MA, 1 year full time/2 years part time
Subject overview
Rated in the top 3 in the UK for research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). 100 per cent of our research was rated as recognised internationally or higher, with 70 per cent rated as internationally excellent or higher, and 45 per cent rated as world leading.
Art history at Sussex is ranked 4th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2013 and 6th in the UK in The Complete University Guide 2014.
The skills of our faculty represent a unique array across European and American art and culture, with an interest in material culture.
Art history at Sussex has strong links with museums and galleries, both locally and nationally. MA students benefit from the opportunity to study with curators from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) as part of the V&A/Sussex Exchange Programme.
For MA and research students alike, art history at Sussex provides a friendly and stimulating environment for the exchange of ideas, in which intellectual life and scholarly endeavour thrive.
Art history graduates have gone on to find employment in Higher Education, publishing, the art market, conservation and museum management.
Specialist facilities
Facilities include a well-equipped slide library containing over 100,000 colour transparencies, an extensive database of digital images, access to computing and word-processing training, and a library well stocked with secondary literature in the discipline and with online access to the British Library and other depositories.
You are encouraged, where appropriate, to take advantage of local sites of art-historical interest: extensive collections in the Royal Pavilion and the museums of Brighton & Hove; local country houses such as Petworth and Firle; and the Bloomsbury Collection and the Charleston Trust. A seminar held at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Most of our MA modules involve working with museum collections.
Academic activities
A regular research seminar, to which outside speakers are invited, provides a major forum for debate. You are also encouraged to attend seminars in other disciplines such as history, English, philosophy and anthropology.
The Department of Art History is linked to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London through an exchange programme that extends and enhances the research and teaching expertise of both institutions. Each year a member of staff from the museum teaches at Sussex, while a member of the University faculty undertakes research based on the museum collections.
The Department of Art History plays a part in the Centre for Early Modern Studies and the Centre for Byzantine Cultural History. These form foci for a range of lectures, conferences and funded research projects.
Programme outline
This MA enables you to develop academic skills relating to research methods in art history with a specific focus on photography, and to develop curatorial skills required by museum curators.
You gain hands-on experience in a museum setting, working with curators in local and national collections. You will also study with faculty and curators in international, national and regional institutions, such as the V&A, the Tate, the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Ditchling Museum, The Towner and the Charleston Trust.
We continue to develop and update our modules for 2013 entry to ensure you have the best student experience. In addition to the course structure below, you may find it helpful to refer to the 2012 modules tab.
Autumn term: Museum Skills 1 – Theories and Approaches to Art History.
Spring term: Museum Skills 2 – Photography and 20th-Century Visual Culture.
Summer term: this course offers you the opportunity to pursue a placement scheme with photography collections, leading to your dissertation/work report.
Assessment
You are assessed by term papers and a dissertation of 20,000 words.
Current modules
Please note that these are the core modules and options (subject to availability) for students starting in the academic year 2012.
Art History Research Seminar
0 credits
All year teaching, year 1
Museum Skills I: Objects
30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1
The module sets out to equip you with a range of core museum skills, above all in familiarity with the objects of display. Skills you will develop include how to describe an object in various ways depending on audience, how to handle an object, and how to look after an object. You will deal with issues such as materials and visual appearance such as style analysis, iconography/subject matter, describing an object, and thinking about where visual appearance of an object comes from. You will also cover issues relating to the practical interpretation of objects in museums (including catalogue entries of different sorts, web materials, labels, and exhibition publications) as well as touching on ethical and procedural issues such as accessioning and de-accessioning of objects within collections.
Museum Skills II: Contexts and Display
30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1
This module builds on the work from Museum Skills I. It introduces you to a range of further skills and issues in museum practice, both through seminar teaching and site visits and discussion. Areas to be covered will include exhibitions (how curators put an exhibition together, the role of an Education Department in disseminating different learning styles); the historical and political contexts of museums and how this affects display; how museums work on a practical level; and the museum as a research resource (collection databases, archives and stores, and accessions and policies).
Photography and 20th Century Visual Culture
30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1
Art History Research Skills and Methods
0 credits
All year teaching, year 1
Theories & Approaches to Art History
30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1
This module covers some of the central topics and methods of current art historical practice as applied to a wide range of specific geographic and historical contexts. Engaging with some of art history's historiographical and methodological approaches, you will evaluate diverse interpretive approaches, such as feminism, iconology, agency, gift giving, and post colonialism. The module develops your the ability to interpret, critique and apply a range of methodological positions and highlights the position of art history as a discipline both responding to and acting upon problems of understanding cultural practices. The module material may be contradictory or even explicitly oppositional, and you will be expected and encouraged to develop an independent position on it.
