History of Art PhD

Programme overview

PhD: a research project undertaken across three years (full-time, plus a writing up period), culminating in an 80,000 word thesis. As well as having the option to audit taught units, there may be the potential for PhD students to teach units themselves from their second year of study onwards.

The Department of History of Art is a thriving and collegial centre for the study of art, visual culture and theory. Staff specialisms range from medieval altarpieces to Soviet public monuments, from pre-Renaissance sculpture to contemporary art of the diaspora. We are interested in thinking across historical periods and through a variety of critical approaches.

We encourage you to participate in the stimulating intellectual and social life of the department, with regular research seminars and guest lectures, not to mention our thriving Art History in the Pub series of talks and discussions. We support interdisciplinary approaches and have expertise in topics such as interrelationships in art and music in both the medieval and modern periods; art and writing; and issues of art and race.

We also have close links with many other departments in the school and faculty, as well as with national and local galleries and museums.

This research degree is also available via distance learning.

Careers

A large number of graduates from this programme develop careers in higher education or work on high-level research projects in the fields of history of art and visual culture; some graduates take up careers in gallery and museum management and curation, art consultancy, publishing or in the commercial fine art market.