Who are we?

The Department of Aesthetic Studies undertakes research and teaching in artistic and other aesthetic forms of expression, their history and cultural functions. We integrate the analytical and practical aspects with theoretical and historical studies. Cooperation across disciplines and with partners outside the university is a regular part of our research agenda. Basic research and teaching activities take place in the following sections: Musicology , Comparative Literature , Aesthetics and Culture , Art History and Dramaturgy . Each section offers complete undergraduate and graduate programmes and is responsible for the supervision of doctoral students. The centers of Rhetoric , Museology and  Multimedia Studies offer specific programmes on different levels: supplementary study programmes for ordinary university students, and master programmes for candidates already in jobs who are looking for further education programmes. The Department houses The Doctoral School in Arts and Aesthetics currently in charge of the PhD programme Arts, Literature and Cultural Studies under the PhD school in Humanistic Science. The Department also houses a Library for Aesthetic Studies .

At present the Department houses approx. 1600 students and 55 staff members, 11 secretaries, 2 technical staff and 20 doctoral students plus a number of researchers and teaching assistants in temporary positions, 6 student councellors and 15 student teachers. The library is staffed with 1 librarian and 2 assistants.

Where can you find us?

The Department is located in the renovated military baracks of Langelandsgades Kaserne ( see map ). In the various buildings of Kasernen – as the compound is normally called – you will find class rooms, the students’ house with smaller rooms for groupwork and computer rooms, the student councellors’ office, secretaries, technical staff, reading rooms and offices for academic staff. You will also find two theater halls, a library and a snack bar. The other departments of the Humanities are located elsewhere on campus. Their libraries and computer rooms are also open to our students, and their class rooms are often used for our teaching. Cooperation between the Department and the other units of the Humanities in teaching, research, and seminars occurs on a regular basis.

Kasernen   is located a short walk away from the central campus area, Universitetsparken, with the main library, the State Library and a number of Dpartments of the Humanities, other faculties, class rooms and cafeterias. The Student House with a book store, cafeterias and meeting rooms is only 5 minutes’ walk away. Here you will also find the central administration of the university. Another 5 minutes’ walk will take you to the complex of Nobelparken with the language departments, the Dean’s office and the Faculty’s central secretarial and technical services, libraries and computer rooms. The Departments and centers of Media and Communication studies are located in the opposite direction in Åbogade.

What are we working with?

Often aesthetics is related only to artistic forms of expression. But aesthetics is a much more wide-ranging domain, comprising all aspects of how we actively shape and interpret reality through our senses and practical experience. The aesthetic disciplines work with mind and body, sight and sound, movement and perception, space and consciousness. The Department integrates the study of artistic expression with the aesthetics of the everyday culture it is part of.

The various forms of artistic expression have a value and a function in their own right, but are widely used in society for different purposes and with great impact – by artists, urban planners, designers, in teaching on all levels, communication, media design, fashion and many other contexts.  But the arts also engage in a fundamental creative and experimental process through aesthetic means involving broader cultural norms and values. The arts cannot be separated from other aesthetic phenomena in our cultural surroundings. Thus, the study of artistic expression enhances the understanding of the historical processes of culture of today and yesterday and of the role of aesthetics in society. The aesthetic disciplines provide candidates with a knowledge of particular aesthetic forms of expression and a series of skills that will serve as guidelines for their career opportunities.

And the teaching?

All programs of higher education in Denmark have the same basic structure, based in the so-called Bologna declaration which is now in the process of being implemented in the vast majority of the European countries. The structure contains a 3-year bachelor program (BA) and a 2-year master program (MA, or ‘cand.mag’.), which for some is continued by a 3-year post-graduate doctoral education leading to a Ph.D. The BA comprises 2 years of study in one discipline followed by 1 year in another discipline, before being followed by an MA in one of the two disciplines. A new supplementary structure allowing for an earlier start on the Ph.D. before the completion of the MA is now being implemented.

It is also possible to enroll in special 1-year programs in Museology and in Rhetoric . The programs in   Multi Media Studies offer a 1-year program and an MA program in cooperation with the departments of Computer Science and Information and Media Studies.

All potential and enrolled students can visit the student councellors covering all the aesthetic sections and centers.