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The History of Art is an exciting and stimulating field of study with a diverse curriculum and wide application to modern life and the world of work. Much of our teaching draws on the collection of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, and this is supported by the rich resources available elsewhere in Birmingham, including Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, one of the major regional British art museums, and the IKON gallery, one of the leading galleries of contemporary art. Throughout your degree, we aim to foster independent enquiry, critical analysis and self-motivation, providing you with broad knowledge of the subject, but also giving you the opportunity to specialise in topics that are of particular interest to you.

First year

This is your foundation year and you’ll take our compulsory modules: Approaches to Art History, which introduces the methods and concepts employed in the study of art history; and Object and Medium, which examines the techniques and materials used in the production of artworks. Other modules will give you an outline of selected key historical periods and themes in the history of art, such as Romanticism, Realism, the Renaissance, Modernism and the Enlightenment. Lectures and seminars are supported with study trips to galleries and current exhibitions in London or elsewhere. You’ll also take a module in a subject outside of the discipline.

The first-year modules include:

• Approaches to the History of Art
• Object and Medium
• Ideas of the Renaissance
• Concepts of Modernism in the History of Art
• Enlightenment and its Discontents
• The Real Realism
• Romanticism and the Idea of Romantic Art
• Module outside of the main discipline (MOMD)

Second year

You’ll now acquire a greater depth of knowledge by focusing on a number of more specific subjects. So you’ll have the opportunity to choose from a number of optional modules on themes or periods in the history of art, supported by a module on research techniques. You’ll also go on a study trip to a major artistic and cultural centre overseas such as Berlin, Paris or Venice, where you’ll have the chance to access works of art and architecture unavailable in Britain and to study them in situ.

The second-year modules include:

• Renaissance Art in Italy and the Netherlands 1400-1460
• Art, Architecture and Design in Fin de Siècle Vienna
• Real and Ideal: Art and Society in Mid Nineteenth-Century France
• Prague, Cracow, Budapest. Art, Architecture and Politics in Central Europe
• Power, Society, Politics: Religious art in Northern Europe
• Inside the Gallery. Histories, Theories and Practices of Museums and Galleries
• Research Techniques in the History of Art
• Art History in the Field – Overseas Study Trip
• Behind the Camera: women’s film-making from the 1950s to the present 

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Third year

In your final year you’ll study a special subject in depth and in detail. Your dissertation, a 12,000-word extended piece of writing on a topic of your own choice, also gives you the chance to develop your research skills. Recent dissertation topics have included Michelangelo; British Landscape Painting 1750-1860; Inside Out. Interiors and Interiority in French Art, Design and Visual Culture 1840-1940; Contemporary Visual Arts and Postcolonialism; After Modernism. Art and Culture since the 1970s; Women and Artistic Culture in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period. You’ll also study two more topics, which may include a module in another discipline.

Final-year modules include:

• The Special Subject. Recent subjects have included: (1) Michelangelo; (2) British Landscape Painting 1750-1860; (3) Inside Out. Interiors and Interiority in French Art, Design and Visual Culture 1840-1940; (4) Contemporary Visual Arts and Postcolonialism; (5) After Modernism. Art and Culture since the 1970s; (6) Women and Artistic Culture in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Period.
• The Dissertation
• Art and the Industrial Revolution
• The Body and its Representation in Visual Culture
• Visual Cultures of Revolution in France 1789-1848
• Architecture and Public Art in Sixteenth-century Venice
• Modernism in Europe: Image, Text, Sound
• The Political Thriller on Film: Genre, Ideology, Emotion

How will I be taught?

As a Birmingham student, you are joining the academic elite and have the privilege of learning from world-leading experts in their fields. During your programme we will encourage and support you to engage with complex and challenging problems, and to reflect critically on what you experience. This will involve weighing up evidence and the opinions of others to reach your own conclusions. Independent study will develop your skills through the use of available resources and in addressing problems, constructions solutions, identifying new questions and creating new knowledge.

Support

Personal Tutor
In addition to academic tutors and lecturers, you will also be assigned a personal tutor. Their role is to provide general support and guidance to you during your degree programme, and help you monitor your own academic progress. They will be your first port of call if you are having problems of any kind whether academic or personal. Your personal tutor will receive reports from your academic tutors on your attendance, interim assessments and general involvement in the programme, and ensure you receive feedback on your progress.

Student Mentor Scheme
Our enthusiastic established students act as mentors to our new History of Art students. This provides you with a friendly face to help you settle in.

