Programme Structure
The MSt takes place over two years, running typically from September/October of the first year to June of the second. The taught elements of the syllabus, Year 1, are offered during the first year 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 concepts, theory and approaches. Themes may include, amongst others: class and social status; race and gender; local / global; 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.
In 2023-24 the themes are:
Term I: Thinking across Media (10th-13th October 2023)
The idea of intermediality- or thinking across media- is currently the focus of much scholarly attention. Term 1 (modules 1and 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 of up until today across a number 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 (13th-16th February 2024)
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 toxic pollution, and black and indigenous ecologies.
Term 3: Visual Cultures of Activism (30th April-3rd May 2024)
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 both European and Latin American artists, attention then turning to transnational art and decoloniality. The Mexican Muralist Movement, Neo-indigenist art and Boterismo will be investigated. As well as considering key issues in post-colonial art history, the unit will also reflect on feminist art and the use of ‘craft’ to empower women.
- 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 5 October 2024, 18 January 2025, 12 April 2025.
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.
Find out more
If you would like academic guidance on your research topic before making an application, please contact the Course Director Dr Lydia Hamlett at lkh25@cam.ac.uk.
