History of Art

Birkbeck has an international reputation for its research in medieval, Renaissance and modern art. Our range of interests include: nineteenth- and twentieth-century design history; photography; museology; gender and representation; and interdisciplinary topics, particularly relationships between: art and film; art and anthropology; and art and medicine.

Current research is concentrated in the following areas:

Early Modern Art and Architecture in Southern and Central Europe

• Urbanism, architecture and visual culture in Medieval Europe
• Visual cultures of fifteenth-century Europe
• Art in Early Modern Italy

Architecture

• Medieval architecture in Central and Eastern Europe
• Institutional and domestic space in early-twentieth-century Vienna
• Brutalism and twentieth-century British architecture

Photography

• Daguerrotypes and nineteenth-century commercial photography
• Photography and gender
• Photography and sculpture
• Twentieth-century British photojournalism
• 1970s radical photographic practice

Museums and Memory Studies

• Museums, monuments and memorialisation
• Monuments and trauma
• Micro-museums

British Art

• Eighteenth-century portraiture and conversation pieces
• Nineteenth-century optical technologies
• Twentieth-century art, photography and architecture

Within History of Art, research seminars and events are organised through the following Research Centres:

• History and Theory of Photography Research Centre
• Architecture, Space and Society Centre
• Eighteenth-Century Research Group
• The Material Texts Network
• Birkbeck Centre for Medical Humanities
• Centre for Museum Cultures

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation. The MPhil thesis is not more than 60,000 words; the PhD thesis is not more than 100,000 words. The thesis requirements for a practice-based project vary according to the nature of the research and can be discussed with the admissions tutors. Both the MPhil and the PhD are assessed by a viva voce examination.

At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year (full-time) or second year (part-time). We offer research skills training, along with seminars and events specifically designed to meet the needs of research students.

You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck.

Read about our current MPhil/PhD students and their areas of research.

We hold open days and evenings for prospective students interested in our programmes throughout the year.