Opportunities

Student Opportunities

We are committed to offering our students a range of professional development opportunities and other experiences that enhance their engagement with the UCSC community, Santa Cruz and the broader Bay Area. These activities allow our graduates to develop skills and insights that can help them pursue purposeful and successful careers in the future, while also making a significant contribution to camps life during their studies in the program.


Curatorial Practice

Institute of the Arts and Sciences
The Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS), led by Visual Studies alumnus, Dr. Rachel Nelson is located in the city of Santa Cruz, and is the Central Coast’s premier university art and research center. Through groundbreaking, national-caliber art exhibitions and social justice initiatives, the IAS creatively educates students and the public about urgent issues impacting our society with innovative approaches to art and equity.
The IAS innovates exhibitions and programs reflecting a deep commitment to art as a catalyst for social change. Bringing the arts together with the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, the IAS’s wide-ranging, dynamic programming engages the most critical issues of our time.

Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery
With a history that extends to UC Santa Cruz’s pioneer classes of faculty and students, the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery functions as a significant pillar within the intellectual life of Cowell College and represents a cornerstone in the university’s network of exhibition spaces. In the spirit of the college’s motto “The pursuit of truth in the company of friends,” the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery celebrates the capacity of the visual arts to enliven and expand the horizons of inquiry while fostering connections not only within the college, but within the broader campus and local community.

Established in 1966 and named after Eloise Pickard Smith, an artist, beloved member of the campus community, and the wife of Cowell College’s founding provost, Page Smith, the gallery supports a dynamic range of programming that centers around quarterly exhibitions. The gallery also houses a permanent collection featuring works by California artists and Eloise Pickard Smith among its highlights.

Graduate students have the following opportunities to gain curatorial experience in the Smith Gallery:

  • Students can assist in the preparation of upcoming exhibitions and can develop related projects in conversation with the Smith Gallery Research Associate. Students with no prior gallery experience are welcome.
  • Students can propose public programs hosted by the Smith Gallery (artist or scholarly talks, film screenings, workshops, seminars, etc). Although thematic resonance with the gallery’s current exhibition is encouraged, this is not a requirement for submitting a proposal. Funding to support events is not guaranteed, but the Smith Gallery can provide assistance with promotion, event logistics, and limited equipment.
  • Students are also welcome to propose future exhibitions to be curated in collaboration with the Smith Gallery. In this case, it is especially desirable for the students to be familiar with the Smith Gallery’s operations either though prior collaborations through programming, or through an independent study in the gallery.

Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery
The Mary Porter Sesnon Art Galleries fosters an interdisciplinary, student-centered approach to learning. They create exhibitions and education programs that reflect the deep commitment at UC Santa Cruz to promote the arts as a force for social change. And, they act as a cultural resource for the university and our broader region, reinforcing the social fabric by fostering connections across the campus and facilitating interactions with alumni and our community.

Teaching

We recognize that many of our graduate students are interested in pursuing careers in academia, and therefore teaching experience is important as they prepare for the job market. Our program offers a number of teaching opportunities that range from invited course lectures to teaching full courses during the academic year or summer session.

Visual & Media Cultures Colloquia

The Visual and Media Cultures Colloquium (VMCC) is an annual lecture series that brings cutting-edge scholars to the UCSC Arts Division to speak on a broad range of subjects related to visual and media culture. The series is co-sponsored with the graduate programs in Visual Studies and the Film and Digital Media Department.
Each year two VS students and the faculty coordinator are responsible for selecting, inviting and hosting speakers from a list of suggested names submitted by their peers and HAVC faculty. Together they share the unique challenge and opportunity of creating a program that brings to campus an array of cutting-edge scholars to speak on a broad spectrum of subjects.

Peer Mentoring

To be announced.

Arts Professional Pathways

Arts Professional Pathways supports successful student application and placement in internships. The intention of this scholarship is to make internships more accessible to all students by offsetting living expenses, moving expenses, lost income, or increased travel expenses associated with the internship.

Professional Development

The Division of Graduate Studies supports graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with professional development through group events and certificate programs. Panel discussions, workshops, and other events during the academic year help students identify potential careers, within and without academia, and prepare for and transition into those careers. Speakers discuss a wide range of issues, including engaging research presentations, inclusive teaching, effective networking, successful grant applications and more.

Graduate Student Commons

The goal of the Graduate Student Commons is to provide a comfortable and welcoming space that will attract a wide spectrum of graduate students and foster graduate student interaction and a sense of community. To that end, the Graduate Student Commons Governance Board utilizes the Graduate Student Commons and rental income to promote graduate student academic well-being, success, and camaraderie. The GSC offers a variety of spaces, including small study rooms, computer terminals, and a lounge for social interaction. Their aim is to make it a resource for graduate students to stop between classes where they may check email, hold office hours, attend or hold a meeting, or join a homework study group, for example.

Graduate Symposium

The Graduate Division hosts the Graduate Symposium annually in the spring at McHenry Library. All graduate students are eligible to participate and may do so in person or virtually via Zoom. (Recipients of qualifying fellowships are required to participate.) The event is free and open to the public. Judges representing UCSC staff, postdoctoral scholars, graduate student alumni, UCSC Foundation trustees, and community members determine an overall best presentation and five academic division best presentations.

Grad Slam 

Grad Slam is a communication contest hosted by the Graduate Division that is open to all graduate students. Participants have a maximum of three minutes to explain their graduate research or artistic endeavor to a general audience.
Prizes are $3000 to the winner, $1500 to the runner-up, $750 to the people’s choice.
Every UC holds a Grad Slam, and the ten UC Grad Slam champions compete in the UC Office of the President Grad Slam the first Friday of May in San Francisco. 

Graduate Pedagogy Fellow

The Graduate Pedagogy Fellows (GPF) program supports the development of peer leaders in research-based higher education pedagogy, and focuses on the significance of the Teaching Assistant (TA) role in supporting equitable outcomes in student learning.

Graduate students who participate in this interdisciplinary program strengthen their knowledge and application of effective and equitable teaching practices, craft an enhanced professional development opportunity for TAs in their departments, and receive a certificate in pedagogical leadership—with the goal of facilitating professional development for graduate student educators in their departments the following academic year. Through this program, TLC seeks to support graduate student professional development and undergraduate student success at UC Santa Cruz by cultivating TA professional developers who are well-versed in effective and equity-minded teaching methods.

PhD+ Workshop Series

Sponsored by The Humanities Institute, PhD+ is a monthly workshop series focused on issues of interest to all graduate students. Workshops expand graduate student training and provide space for asking questions you might not know to ask.

Explore Our Department


Questions?

Email: visualstudies@ucsc.edu


Last modified: Sep 09, 2024