Art History and Visual Cultures (R27)

This degree will equip you with the knowledge and critical skills to investigate works of art, images, objects and architecture, from the local to the global and from prehistory to the present. Through your studies, you’ll explore the place of art history and visual cultures in the wider humanities and as a component in the creative and cultural industries, while also developing transferable skills in visual literacy, critical thinking, and communication. This will be a rich and rounded experience as you discover the power of images and works of art to influence debates and shape everyday life.

Key features of the course

• Explore images, artefacts and architecture from a wide range of periods and places.

• Become familiar with different approaches to the study of visual, spatial and material culture.

• Gain skills in visual literacy, criticism and analysis that will make you highly employable.

• Work on your own dissertation project on a subject that interests you.

Course Modules

This art history and visual cultures degree has three stages, each comprising 120 credits.

In Stage 1, you'll encounter a variety of different times and places and engage with fascinating people, artworks, ideas and stories. As an art history student, this broad interdisciplinary foundation will help you develop the skills and the confident, open approach you need to tackle more specialist art history modules at Stages 2 and 3.

Stage 2 engages you thematically with the central questions of art history and visual cultures from prehistory to the present day. You'll develop visual literacy skills through a cutting-edge exploration of different ways of looking and by analysing visual, spatial and material examples from a diverse range of cultural contexts. Each module introduces art and visual cultures in the broadest sense, and in everyday settings, including the transfer of art historical concepts and knowledge to wider public, curatorial, commercial and industrial contexts.

Stage 3 highlights the vital role that art has played in the stories that Europeans have told about the wider world, and suggests ways in which these stories might be challenged or revised. In your final module, you'll explore a broad programme of study in art history and visual cultures that introduces the widest possible range of approaches, themes, periods and geographies. From these options, you'll select and develop an independent research project on a subject that interests you.