Rolling Admissions for Fall Enrollment– Your First Residency is in Mexico City

Apply Today: https://www.idsva.edu/admissions/how-to-apply

The Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts welcomes applications from artists and scholars engaged in critical interdisciplinary research in philosophy, art theory, and aesthetics. This unique low-residency PhD program offers online courses (Fall and Spring semesters) and short, yet immersive international residencies guided by world-renowned faculty, artists, and scholars. Under the leadership of IDSVA president Simonetta Moro and core faculty members Howard Caygill, Dejan Lukić, and Silvia Mazzini, you are invited to join a global community of thinkers committed to examining how ideas emerge from specific topological, historical, and cultural contexts.

Earn your PhD with three years of coursework (60 credits) followed by the dissertation. Applications are open to qualified holders of a BA or BFA. Students entering the program with an MA in art, philosophy, or related disciplines or an MFA may be eligible to transfer up to 5 credits toward the PhD, reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Visit our Admissions page for more information.

Apply now and start with the online first-year seminar in the Fall (September-December), then travel to Mexico City for your first international Winter residency part of the Topological Studies Program with our world-renowned faculty (January 6-13, 2027). See our academic calendar for more details.

Mexico City provides IDSVA students with the opportunity to examine a geographically distributed narrative of Indigenous worlds, colonial violence, and utopian futures, each existing in discontinuous strata. This multi-layered city brings pre-Columbian indigenous cultures into dialogue with contemporary art, architecture, and various cultural traditions. We’ll trace connections from ancient Teotihuacán through the Mexican Revolution and the Muralist Movement to today’s artistic responses to European colonization’s ongoing effects. Key visits include the Museo de Antropología, the Templo Mayor and Museum, Casa Azul (Frida Kahlo Museum), Museo de Bellas Artes, Anahuacalli museum, Trotsky’s house, and the ancient archaeological site of Teotihuacán. Learn more about our students’ explorations, insights, and reflections on residencies like this one by reading our Student Newsletter.

IDSVA’s Topological Studies program includes a wide array of visiting faculty and artists at each residency site, further inviting students to investigate how ideas and visual culture shape human consciousness both past and present. These intensive learning experiences will inform your research process, revealing how geography, history, and culture intersect to create new ways of thinking.

Explore IDSVA’s residency locations.

Learn more about our world-renowned faculty.

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