Research course

Art History

Institution
Open University · Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Qualifications
PhDMPhil

Entry requirements

Applicants should normally hold a BA degree with at least first- or upper-second class honours or equivalent qualification, and an MA or equivalent research experience.

Months of entry

October

Course content

We are a wide-ranging group of researchers, across art, architecture, visual culture and design history. With a strong commitment to interdisciplinary research, an open and inclusive approach, we like to find new ways of looking at the past and making connections with the present.

We run a highly successful MA in Art History, from which we recruit many of our PhD students. Our interests range from prehistory to the present, taking in rock art, Byzantine icons, the Ottoman Empire, Renaissance and early modern Italy, the Netherlands, Britain and Scandinavia, eighteenth-century France and then the burst of global connections sustained across the modern world to the present day.

In all periods, we emphasize our commitment to reflecting on power relations, mainly through attending processes of colonisation and post-colonisation. We carry this into our active scholarship on questions of equality, diversity and inclusion in art, architecture and design today.

Qualification, course duration and attendance options

  • PhD
    full time
    48 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    part time
    96 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    • Distance learningis available for this qualification
  • MPhil
    full time
    48 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    part time
    72 months
    • Campus-based learningis available for this qualification
    • Distance learningis available for this qualification

Course contact details

Name
Graduate School
Email
research-degrees-office@open.ac.uk