About our research

About our research

The Visual Culture Research Group (VCRG) focuses on critical, historical and theoretical responses to a wide range of visual practices. These include art, performance and photography, as well as aspects of material culture.

Our group members are particularly concerned with the social and political significance of different forms of visual culture.

Our position within Manchester School of Art also allows us to shape and formulate our research in the wider context of art, design and curatorial practice.

The VCRG plays a significant role in the development of the art and performance postgraduate research community. Recent PhD subjects include:

  • images of refugees
  • participatory book art
  • activist art collectives in Israel
  • St Ives modernism
  • Jewish identities in nineteenth painting and online visual mis- and disinformation

We welcome enquiries from potential PhD candidates interested in working in the research areas we cover.

Get in touch about PhD study.

Our research informs our teaching on the undergraduate programmes in art theory and practice and within the contextualising practice framework, which is delivered across Manchester School of Art.

Our research areas

  • Art, class, labour and capitalism
  • Race, diaspora and colonialism
  • Tourism, place and the sensory
  • Memory and visual and material culture
  • Visual culture, protest and conflict
  • Social media images and online visual culture
  • Socially engaged art
  • Irish art
  • East Asian art
  • Media philosophy, critical theory and media technologies

Meet the team

See contact details, publications history, specialisms and more.

Selected projects