Critical Studies

Join us for MFA Open Studios at PNCA! Meet with and view the artwork of more than 50 students in a wide variety of media, form, and concept.

(re)moved is an exhibition uncovering new meanings from the erasure of words. Performed by a collective of PNCA's graduate students as part of Cover to Cover during Portland's Book Festival.

The MA in Critical Studies sponsors TBA's NIGHT SCHOOL: performance-lectures that highlight new, experimental creative research that blurs the boundary between art and academia in an effort to "disrupt established forms of knowledge sharing and production."

The Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies presents the Class of 2022 MFA/MA Thesis Presentations and Graduate Thesis Exhibition.

An interview with Assistant Professor in PNCA at Willamette's Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies, Dr. Taylor Eggan, about his latest publication, "Unsettling Nature: Ecology, Phenomenology, and the Settler Colonial Imagination" (UVA Press, 2021)

(Portland, OR) The Center for Contemporary Art and Culture and the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at PNCA are pleased to present Time In-Between: Temporal Matter(s), a group exhibition of new and recent works by all First Year MFA Graduate Candidates and Post-Bacc Programs students. On view February 21st - March 9th, 2022. 

Find your Critical Community: Apply Now for the MA in Critical Studies Program

Visual Studies MFA alum Mo Murshed’s show, “Patterns Do Furnish a Life,” at SATOR Projects, co-curated by Critical Studies MA alumna Kyle Cohlmia, on view through Nov. 21st

Hallie Ford School of Graduate studies (HFSGS) at PNCA is pleased to announce the 2021 Graduate Symposium theme: “Speculative Features.” 

“New Ownership” Portland’s first exhibition of physical artwork verified by NFTs, curated by alumna Hannah Bakken, was written up in Oregon Arts Watch and Ceramics Now. 

The Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies welcomes novelist Janice Lee to campus on Nov. 3rd, from 6:30-7:30 (PST), as part of the Graduate Lecture Series. 

Eileen Isagon Skyers, an alumna of the MA in Critical Studies Program at PNCA, will share a talk covering her multifaceted practice and career in the arts. She will discuss our contemporary framework for viewing, making, and valuing art against a backdrop of rapidly shifting technology, and how that manifests in her own work and criticism about digital art and culture. 

Wednesday September 22 in the Mediatheque and Livestreaming 6:30 pm 

ASL Interpretation provided

On Wednesday, April 28, at 6:30 pm, Alley Pezanoski-Browne, an alumna of the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies at PNCA, gives a talk as part of the Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies Lectures Series. The talk is being streamed over Zoom and PNCA’s Youtube Channel.

The HFSGS Lecture Series welcomes award-winning novelist and poet Ocean Vuong. April 15, 2021, 6:30 PM on the PNCA Youtube Channel / Zoom Co-Hosted by Low-Residency Creative Writing and Critical Studies

Critical Studies student and Writing & Literature Fellow Justin Duyao holds a conversation with LRCW Faculty and Poet Asiya Wadud

Critical Studies Online Lecture Wed March 17 at 6:30 PST

Dr. Lauren Fournier

Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Studies, University of Toronto

2021 Critical Studies Thesis Mentors

In their second year of the MA program Critical Studies students receive one-on-one mentorship and support for writing their thesis and thinking through opportunities for publishing and publicly presenting their work. Mentors are chosen and paired with students based on their areas of expertise and professional experience.

The MA in Critical Studies students recently had the opportunity to spend time in the serene landscape of the Caldera Art Center near Sisters, Oregon.

Forms of Care: Building the Worlds We Need

November 20+21