MPhil/PhD at the Warburg Institute (Research)

The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. It is dedicated to the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with a special emphasis on the afterlife of antiquity.

The Warburg offers a unique environment for research. As a student at the Institute, you will join a lively community conducting cutting-edge interdisciplinary work in the
humanities. You will benefit from a wide range of research training options, including language and palaeography courses at the Warburg, and other training provided by the School of Advanced Study’s Doctoral Centre. You will also get full access to our open-stack library and other local resources, such as the University of London’s Senate House Libraries.

Looking ahead to your future career, a PhD at the Warburg will open many doors. Warburg alumni have continued their academic careers at institutions across the globe, including the Universities of Cambridge, Copenhagen, Notre Dame (US), Padua, UCL, Birkbeck, La Sapienza (Rome), Warwick, York and Yeshiva (New York). Our graduates have also gone into positions at cultural institutions such as the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Bayerische Akademie, the National Library, Argentina, Sotheby’s, Arts Council England, the National Gallery, the V&A, and the Southbank Centre.

We encourage MPhil and PhD applications in cultural and intellectual history, as well as the history of art, with a focus on (but not limited to) the period 1200–1700 and on topics supported by the Institute’s resources and staff expertise. The resources of the Institute are especially geared towards those interested in interdisciplinary
study. These include the archive, photographic collection and OpenStack library with its unique cataloguing system specifically designed by Aby Warburg to aid research.

Broadly speaking, the Warburg offers particular strengths in:

• Renaissance Art, Architecture, and Visual Culture

• Cultural and Intellectual History

• Reception of the Classics

• History of Magic and Science

• History of Cartography

• and Cosmography

• Religious History

• History of the Book

Find out more about studying this degree: https://www.sas.ac.uk/postgraduate-study/our-courses/research-degree/phd-warburg-institute