Course summary

You’ll explore practices and interpretations of art and culture across an exceptionally wide array of topics, combining a critical approach to the historical study of art with the focused study of more diverse forms of cultural practice and theory. You’ll learn about the histories of various kinds of practice (such as film, painting, literature, photography, the media and music) as well as understanding their different contexts of production and consumption. You’ll study key moments in the chronology of art history, from a broad and global perspective, and examine their significance. We’ll guide you to become a well-rounded art historian who is confidently able to understand, consider and challenge historical perspectives through a range of critical frameworks. In a world increasingly defined through images and material culture, you’ll approach art history as a vital and dynamic framework for understanding our shared histories and some of the most pressing questions we are faced with now. You’ll investigate the interconnections between art and the larger social dynamics that shape our culture, such as ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, being human and our relationship to nature and the environment. You’ll become equipped to act in the world as creative thinkers and global citizens, innovators in your respective professional fields. We’ll prepare you to be a socially conscious graduate with an array of relevant and transferrable skills. The course sits alongside our similar BA History of Art; students opting for this route combined with Cultural Studies will dedicate more of their studies to critical theory and the study of other cultural forms, and slightly less time to the History of Art.