Graduation Fee $12.00
Fall Term Only:
Grad Health Plan Dental $290.00
Grad Health Plan Medical $210.00
1st Fall Term Only (For international students only)
International Medical Guard.Me Insurance $281.00 (This is a temporary insurance before the BC Provincial MSP basic medical insurance is setup. Please see the International Medical Insurance information at these links:
Fall Total International: $3,300.76 + $75 Per Month BC MSP Health Fee
Fall Total Domestic: *3,019.76
Spring Total: *$2,458.09 (+ $75 Per month BC MSP Health Fee is only for International Students)
In the Spring and Summer Terms, students are not charged for the Graduate medical and dental plans because they are an annual fee, so roughly: *$2,458.09 CND for the other two terms of the year. Living expenses are separate.
Students enrolled in the PhD program in Contemporary Arts are expected to complete the program in 12 to 15 terms. Students in the program will be funded for 12 terms.
Students will receive guaranteed minimum funding in the amount of $28,000 for the term of the funding guarantee provided in 1. The School will review the level of minimum funding annually to determine whether the minimum can be increased in consideration of rising cost of tuiiton and cost of living.
Continued funding is contingent upon:
maintaining a CGPA of 3.5 or higher
satisfactory progress in the program as documented in the annual progress review
applying for at least one major (>$10,000) award by the end of term 6
applying to and being available for in-person teaching and research employment at SFU.
Individual student funding packages will be comprised of a combination of awards (including major entrance scholarships), fellowships, teaching assistantships, research assistantships and, where possible, sessional instructorships.
Students can also apply for travel and research funds ($500 – $1500 per annual cycle) over the course of their degree. SCA Travel and Research Awards (TARA) and unrelated arts grants are *not* counted toward the student’s guaranteed funding amount.
Students in the practice-based stream can also apply for limited funding to support the presentation of their thesis projects.
Yes. As international students have two additional costs, the SFU Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) of which all TAs are members, can provide support for these costs while graduate students are working. More details can be found HERE.
International applicants will not be required to complete an English-language test if they have completed a degree at an institution where the language of instruction and examination was in English in a country where English is the primary language. All University Graduate English proficiency requirements can be found on the SFU Graduate Studies website.
The Duolingo English Test (DET) has been approved on a provisional basis, effective Summer 2024 through to the Fall 2026. The minimum required score for the DET is 130 overall with a minimum of 120 in each section.
All applicants must meet the Graduate English proficiency minimum requirements. Please note, meeting the minimum scores does not guarantee entrance into the SCA grad programs.
The SCA Graduate programs do not require GRE results.
Due to the high volume of applicants, Staff and Faculty are not able to review application materials. The review process is part of the application process.
Before accepting a student into the program, the School will consider the proposed research in relation to faculty resources in the field. Students will be matched with a supervisor upon admission, so supervisory capacity and fit is an important consideration for us.
Yes, but only if an applicant is selected for an interview. The program selection committee reviews all applications in an initial round of assessment. Successful applicants from this initial assessment are then contacted for an interview.
Due to the high number of applications each year, SCA does not accept applications past the application deadline.
At this time SCA will not be granting deferrals for starting the following year.
Yes, we have a waitlist for this program.
Normally 4 to 5 years.
Approximately 3 per year.
No. All SCA Graduate programs start in the Fall Term.
No. All course credits for each SCA Grad program are to be taken during the span of the program.
SCA Undergraduate courses can be taken with permission from the instructor. However, credit for these courses will not count towards your graduate degree. Many students opt to sit in the class or audit the course instead.
For the purposes of lowering costs and saving paper, unofficial transcripts may be uploaded to an application for review. If an offer of acceptance is given, all official sealed transcripts will be required.
The Research Statement should be limited to 2 single-spaced pages in not less than 11-point font, and with margins of at least 2 cm.
The average number of portfolio items is 5 to 7. More can be included, but please keep in mind the selection committee will be reviewing a fair number of other applications
Yes. It is much easier to review applications where links to sound recordings and videos are provided in a .pdf file. It is best to provide these examples in the order of importance/relevance to your application. If the videos or sound are hosted on a specific artist website, provide a link to the page where the video is rather than just a link to the entire website. Links to other media sites such as Soundcloud, YouTube, Vimeo, etc. are fine also.
Yes, SCA will consider non-academic references from professionals; however, it is preferred that there is at least one academic referee.
It is best to meet the requirements of the University prior to submitting all of the application material. As many official transcripts will not have been received within the application period, a condition of receiving the official transcripts will likely be included in the letter of offer as detailed HERE.
As soon as possible, but definitely by July, before enrolment opens. Many conditions will prohibit enrolment in classes until they have been met.
Due to the high volume of applicants, Staff and Faculty are not able to provide feedback on applications.
There is usually an in-person information session each November. For the last couple of years, we have hosted our information sessions online. If you have missed the latest information session you can request a link to the video from the Graduate Program Coordinator at sca_gpa@sfu.ca.
Projects & Activities
The Comparative Media Arts Journal (CMA Journal)
The CMA Journal is a newly established open-access, student-run, peer-reviewed journal, publishing the best of graduate and postgraduate essays, artworks and experimental content, created and run by SCA MA students.
The SCA's Audain Visual Artist in Residence program brings artists and practitioners to Vancouver who have contributed significantly to the field of contemporary art and whose work resonates with local and international visual art discourses.
The program is generously funded by the Audain Foundation Endowment Fund.
611 Talks
With approximately four talks per term, the free and public 611 Talks series at the Alexander Studios, which is organized by the SCA Visual Art area, features curators, international and local artists, both distinguished and emerging, and other cultural producers presenting on their practices, projects, and ideas. The series is a productive occasion for working artists and students to discuss their methods and concepts and to explore the contexts and theories of contemporary art while also engaging with visual culture in a broader way.
For an archive of past 611 Talks guests, please click here.
Audain Gallery
As the location for yearly student exhibitions, SFU Galleries' Audain Gallery at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts extends the pedagogy of the SCA. Through exhibitions, seminars, panels, artist talks, studio visits, and working directly with visiting artists, the programing and activities of the Audain Gallery offer our undergraduate and graduate students a unique opportunity to participate in high-profile, internationally focused and engaged artistic practices.
Audain Gallery
Simon Fraser University
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
149 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6B 5K3
E:audaingallery@sfu.ca
P: 778.782.9102
For an archive of past SCA exhibitions at the Audain Gallery, please click here.
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APPLY TO: PhD in Contemporary Arts
Visit our Graduate information page to find out about the application process and timeline for the SCA PhD program.
