History of Art and Archaeology

The MA History of Art and Archaeology programme is a unique opportunity to study the History of Art and Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Your extensive choice of modules will allow you to shape the degree around the areas that interest you most – you can either focus on a region or experience a broad range of themes.

Students explore a wide range of arts and material culture, from Islamic art to African diasporic art, contemporary Korean ceramics and South East Asian Buddhist monuments, exploring their specificity and the links between them, in historical and contemporary periods. Modules include field-trips, museum and storage visits, talks by curators, artists and other practitioners.

You will consider theoretical and methodological questions and are invited to question the relevance of the disciplinary distinction between History of Art and Archaeology to the study of the non-Western world. Courses cover a time period spanning from antiquity to present-day, contemporary art.

Why study History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS?

• we are ranked 13th in the UK for Arts and Humanities (QS World University Rankings 2022)
• you are eligible for an all-expenses paid trip to Paris, Amsterdam or Leiden as part of the Southeast Asian Art study tour (must enrol on Southeast Asia's Art Histories I and II)
• we partner with the British Council to offer a School of Arts student one fully funded residency at the annual Venice Architecture Biennale
• teaching is supported by the world-class collections of Asian and African art in museums in London and the UK, and access to London’s vibrant commercial art sector
• you will profit from the insights of scholars and students working in fields across the arts, such as Music, Film and Media
• you can also select from modules in other departments, taking advantage of SOAS’s unrivalled expertise in the languages, history, religions and cultures of East Asia
• internships, field-trips, museum and storage visits, talks by curators, artists and other practitioners
• our postgraduates progress to work in arts, culture and heritage roles, including in galleries, auction houses, museums, archives, conservation, publishing and arts administration. The large portfolio of transferable skills they acquire enables them to forge careers in a range of other fields across the world