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California Institute of the Arts

MA: Aesthetics and Politics

School of Critical Studies

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Critical discourse that matters now

Immersing students in intensive critique of the relationships of culture, politics, and society in a global context, CalArts’ two-year master’s in Aesthetics and Politics is the only graduate program in the U.S. where you will study critical theory and cultural studies amid the performing and visual arts all under one roof. Our interdisciplinary curriculum and distinguished faculty guide students in the development of individual research as part of a vibrant intellectual community dedicated to the radical critique of art, media, and society.

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Ani Tatintsyan at West Hollywood Aesthetics and Politics reading.

Study critical theory with the leading-edge thinkers of our time

MA Aesthetics and Politics

Combining a year of full-time study in residence followed by a low-residency year, Aesthetics and Politics is a program in critical theory and cultural studies that focuses on the political and aesthetic dimensions of social phenomena. Over the course of the program, you’ll participate in a series of compelling courses in political and aesthetic theory; technology and media studies; contemporary Black thought; feminist, gender, and sexuality studies; and urban studies.

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Students may also take elective courses throughout the Institute, benefiting from CalArts’ interdisciplinary arts environment and our enduring legacy as a hotbed of conceptual, political, and often radical art. 

Your peers in the program are likely to include artists and activists who wish to grow the conceptual and critical dimensions of their practices; political science and history graduates who find themselves drawn to art and aesthetics; mid-career professionals seeking to develop their thinking in new directions, and emerging scholars building a portfolio for further graduate study. Our alums have gone on to careers in the arts, curatorial positions, posts in arts administration, and further study in law school and PhD programs in visual culture, architectural theory, comparative literature, cinema studies, anthropology, and media studies, among others.

Each student is assigned a mentor from among our dynamic faculty, whose work is situated around the aesthetics-and politics-nexus, and they teach books and courses that engage with political theory, democratic theory, and Latin American literature; anti-Blackness, policing, and settler-colonial nationalism; sovereignty, vulnerability, and biopolitics; art theory, literary theory and music philosophy; radical politics, pessimism, and the afterlives of media technologies; trans/queer futures, auto/self-theorization, and critical pedagogies; scripted spaces, urban erasure, and the archaeology of the present; political and aesthetic theories of autonomy; art’s role in struggle; and the critique of arts institutions and arts pedagogy.

The lively, ongoing conversation within the program is expanded by our Critical Discourse in the Arts Lecture Series and Theorist in Residence sessions, which give students direct access to a diverse cross-section of scholars and theorists working on relevant questions. Past guests include Jacques Rancière, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Judith Butler, Fred Moten, Lauren Berlant, N.Katherine Hayles, Jasbir Puar, McKenzie Wark, and Denise Ferreira da Silva, among many others. 

The program begins with an intensive and transformative first year of in-person study,  followed by a low-residency year devoted to developing and producing an original master’s thesis in close conversation with your mentor and other faculty. Your thesis can serve as a writing sample for further graduate study, a first draft of a published manuscript, or a crystallization of critical and artistic vision that will feed your lifelong practice. Recent thesis topics include: What is “Radicality”?: The Aesthetics and Politics of the “L.A. School” of Architecture; Apparatus and Earth: A Study of Cinema in the Anthropocene; and A Sense of Horizon: Castoriadian Thought and the Political Experiment at Black Mountain College.

Interested in this program?

View our step-by-step application guide to learn more.

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Admission requirements

To be considered for the MA Aesthetics and Politics program, you must complete the application process and all program-specific requirements, including a writing portfolio, a statement of purpose, and two letters of recommendation. Before applying, please familiarize yourself with the detailed application requirements and resources available to assist you in this important process.

Application requirements

Degree requirements

Each CalArts student develops a course of study in consultation with their faculty mentor. Students in Aesthetics and Politics are able to specialize in one of three areas of concentration—critical theory, global studies, or media and urban studies—work towards a written thesis (a 5,000-word/50-page scholarly work) submitted at the end of the program.

MA Aesthetics and Politics academic requirements

Interdisciplinary opportunities

CalArts provides several programs of study that can be pursued concurrently with a student’s chosen metier, such as a concentration in Arts Education or Integrated Media.

Learn more about graduate concentrations

Courses you might take

What courses would you take as a student in Aesthetics and Politics? Browse the courses offered in the program and throughout the School of Critical Studies.

Aesthetics and Politics courses

School of Critical Studies courses

Meet the faculty

At CalArts, faculty and students are collaborators, teaching, learning, and working together as members of our community of artists. 

  • Theorist in Residence

    Each spring, visiting theorists spend up to two weeks at CalArts, where they teach workshops and faculty seminars, and present a public lecture. Denise Ferreira da Silva, Maggie Nelson, and Judith Butler are among our recent residents.

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  • Critical Discourse in the Arts and Media

    This lecture series presents lectures centered around a relevant annual theme. 

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  • In/Form

    In/Form is a yearly collection of writing by students in the School of Critical Studies’ MA Aesthetics and Politics Program. 

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Seeds of Change

Writing in Artforum, Natalia Brizuela and Julia Bryan-Wilson consider the art of Aesthetics and Politics alum Jumana Manna (MA 11): “Temporality is another theme across Manna’s oeuvre, regardless of medium or genre. What histories will survive? Whose archives will endure? Which futures will take hold?”

A stooped figure is seen from the back picking plants in a green meadow

Jumana Manna, Foragers, 2022. HD video, color, sound, 65 minutes.

Some of our alumni

More School of Critical Studies alumni

Want to learn more?

We got you. Our Admissions team is all about providing the information you need to decide if CalArts is right for you. We’re excited to connect with you for a tour of our legendary campus, a virtual info session, or at one of our admissions events across the country or around the world. Take the next step—we’re here to help.