Course details
The Postgraduate Diploma of Comparative Aesthetics and the Arts gives you an excellent entry into the multi-disciplinary field of aesthetics across different cultural contexts east and west. It advances your career prospects in a broad range of professions related to culture and the arts. You will develop your analytical and professional skills and get together with likeminded students of different related backgrounds. Upon successful completion, you have the opportunity to transfer into the MA Comparative Aesthetics if you wish. The course has been designed, with the help of academics and professionals in the arts, humanities and social sciences, to familiarise you with a broad range of aesthetic concepts and models across a range of different disciplines at postgraduate level. It offers you an alternative award for successful completion of the coursework only for the MA in Comparative Aesthetics and the Arts without requiring submission of the minor thesis.
Course Details
The course is based on intensive small-group class work.
You are strongly encouraged to attend optional events in the participating disciplines (talks, workshops, conferences, exhibitions, performances etc.).
You are taught in a multidisciplinary environment with other students from varied backgrounds (theory/practice, academic/professional).
You are expected to be familiar with basic aesthetic issues and concepts in your respective field, or to acquire basic familiarity, with the help of your course leaders, early in the course.
You are required to take six course modules (60 credits) in total:
- PH6023 Western Aesthetics
- PH6021 East Asian Aesthetics
And four of the following:
- EN6000 Modern Aesthetics in English Literature and Culture
- FR6601 Philosophies of Noise, Sound and Music
- FR6204 Theories of Vision
- GE6003 Ut pictura poiesis. Literature and the Visual Arts
- HA6006 Theory for Art History
- LL6011 Parallel Worlds. Dystopian Fiction and Digital Realities
- SC6624 Civilisation and Globalisation
For further details of the course content and module descriptions, please see the Postgraduate Academic Calendar
If you pass taught modules to the value of at least 30 credits and do not want to complete the course, or fail to complete it, you may opt to exit and be conferred with a Postgraduate Certificate.
On successful completion of this course, you will know how to:
- identify, formulate, analyse and critique a broad range of aesthetic models in theoretical (academic) as well as applied contexts (professional and practice based) identify and negotiate cultural contexts and differences between different aesthetic paradigms East and West
- use and create theoretical concepts relevant to the field of aesthetics and to the visual, literary and performing arts
- effectively perform visual, literary or other non-theoretical analysis
- describe, assess and critique the positions of central theorists and practitioners
- argue and defend positions in spoken as well as written form in a multi-disciplinary setting to a professional standard.
Entry Requirements
- have a second class honours, grade 2 honours primary degree (or equivalent) in philosophy, history of art, literature, sociology, or other relevant subject (including, for example, fine art, music, architecture, design, social science, psychology, and others), or equivalent professional qualifications
- demonstrate evidence of having taken undergraduate or post-graduate modules in art history and/or philosophy and/or practical/professional expertise or qualification in an area that involves aesthetics
Course Practicalities
Modules are small-group, student-centred seminars, giving you the opportunity to bring in your own interests, questions and expertise in class discussion.
You will be guided and encouraged to attend a variety of optional extracurricular events relevant to the course, such as talks, conferences, exhibitions, performances.
You will take six modules, each for 24 hours across one or two semesters (September to March). You will design your own timetable with the help of the course coordinator.
You are required to read and review the relevant material in advance of each session. Expect to prepare for two to four hours per two hours in class.
Assessmenty
Assessment is by means of essays as well as attendance and participation. There are no exams.
Updated on 08 November, 2015Course Location
About University College Cork
UCC was established in 1845 as one of three Queen’s Colleges - at Cork, Galway and Belfast. These new colleges theyre established in the reign of Queen Victoria, and named after her.
Queen's College, Cork (QCC) was established to provide access to higher education in the Irish province of Munster. Cork was chosen for the new college due to its place at the centre of transatlantic trade at the time and the presence of existing educational initiatives such as the Royal Cork Institution and a number of private medical schools.
The site chosen for the new college was dramatic and picturesque, on the edge of a limestone bluff overlooking the River Lee. It is associated with the educational activities of a local early Christian saint, Finbarr. It is believed that his monastery and school stood nearby, and his legend inspired UCC’s motto: ‘Where Finbarr Taught, let Munster Learn.’
On 7 November 1849, QCC opened its doors to a small group of students (only 115 students in that first session, 1849-1850) after a glittering inaugural ceremony in the Aula Maxima (Great Hall), which is still the symbolic and ceremonial heart of the University.
The limestone buildings of the Main Quadrangle (as it is now known) are built in a style inspired by the great universities of the Middle Ages, and theyre designed by the gifted architectural partnership of Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward. The iconic image of UCC, it is set in landscaped gardens and surrounds the green lawn known to all as the Quad.
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