Entry requirements
UK entrance requirements
A first- or upper second-class undergraduate honours degree in art history or another relevant humanities or social science discipline.
Overseas entrance requirements
Please refer to column A on the Overseas qualifications.
If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas
qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk
Visas and immigration
Find out more about Visas and immigration.
English language requirements
IELTS 6.5, with not less than 6.5 in Writing and 6.0 in the other sections. Internet TOEFL with 88 overall, with at least 20 in Listening, 20 in Reading, 22 in Speaking and 24 in Writing.
For more information, refer to English language requirements.
For more information about the admissions process at Sussex
For pre-application enquiries:
Student Recruitment Services
T +44 (0)1273 876787
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk
For post-application enquiries:
Postgraduate Admissions,
University of Sussex,
Sussex House, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9RH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 877773
F +44 (0)1273 678545
E pg.applicants@sussex.ac.uk
Related programmes
Fees and funding
Fees
Home UK/EU students: £7,3001
Channel Island and Isle of Man students: £7,3002
Overseas students: £16,2003
1
The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
2
The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
3
The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
To find out about your fee status, living expenses and other costs, visit further financial information.
Funding
The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.
To find out more about funding and part-time work, visit further financial information.
Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust for Postgraduate Study (2013)
Region: UK
Level: PG (taught), PG (research)
Application deadline: 1 October 2013
The Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust are offering bursaries to Postgraduate students following any postgraduate degree courses in any subject.
Sussex Graduate Scholarship (2013)
Region: UK, Europe (Non UK), International (Non UK/EU)
Level: PG (taught)
Application deadline: 16 August 2013
Open to final year Sussex students who graduate with a 1st or 2:1 degree and who are offered a F/T place on an eligible Masters course in 2013.
Faculty interests
Our research interests cover a broad chronological spread, from Byzantium to the present, and a wide range of subjects, from 20th-century photography to women art critics, Tudor architecture, and art and travel.
Research interests are briefly described below. For more detailed information, visit the Department of Art History.
Dr Benedict Burbridge History and theory of photography, photography and contemporary art. Co-editor of Photoworks magazine.
Dr Meaghan Clarke 19th- and early 20th-century painting, photography and print culture in Europe and North America.
Dr Flora Dennis Visual culture of 15th- and 16th-century Italy; domestic interiors. Editor of Approaching the Renaissance Interior: Sources, Methodologies, Debates (2007).
Professor Maurice Howard Tudor art and architecture; French architecture 1500-1600; the history of ornament. Author of The Building of Elizabethan and Jacobean England (2008).
Professor Liz James Classical and Byzantine art, light and colour, gender. Editor of Art and Text in Byzantine Culture (2007).
Professor David Mellor 20th-century painting, film and photography; cultural and visual representation. Author of No Such Thing as Society (2008).
Dr Michelle O’Malley Renaissance painting, commissioning, production and consumption. Editor of Re-thinking Renaissance Objects: Design, Function and Meaning (2010).
Dr Geoffrey Quilley 18th-century art, travel and empire. Author of Empire to Nation: Art, History, and the Visualization of Maritime Britain, 1768-1829 (2011).
Careers and profiles
You will gain knowledge about objects and collections, specifically in the context of photography, and develop a critical awareness of museum practices. This MA will also enhance your communications skills, enabling you to present your work to a professional standard in a range of formats, as well as help you develop your project and resource management skills. These skills provide the practical and theoretical foundation for careers in museums, galleries, heritage at curatorial level, or in equivalent fields in the academic or heritage sectors.
For more information, visit Careers and alumni.
School and contacts
School of History, Art History and Philosophy
The School of History, Art History and Philosophy brings together staff and students from some of the University's most vibrant and successful departments, each of which is a locus of world-leading research and outstanding teaching. Our outlook places a premium on intellectual flexibility and the power of the imagination.
School of History, Art History and Philosophy,
University of Sussex, Falmer,
Brighton BN1 9SH, UK
T +44 (0)1273 876612
E hahp@sussex.ac.uk
Department of Art History
Discover Postgraduate Study information sessions
You’re welcome to attend one of our Discover Postgraduate Study information sessions. These are held in the spring and summer terms and enable you to find out more about postgraduate study and the opportunities Sussex has to offer.
Visit Discover Postgraduate study to book your place.
Other ways to visit Sussex
We run weekly guided campus tours every Wednesday afternoon, year round. Book a place online at Visit us and Open Days.
You are also welcome to visit the University independently without any pre-arrangement.