top of page
1/5
Academic Tracks
Theoretical Explorations courses address foundational questions in philosophy and critical theory in relation to contemporary art and politics, with an emphasis on German idealist and continental psychoanalytic thought.
Praxis is taught by art practitioners (dancers, musicians, artists, curators…) who locate theoretical and creative gaps in our existing worldviews, producing from these voids artistic, political, and social transformations.
Interpretive Methods take contemporary concerns seriously to build upon influential research paradigms in the humanities and social sciences - inter alia, structuralism, post-structuralism, semiotics, ethnography, ordinary language analysis, discourse analysis, Hegelian dialectics, Marxian critique, psychoanalysis.
The Art and Architecture of Language program runs through all of our courses, which refuse distinction between theory, methods, and praxis by honing the formal techniques of writing with style, argument, and logic. BICAR remains committed to teaching the Modern Standard Arabic language to beginners, intermediates, and experts of all ages.
Continental Psychoanalysis consists of three core modules – Self, Culture, and Society – which give students a foundational understanding of Freud’s theory through Jacques Lacan’s radical return to the father of psychoanalysis. The track also includes electives on psychoanalytic approaches to contemporary politics, ethics, and aesthetics.
Fields
Critical Analysis of Art courses do not take images to be the end product of either artists’ intentional processes (psychologism) or their historical contexts (historicism). Rather, students will consider images to be statements of argument, explanations of or theories about their subject matter. They are also always a meditation on what visuality is and what it can do.
Students of BICAR courses are eligible for Certificates of Completion, Postgraduate Certificates, and Postgraduate Diplomas.
Certificates of Completion
Awarded to students who successfully attend all sessions of a course
Postgraduate Certificates
Awarded to students who successfully attend all sessions of three courses in a single academic track over two calendar years
Postgraduate Diplomas
Awarded to students who successfully attend all sessions of three courses in a single academic track over two calendar years and attain a ‘high pass’ or above in the final assignments of those courses
Teaching Fellowships
BICAR selects a teaching fellow (TF) for each of our courses. TFs are responsible for working with faculty to formalize course syllabi; acquire and distribute reading/viewing/listening material; maintain regular communication with students; administer the shared course document; and, most importantly, learn how to plan and teach courses on their own.
FAQs
bottom of page