Art History and Language (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese) with Foundation Year

This BA Art History and Language (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese) gives you the opportunity to study the visual arts and expand your interest in human culture, language and history. It enables you to develop key skills, from critical thinking and writing to historical research and visual analysis, enriched by the study of a modern language.

Why choose this course?

• This course is taught by renowned academics, researchers and published writers in art history in periods from the medieval to contemporary.

• Art history encompasses architecture, installation, exhibitions, print culture and digital media as well as painting, sculpture and photography.

• In your chosen language, you will be taught by specialists from a centre of teaching and research excellence.

• This course will support you in making the first steps towards working in the arts, with option modules offering perspectives on art history, visual culture and film, including specialist modules focusing on Japanese and East Asian, French, Italian, Spanish and Latin American culture.

What you will learn

In art history, you will be taught by researchers with expertise from the Middle Ages to the present day, and encompassing a range of media from painting, sculpture and architecture to photography, installations and digital. You will also explore the cultural and political contexts of artworks, buildings and exhibitions.

The languages component will help you reach a high level of competence in the modern language of your choice. You can choose French, German, Italian, Spanish or Japanese starting at a level that suits you, whether you are a complete beginner or a native speaker.

Korean and Mandarin Chinese are offered from beginner level. If you decide to take either of these languages, your final degree award will be a ‘with’ degree, e.g. BA Art History with Korean.

How you will learn

This course is available to study full- or part-time. It is taught via a mix of lectures and small-group seminars in the evenings. You will also complete a dissertation. The course is delivered in the target language.

Foundation Year

If you opt for the Foundation Year route, this will fully prepare you for undergraduate study. It is ideal if you are returning to study after a gap, or if you have not previously studied the relevant subjects, or if you didn't achieve the grades you need for a place on your chosen undergraduate degree.

Highlights

• As well as regular gallery and museum visits, we offer an exciting study trip abroad every spring.

• Birkbeck was ranked as one of the top four universities in the UK for its Art and Design research in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

• We are an internationally respected centre in teaching history of art. Our Gordon Square building houses the Jo Spence Archive and Peltz Gallery and hosts the leading journal History of Photography. Our research centres include the Centre for Museum Cultures, the Murray Centre for History of Art, Architecture and Photography, and the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies.

• We have bursary funding available from the Royal Female School of Art Foundation.

Careers and employability

On successfully graduating from this course you will have gained competency in your language of choice, as well as an array of transferable skills, including:

• highly developed visual and analytical skills

• an ability to develop and present your ideas

• a sophisticated use of written and spoken English

• an advanced critical ability in use of theoretical perspectives

• collecting and organising complex materials

• engaging with the complexity of different linguistic and cultural contexts.

Graduates can pursue career paths in:

• arts management

• conservation and policy

• arts publishing and media

• the museums and heritage sectors

• the civil service

• research and academia

• teaching.