- About
- News & Events
- News
- News archive
- Summer 2023
- SCA's Arne Eigenfeldt in The Conversation: Why the growth of AI in making art won’t eliminate artists
- FCAT hosts Safe Space for White Questions online discussion
- Our Way and The Klabona Keepers among 5th Annual Skoden Film Festival award winners
- FCAT supports northern BC communities with increased learning opportunities
- Master of Digital Media Grads Tackle Plastic Waste Blanketing Our Oceans with Group Shopping App
- June 2023 Convocation Featured Student Profiles
- Introducing FCAT Research Spotlight
- The School of Communication's 50th Anniversary: From 1973 to 2023
- Spring 2023
- Cody Sawatsky Memorial Plaque Unveiled at the SFU Surrey Campus
- Scholarly Impact of the Week: Michael Filimowicz
- School of Interactive Arts & Technology professor Wolfgang Stuerzlinger inducted to prestigious VR academy
- Meet Nico Hernandez, 2022 Lighthouse Lab Prize Recipient
- Jon Corbett Joins School of Interactive Art and Technology
- Welcome Kota Ezawa, the 2023 Spring Audain Visual Artist in Residence
- MPUB Alumnus Claire Cavanagh Becomes Literary Agent
- Alumnus designs Canucks Lunar New Year jersey
- 2023 Skoden Indigenous Film Festival
- How the Online Streaming Act will support Canadian content
- Meet Jonathan Newman, the 2022 Recipient of the Cody Sawatsky Memorial Award in Gaming
- Fall 2022
- Eight SFU innovators bestowed with Canada’s highest academic honour
- SIAT Convocation Features October 2022
- Graduating Student Sharlyn Monillas Tells Us About Her Time in CMNS
- Centre for Digital Media partners with Ethọ́s Lab to improve Black representation in digital media
- Explore the Surrey Community Open House SIAT Project Demos
- new interdisciplinary technology aid wilderness search and rescue
- Building better democracies through journalism
- Charter alumnus making a big impact through small gifts
- Summer 2022
- FCAT June 2022 Convocation: Looking back
- Meet Contemporary Arts alum Krystle Silverfox
- SFU researchers receive over $6 million to tackle online disinformation, foster data fluencies
- SIAT researchers develop and curate exhibition at Galiano Island’s Yellowhouse Art Centre
- Roll out the red carpet: Surrey students showcase filmmaking talent
- Spring 2022
- FACTS AND FALSEHOODS IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
- Celebrating Black History Month across the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology
- SFU professor shares experience living and teaching in war-torn Ukraine
- SFU artists and researchers showcase art installation on Surrey’s ‘UrbanScreen’
- Leadership and Agile Production Management micro-credential established in partnership with DigiBC
- Leading with heart: Meet Staff Achievement Award winner Corbin Saleken
- HOW GOOGLE’S SEARCH ENGINE SUPPORTS CONSPIRACY THEORISTS AND HATE FIGURES
- SFU staffer’s commitment to local arts community nets staff achievement award
- Fall 2021
- Summer 2021
- Spring 2021
- Fall 2020
- Summer 2020
- Spring 2020
- Fall 2019
- Summer 2019
- Spring 2019
- Fall 2018
- Summer 2018
- Spring 2018
- Fall 2017
- Spring 2017
- Fall 2016
- Summer 2016
- Spring 2016
- Fall 2015
- Summer 2015
- Spring 2015
- Fall 2014
- Summer 2014
- Spring 2014
- Fall 2013
- Summer 2023
- News archive
- Events
- Featured Student
- Featured alumnus
- FCAT After School Podcast
- Season One
- Episode 0: Welcome to After School
- Episode 1: Finding Your Creative Potential with Prem Gill
- Episode 2: Inclusivity in the Performance Arts with Aryo Khakpour
- Episode 3: Connecting Design and Technology with Sofia Bautista
- Episode 4: Storytelling in Game Design with Mars Balisacan
- Episode 5: Challenging the Status Quo through Art with Shion Skye Carter & Stefan Nazarevich
- Episode 6: Starting Your Own Publishing Company with Jesse Finkelstein
- Episode 7: Finding Happiness in Your Work with Nick Doering
- Episode 8: Making a Name in Independent Filmmaking with Gloria Mercer
- Episode 9: It All Starts with a Strategy with Adam Brayford
- Episode 10: Shifting Places, Shifting Minds with Milton Lim
- Episode 11: Being the Big Piece in a Small Pie with Jordan Yep
- Episode 12: Reimagining Dance Training with Tin Gamboa
- Episode 13: Standing Out as a Creative with Sara Milosavic
- Season Two
- Episode 0: Welcome to FCAT After School Series 2!
