VISUAL STUDIES was launched in 2005 as a BA Hons programme housed within the Philosophy Department. The programme achieved stand-alone Department status in 2009.

Like many Visual Studies Departments around the world, Visual Studies at Lingnan offers an interdisciplinary course of study. At Lingnan we focus on the following core sub-disciplines: Art History, Cognitive Film Studies, and Philosophical Aesthetics. Our emphasis on Philosophical Aesthetics gives Visual Studies at Lingnan a unique profile, as does our emphasis on cognitive approaches to film and Chinese art. Our teachers all hold research degrees in one of our core sub-disciplines, and some teachers have specialized training in several of the relevant areas. The result is a course of study that is very well integrated indeed, with teachers not only understanding but also taking a strong interest in each others’ courses and research activities. Our teaching is research-based and all of our teachers are as committed to the pursuit of high quality research as they are to quality teaching.

In keeping with the Liberal Arts mission of Lingnan, our curriculum emphasizes transferable skills and a whole person approach to education. Visual Studies at Lingnan focuses on the history of conceptual thinking about the visual arts, and on the history of various forms of artistic expression, in China and elsewhere. We expect students to take a keen interest in the art of the region where Lingnan University is located, but also to be eager to broaden their perspectives through serious engagement with traditions and practices from other parts of the world. In an effort to foster an international and cosmopolitan mind-set, we, like most Departments at Lingnan, aim to send approximately half of our students abroad for a semester. We have worked hard to develop links with Partner Institutions offering courses of study likely to be of particular interest to Visual Studies students.

We believe that students are able to deepen their historical and conceptual grasp of artistic expression if they themselves are given the opportunity to design and execute a series of artistic projects. To ensure that our students engage in what we think of as “research expression”—the testing of historical and conceptual learning through actual artistic practice—we launched an Artist-in-Residence programme in 2006. Bringing in one local, one non-local, one established and one emerging artist on an annual basis, this programme offers students studio practice courses in a wide range of media. In the course of a three-year undergraduate degree, students will have the opportunity to work closely with one visiting artist, and to attend artists’ talks by another five visiting artists. As of 2010 this Artist-in-Residence programme will be funded by a generous grant from the Lingnan Foundation, for which we are very grateful.

Our Artist-in-Residence programme is further complemented by studio practice courses taught by two of our full-time staff members. One of the goals of the Artist-in-Residence programme is to help students to understand the art world from the practitioners’ perspective. Each artist’s residency concludes with an Exhibition of artistic work, and these exhibitions are often occasions for student involvement in curatorial practice. Exhibitions of work by some of our full-time teachers, and by the students themselves provide further opportunities to understand what curators do. Further learning of a more practical nature is available through our Internship programme, and we envisage several of our courses as having a Service Learning component in the near future.

In terms of its Institutional Culture, our Department is consensus-oriented, consultative, and inclusive in its approach. Our communicative practices emphasize generosity of mind, trust, frank and open discussion, and the pleasures of pursuing knowledge and understanding together, as a shared project. Students played a decisive role in the development of Visual Studies at Lingnan, at a time when the programme was still in its infancy. We have always welcomed student involvement and have, over the years, supported any number of student-driven learning projects.

Whereas some of our Graduates have gone on to pursue postgraduate degrees at such highly ranked institutions as York University in the UK, others have opted to enter the job market directly. Many of our students have found work in the commercial sector, with companies for which concepts of the aesthetic play a key role. Companies devoted to fashion are a case in point, but there are many other examples: gourmet food companies, jewelry companies, and so on. Several of our students are now teaching visual arts in schools. Others are working, or have worked, as reporters, as clerks in universities, and as research assistants. One student with a special interest in Art and Well Being has found work at one of Hong Kong’s best private hospitals.