Reframing Medieval and Renaissance Global Art History MSc

Programme description

This programme invites you to join one of the largest and most diverse concentrations of global medieval and renaissance art historical and cultural expertise in the UK. The programme encourages you to challenge traditional Eurocentric assumptions. Together we will question what it means for something to be medieval, renaissance, or non-Western, uncovering neglected narratives and scrutinising assumptions that have often served as the foundations of art historical scholarship. Meaningful connections and shared concerns will be established by embracing theoretical frameworks and more recent approaches to objects (such as the body, ritual, performativity and material culture).

Covering a period from the third to the seventeenth century, across the world—including the British Isles, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa, India, China and Japan—and cultures from Celtic and Christian to Islamic and Buddhist, the programme will allow you to conduct in-depth research projects in Edinburgh’s rich collection of archives and libraries, with behind-the-scenes access to world-leading galleries and museums.

You will also spend a week in Rome working closely with members of the programme team.

Career opportunities

The wide-ranging nature of this programme will equip you for further, more specialised, study and potentially a future academic career. The vocational element is the ideal stepping-stone to a career in art history, whether in the public or private sector. You’ll also gain an array of highly transferable skills, such as communication, curatorial practice and project management, which will prove an asset in any career. More specifically, our emphasis and approach mean you will gain analytic skills especially attuned to the nuance of cultural exchange and a global outlook.