Academic Writing Advisory Service
The Academic Writing Advisory Service (AWAS) will provide you with individual support from an academic writing advisor and postgraduate subject-specialist writing tutors. You?ll receive guidance on writing essays and dissertations at University-level which can be quite different from your previous experiences of writing. Support is given in a variety of ways, such as small-group workshops, online activities, feedback through email and tutorials.

Learning settings

Lectures provide a framework for presenting the themes and ideas that are central to individual modules. Their main purpose is to challenge and stimulate, encouraging you to come to your own conclusions based on further reading and seminar debates.

Small-group seminars run alongside the lecture course, providing the opportunity for you to discuss and explore the ideas presented in lectures and for more informal interactions between tutors and students. They take a variety of forms, including group discussion and student presentations.

Study trips play an important part in the teaching on the programme. These include visits to galleries and museums in Birmingham and the West Midlands, as well as overseas group trips that are funded by the University. Recent destinations have included Rome, Berlin and Paris, and provide you with the opportunity to examine works of art and architecture in situ.

One-to-one tutorials become increasingly important as you progress through your course. This is particularly the case in your final year, when a major part of your programme will be a dissertation on a topic of your choice. Tutorials enable you to discuss your research with your project supervisor in depth.

Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is an excellent tool for supporting our academic modules, allowing you to share thoughts on assignments with other students via the discussion group facilities, and even submit your work electronically.

Enquiry Based Learning (EBL) means that learning is driven by the shared enquiry of students and tutors. This places you, the student, at the centre of your own degree: you learn through involvement and ownership, not simply by being a passive recipient of information. We believe that this is the best way of learning while you?re at Birmingham as it?s very effective in enabling you to acquire the key skills and attributes that are valued by employers: creative and independent thinking, self-motivation, self-organisation, team-working, goal-setting and problem-solving.

As a History of Art student you'll have an excellent opportunity to develop skills that are highly prized by employers, including visual and textual analysis and interpretation, clear and effective writing, visual discernment, making opinions, and respecting the views of others even if you disagree with them.

The University of Birmingham has graduate employability rates for History of Art graduates above the national average and in the top 10 UK universities for the subject. Over 50% of job vacancies advertised for new and recent graduates don't specify a degree subject, and our graduates have gone on to highly successful careers in art galleries and other cultural institutions, as curators, researchers and administrators. Others pursue careers in auction houses and the art business, teaching, and in administrative and management roles for a wide range of employers. Some also decide to pursue graduate study in specialist art and cultural areas or professions such as teaching and law.

Employers of Birmingham History of Art graduates have included the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Bodleian Library, Cath Kidston, Historic Royal Palaces, The National Portrait Gallery and Victoria and Albert Museum. Examples of jobs they have taken up include Archivist, Assistant Curator, Curator of Fine Art, Gallery Coordinator, Programme Coordinator and Researcher.

Whether you have a clear idea of where your future aspirations lie or want to consider the broad range of opportunities available once you have a Birmingham degree, our Careers Network can help you achieve your goal. This is a unique careers guidance service tailored to your academic subject area, offering a specialised team who can give you expert advice. This includes individual careers advice and events to give you insight into the professions and employers of interest to arts graduates, and access to internships and job vacancies. Events that may appeal to History of Art students include the 'Careers in Art Business' and 'Heritage and Museum Careers' workshops that are held as part of the Creative Careers Series. We also make work placement opportunities available to you in the University's Cultural Collections and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

Extra-curricular activities

To enhance your career prospects even further, you will need to think about engaging in some extra-curricular activities while you're at university to broaden your skills and your network of contacts. This can include the many societies at the Guild of Students and also the many voluntary opportunities offered with local arts organisations. Our employer-endorsed award-winning Personal Skills Award (PSA) recognises your extra-curricular activities, and provides an accredited employability programme designed to improve your career prospects.

Our College of Arts and Law undergraduate research scholarship scheme enables interested students to work on a current academic research project being run by one of the College's academic researchers. Undergraduate research scholars gain work experience over the summer after their first or second year and have the chance to develop skills in both collaborative and independent research.

Cultural Internships

Our innovative Cultural Internships offer graduates the opportunity for a six month paid internship at a leading cultural institution in the West Midlands. These internships are a unique opportunity to learn fundamental, transferable business and interpersonal skills, through experience of real work in an established cultural institution. Our current partners include Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Ironbridge Gorge Museums Trust and the Library of Birmingham. We have plans to expand the scheme to include our own major cultural assets, such as Winterbourne House, the Lapworth Museum, and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts. This scheme will give you professional experience to set you apart in a competitive graduate market.