Discussions on the PhD in Art and Design with Annotated Bibliography

Motivated by Leonardo Journal (March 2018) call for papers for its PhD in Art and Design three-year symposium, the following discussion and survey of literature were undertaken to explore current international discourse on the PhD in Art and Design (Friedman & Ox, 2017). A discipline that has traditionally been studio-based, design has been experiencing a transformation from a focus on form and aesthetics, often associated with appearance, to solving increasingly complex problems that require multi-disciplinary perspectives and solutions (Davis, 2017). Initial findings show that the debate on what constitutes a Design PhD is in its infancy; there are no set standards among institutions in the US and other countries that award such degrees, creating difficulties in assessment of skills and knowledge (Zeeuw, 2017). Debates on whether students that have traditional art and design degrees are prepared for the demands of a research degree, and questions on whether to offer professional track and academic track advanced degrees, or dissertations that incorporate made artifacts with research and writing are also explored in the literature.