Art History at The University of Essex is recognised nationally and internationally as one of the very best in the UK covering a wide range of interests in both teaching and research. We are in the top ten in the Complete University Guide league tables for 2012, with amongst the highest scores for student satisfaction.
We provide an excellent environment for the pursuit of both teaching and research, achieving top grades in national assessments of teaching quality and research excellence together with an unequalled track record in attracting external research funding.
We are particularly recognised for art history expertise in early modern and modern art, curating, and contemporary Latin American art. Essex is home to the largest public collection of Latin American art in Europe. There is a high quality art gallery on campus and Colchester is home to firstsite, a 26m GBP contemporary visual arts centre. In addition to research in specific historical topics, we also offer excellent opportunities to pursue interdisciplinary research at the interface of art history and philosophy, particularly in the fields of phenomenology and ontology.
We offer undergraduate, postgraduate taught and a range of research courses.
Undergraduate courses:
BA History of Art
BA History of Art and Modern Languages
BA Literature and History of Art
BA Film Studies and History of Art
BA History of Art and History
Postgraduate taught courses:
MA Art History and Theory (full-time, part-time and modular)
MA Gallery Studies and Critical Curating (full-time only)
MA Curating Latin American Art (full-time and part-time)
MA Curating Contemporary Art (full-time and part-time)
MA Gallery Studies with Dissertation (full-time and part-time)
MPhil and PhD research courses:
Our PhD is a structured three year programme of advanced study and research. We also offer an MPhil, which is a two year programme.
Areas of research
Staff research covers a broad range of specialist areas of expertise, including:
British and European art and theory in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Colonial and modern Latin American art since Independence.
Contemporary art and theory.
Contemporary curatorial practice and theory.
Cubism.
Dada and surrealism.
European art 1250–1700 particularly in Italy, France and the Netherlands.
Historiography of art history.
History and theory of architecture.
Museology and gallery studies.
Psychoanalysis and art.
Twentieth-century art and theory in Europe, Britain and North America.
Urbanism and the built environment.
For further information, please visit www.essex.ac.uk/arthistory.
