Virtual Open Events
Join us on 27 - 30 November 2023 for our upcoming Master's Open Week.
We have an MSt in History of Art & Visual Culture Information Session available to book onto here.
There will also be separate Academic, Student and College panels. Find out more here.
Programme Structure
The MSt takes place over two years, running typically from October of the first year to September of the second. The taught elements of the syllabus, Year 1, are offered in three intensive study blocks, each of which is examined by an assessed essay to be submitted at the end of each term.
Year 1: During the first year, all students will be required to undertake six core modules, 2 per term, paired in numerical order:
- Modules 1, 3 & 5: Thematic approaches to understanding art
A number of themes will allow students to explore the history of art and visual culture, including theoretical approaches and useful concepts. Themes may include, amongst others: class and social status; race and gender; local / global; the relationship of medium to style; the historical valuation of fine art versus decorative arts; art and ecology. Students will be introduced to a range of art and approaches to the history of art and visual culture from the earliest examples to the present day.
NB: The themes for 2024-25 are yet to be confirmed and will be updated here in due course.
In 2023-24, the themes were:
Term I: Thinking across Media
The idea of intermediality - or thinking across media - is currently the focus of much scholarly attention. Term 1 (modules 1 and 2) will introduce you to a variety of intermedial approaches to Art History, focusing mainly on the medieval and early modern periods in the West (c.1100-c.1700), whilst raising theoretical and historiographical issues relevant to the study of art up until today across a range of geographical locations. It will encourage you to think about the interactions of different media at the time of works’ making, the different visual influences on artists and how to question traditional hierarchies of medium that privilege ‘fine’ over ‘decorative’ arts.
Term 2: Art and Ecology
With global ecosystems facing irreversible crisis, the need to envisage new approaches to the relationship between nature and culture is taking on increasing urgency. Term 2 (modules 3 and 4) asks how the history of art can be used to explore pressing ecological questions, and in turn considers how ecological thinking might affect the methods and sources of art history and visual culture. It does so by exploring fundamental debates around nature and the environment, examining the visual history of non-human life, and rethinking art’s history through new work on, for example, toxic pollution, and Indigenous ecologies.
Term 3: Visual Cultures of Activism
Term 3 (modules 5 and 6) will explore the ways that artists and curators have redefined our conceptions of art and its role in society, focusing on the seismic shifts in the art world of the twentieth century to show how art became increasingly self-reflexive and activist. The global surrealist movement will be examined via a discussion of the works of artists from Europe, Africa and the Americas. We also discuss decoloniality through an analysis of the work of Diego Rivera and Violeta Parra. Finally, we reflect on the transversality of art and activism in the twenty-first century, focusing on feminist textile art.
In 2024-25 the dates of the teaching blocks are:
Term 1: 8-11 October 2024
Term 2: 11-14 February 2025
Term 3: 29 April-2 May 2025
- Modules 2, 4 & 6: Research, Sources and Methods
These modules explore the different ways of researching the history of art and visual culture in practice, for example: close visual analysis and object handling; the digital humanities in visual culture; archival study in the arts; the intersections of literature, visual sources and material culture; museum display and interpretation within a heritage context.
Year 2: Dissertation research (90 credits).
Three Day Schools taking place on 4 October 2025, 17 January 2026, 11 April 2026.
Aims of the Programme
By the end of the course students should have demonstrated:
- A deep and systematic understanding of history of art and visual culture and their interrelationships with other disciplines;
- An understanding of current theoretical and methodological approaches and how they affect the way that knowledge is interpreted;
- Conceptual understanding in order to evaluate critically current research in the discipline and to critique methodologies, where appropriate proposing new hypotheses;
- The extension and development of their visual analytical, evaluative and critical capacities;
- Originality in the application of their knowledge, having developed the ability to form independent judgements based on their close visual analysis and object study, reading, research and writing;
- A comprehensive understanding of techniques, knowledge and analysis applicable to their own research or advanced scholarship (in this case the dissertation).
Skills and other attributes
By the end of the course, the students should have acquired or consolidated:
- The academic, technical and ancillary skills necessary to participate in critical debates within the field of history of art and visual culture, dealing with complex issues both systematically and creatively and making sound judgments in the absence of complete data;
- Self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and the ability to act autonomously in planning and implementing tasks at a professional or equivalent level;
- Transferable skills, including the ability to take responsibility for their own learning, decision-making in unpredictable situations, making oral and written presentations to both specialist and non-specialist audiences, planning and producing written assignments, working independently, and, where they have chosen to do so, using different types of technology;
- The ability to formulate a research topic, create a research design, and communicate their ideas and research conclusions in a substantial piece of postgraduate level research.
Student Support:
All students are members of a College and the Institute of Continuing Education. As a member of the University of Cambridge students have access to the face-to-face and online academic and pastoral support functions of the Collegiate University. Students have access to additional learning support via the Institute of Continuing Education, along with comprehensive details of the programme, contact details and academic and general advice. The course VLE holds generic and subject specific learning resources.
