ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which visual artists, specifically those who teach at the graduate level in American art schools, understand themselves and their positions within the art community and the greater United States culture. For many years, United States higher education has awarded PhDs in the disciplines of design, music, theater, and dance, and, most recently, in creative writing, yet the American visual arts community is only now beginning to explore the concept, and even less often, the actual practice of, a PhD in fine art. The art world is generally defined by artists as comprised of the people involved in the making, selling, commission, endorsement, criticism, and conservation of art. The generation of new knowledge is the main reason that PhD research is undertaken. The knowledge is understood to mean that which is known, the facts and information in a specific field or academic discipline.
