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The Caltech-Huntington Program in Visual Culture was established in 2019 with funding under a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Designed as a collaboration between HSS and The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens (The Huntington), the CHVC program includes undergraduate course offerings, postdoctoral instructorships, artists residencies with professional visiting artists, and a wide range of programming activities—with the aim of fostering new conversations not only among humanists but also between humanists and scientists.

In the 2020–2021 academic year, roughly one fifth of Caltech's undergraduate students enrolled in the growing number of visual culture classes on subjects ranging from Plantation Imaginaries to Volcanoes to Picturing Science. Caltech added a minor in visual culture to its curriculum as of the fall of 2021.

May 29, 2025 4:00 pm

Visual Culture Program Event

Human Energy: A Conversation about Art, Power, and Resource Extraction
Jessica Segall, Lecturer in Visual Culture and Spring 2025 Artist in Residence, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Caltech,
Brian Jacobson, Professor of Visual Culture, Caltech,
June 5, 2025 10:00 am

Visual Culture Program Event

Multiple locations - See event detail for more information
Anthropocene Media Working Group II

Student Activities

Director

Brian Jacobson
Brian R. Jacobson

Professor of Visual Culture

Postdoctoral Instructor

Anna Stielau headshot
Anna Stielau

Weisman Postdoctoral Instructor in Visual Culture

Art + Research Residency

This program provides the opportunity to engage with the research communities at Caltech and The Huntington, and to teach and work with Caltech students. It supports artists and other creative practitioners whose work involves research and experimentation.

Jessica Segall (Artist in Residence)
Jessica Segall

Artist in Residence (Spring 2025)