- Episode 1: Entrepreneurship in UX Design with Eric Lee
- Episode 2: Community and Adaptability in the Performing Arts with Howard Dai
- Episode 3: Mastering the Art of Publishing with Jazmin Welch
- Episode 4: Navigating your Educational Journey with Broadcaster Simi Sara
- Episode 5: Career Transitions of a Software Engineer with Vic Ong
- Episode 6: Becoming Your Own Boss with Kirstin Richter
- Episode 7: Gaining a Global Outlook with Kai Bockmann
- Episode 8: Finding Your Place in Publishing with Heidi Waechtler
- Episode 9: Exploring Virtual Production with Brenda Medina
- Episode 10: Inclusion in the Design Industry with Priscilla Skylar Lee
- Episode 11: Exploring Study Focus in Contemporary Arts with Sophie Tang
- Episode Transcripts
- Season 2, Episode 1: Entrepreneurship in UX Design with Eric Lee
- Season 2, Episode 2: Community and Adaptability in the Performing Arts with Howard Dai
- Season 2, Episode 3: Mastering the Art of Publishing with Jazmin Welch
- Season 2, Episode 4: Navigating your Educational Journey with Broadcaster Simi Sara
- Season 2, Episode 5: Career Transitions of a Software Engineer with Vic Ong
- Season 2, Episode 6: Becoming Your Own Boss with Kirstin Richter
- Season 2, Episode 7: Kai Bockmann
- Season 2, Episode 8: Finding Your Place in Publishing with Heidi Waechtler
- Season 2, Episode 9: Exploring Virtual Production with Brenda Medina
- Season 2, Episode 10: Inclusion in the Design Industry with Priscilla Skylar Lee
- Season 2, Episode 11: Exploring Study Focus in Contemporary Arts with Sophie Tang
- Season One
- News
- Future students
- Current students
- Impact
- Get involved
- Research
- Return to campus
- Counsellors
SFU establishes first interdisciplinary and practice-based PhD in contemporary arts in Western Canada
School for the Contemporary Arts, Art & Design, Performance & Culture
By Tessa Perkins Deneault
The highest academic degree traditionally available to artists was the Master of Fine Arts. In recent years, PhD programs in the fine and performing arts have expanded scholarly work in these areas and provided an environment in which contemporary artists and art scholars can set their work within an academic context.
This fall, SFU welcomes its first cohort of six PhD students into the School for the Contemporary Arts (SCA). The program is the first of its kind in Western Canada.
“The program supports professional practice and also the need for us professionals to have graduate degrees at the PhD level,” says Joni Low. “As a curator and writer, I’ve been drawn to many artists that have studied at SFU, and I realized there must be something exciting going on there and I wanted to be a part of it.”
The research-intensive program supports both scholarly and practice-based research, meaning scholars in fields such as performance studies, visual culture, media arts, sound studies, film studies, curation, and art history will produce a written thesis and study alongside practicing artists whose artistic work forms the basis of their research, culminating in a major original artwork or public presentation.
“To have that artistic, creative component within research allows it to expand and deepen in ways that I think are unique to the arts,” explains Josephine Lee, an interdisciplinary artist who works in sculpture, installation and performance. “Having a PhD programme that allows students to gain mentorship, network, and have the space and time to be able to delve into their research is a gift.”
The incoming students were attracted to the program for a variety of reasons, but one common theme is the interdisciplinarity of the program and the SCA.
“I was looking for something that was more transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary, and other institutions didn't seem to have the same level of cross pollination that I had experienced, and really enjoyed, in my master's program,” says Lee. “When I took a closer look at SFU, everyone seems to work together in this great interdisciplinary way and that really attracted me.”
Dave Biddle, who works in video and performance, completed his MFA at SFU and had first-hand experience of the school’s interdisciplinary nature.
“The idea of interdisciplinarity makes for good discussions, and research creation is a way of including interdisciplinarity at the PhD level in order to consider creation and different modes of thinking through different media,” he says.
Having completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the SCA, Simon Overstall was familiar with the school, and had been collaborating with a faculty member on their music projects.
“To do a PhD level degree with the opportunity to focus on making art, as opposed to solely written output, was definitely important to my decision,” he says. “The program is interdisciplinary and very contemporary in terms of having less focus on traditional styles or forms.”
Coming to SFU from Uganda, Edward Sembatya is founder and director of Dance Theatre Uganda (CLPGU) Ltd. His research focuses on socio-historical knowledge, narratives and practices that are embedded in traditional or Indigenous dances from East Africa and new contemporary dance practices. He was looking for a PhD program that would allow him to pursue his academic interests while continuing to work as a practicing artist.
“The PhD program opens doors for new knowledge perspectives in the university, so it becomes the centre of knowledge collection from different parts of the world. I consider myself as an addition to the versatility and diverse artistic culture at SFU,” says Sembatya. “I’m interested to see how I can reenact my traditional dances so that they can be embodied by a non-practitioner body (white, Asian, or Black diasporic bodies).”
Also part of the incoming cohort is Niusha Hatefinia whose research interests include film and media studies, film-philosophy, and Iranian cinema. A number of other PhD studentsare currently studying within the school under special arrangement.
The program’s unique design and focus places creative and critical work in conversation while fostering an environment in which the conditions for how knowledge is produced in the contemporary arts become the impetus for further research.
To learn more about our School for the Contemporary Arts PhD Program, click here.