BA (Hons) History/History of Art

Year 1

This year of the degree is designed to help you ground your historical knowledge. Your modules will also provide you with a broad background to help you think about art in historical contexts.

Core modules

You will take core modules which may include:

• Evidence and Methods 

• Group Research Project 

• Knowledge and Beliefs in World History

• The Materials of Art and Architecture 

• The Art of Describing

Option modules

You will take a selection of option modules, examples of which may include:

• Transmissions and Connections 

• Theory for Art Historians

Year 2

This year will help you to develop the tools you will need to use in your final dissertation. You'll also get the chance look behind the scenes of a museum and learn the art of curatorship.

Core modules

You will take core modules which may include:

• Disciplines of History 1 (Issues in Historical Thought) 

• History of Art dissertation training module  building the skills you'll need when you embark on your dissertation in the third year. You'll develop your ability to work independently and design imaginative research strategies. You'll learn to how to devise a topic for your dissertation and gain crucial insight into conducting academic research.

Option modules

You will choose from a selection of Histories and Contexts option modules, examples of which may include:

• Ancien Régime France, 1500-1787

• Britain in the Long Twentieth Century

• Ending European Empires: Decolonization after 1945 in Comparative Perspective

• From Grave Robbers to Gene Therapy: The Rise of Modern Medicine

• Histories in Public: Understandings of the Past in Today's Society

• Kingship, Rule and Mythmaking: England 1065-1307

• Narrators and Historical Memory in the Middle Ages

• Righteous Might: American Politics and Society since 1877

• The Tudor Regime: Power, Propaganda and Faith, 1485-1603

You will choose from a selection of Explorations option modules, examples of which may include:

• An Inconvenient Truth: Climate and Capitalism in the Modern World

• Black Radicalism in the Americas

• Britain and the World Since 1945

• British Police and the Democratic Idea since 1829

• Catherine the Great 1763 – 1796

• From the Global Shadows: Africa and the World since the 1950s

• Knowledge and Empire, c.1760-1965

• Law and Society in Later Medieval England (c.1300-1500)

• Revolutions, Scandals and Reforms: British Political Culture, 1688-1832

• The British Atlantic World, 1576-1692: From Roanoke Colony to the Salem Witch Trials

• The Color Line: Race and Empire in British, French and North American Worlds, c.1860-1945

• The Good World: Visions of Rule and Power in Italy, 1200-1400

• The Long Black Freedom Struggle in the U.S. since 1865

• The Making of England, c.850-1066

• The Pursuit of Happiness: The Politics of Leisure and Pastime in Twentieth-Century America

• Uniting the Kingdom: Britishness and the Four Nations, 1707-1815

• Using and Abusing the Past in Britain, 1835-2018

• What News?' People and Politics in Early Modern Britain

• Wild Things: A Cultural History of Animals, 1700-1900

You'll choose from a selection of intermediate seminar modules, examples of which may include:

• Seeing & Being Seen: English Art in the 14th Century

• Jerusalem in Western Medieval Art and Architecture

• Art in Venice from Bellini to Titian

• Casts and Cultures: the Crystal Palace, Sydenham

• Action/Re-action: Live Art, Performance and Participation

• Image and Icon: Representing the Sacred in the Early Medieval World

• Eccentric Cities: Art, Politics and Trade in Italy, 1100-1400

• The Power of the Real in Seventeenth-Century Spanish Painting and Sculpture

• The Rise of the Print in Europe, 1400-1800

• Art in the USA 1945-1975

Year 3

Your final year will be all about preparing your final dissertation, which bridges the two subjects you will have studied. You'll also be introduced to the latest research in both fields.

Core module:

You'll complete a dissertation spanning both History and History of Art:

• Bridge Dissertation

Option modules

You will choose from a selection of History Special Subject option modules, examples of which may include:

• Fantasy and Friction: US-Middle East Relations from 1945

• Francis Bacon: Myth, Magic and Morals

• From Colonial to Post-Colonial States? The Twentieth Century Caribbean

• Improvement, Modernization or Violence? 'Development' in Historical Perspective

• Inquisitors and Heretics in the High Middle Ages

• Ireland in the Age of Revolution

• Joan of Arc

• John Stuart Mill and Victorian Britain

• Ploughing the Sea? The Spanish American Wars of Independence, 1750-1830

• Possession: Objects and Ownership in Early Modern England, c.1650-c.1750

• Reading and Writing in Late-Medieval England

• Rebellion and Revolution: The British Civil Wars, 1637-51

• Revolution in the Streets: Faith, Poverty, and Religious Ferment, c.1200

• Second-Class Citizens: Migration in Modern Europe

• The French Wars of Religion, 1559-94

• The Ghosts of Gandhi: India and Africa since the Late Nineteenth Century

• The Russian Revolution, 1917-21

• Thomas More: Learning, Politics and Religion in England, 1500-35

You will choose from a selection of History of Art Special Subject modules, examples of which may include:

• Architecture and Politics in Stuart England c.1603-1688

• Art Law for Art Historians

• Illuminating the Bible 1200-1500 

• Interwoven: fashion and clothing culture in Art History 

• Journeys, Histories, and Methods of Display

• Monuments of the Islamic World: Innovation and Change From Spain to India

• Stained Glass in the Great Church c.1170-1350