StudyQA — Master: History of Art and Visual Culture

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Description Contents Requirements Funding

This nine-month course offers a unique combination of methodological depth and access to magnificent primary sources for students who wish to develop and extend their understanding of how visual styles at different times and in different places can be understood in relation to the aesthetic, intellectual and social facets of various cultures.

The course draws on the established strengths of the discipline of art history in formal, iconographic and contextual analysis in the History Faculty's Department of the History of Art and links them to a rigorous approach to questions of theory and method.

Graduate destinations

About a quarter of master’s students proceed to doctoral work at Oxford or at other institutions. Other career destinations are as diverse as, but broadly in line with, undergraduate history of art career destinations: civil service, museum and gallery work, sometimes also banking and law.

Teaching and examination comprise three elements:

Theories and methods in the history of art

This is taught in classes and lectures, and is assessed through a take-home exam in Trinity Term

Option paper

This is normally taught in small classes (assessed by two extended essays of between 4,000 and 5,000 words each). Please note that not every option will be available each year, and that they are subject to change:

Authenticity and replication in art and visual culture
French painting, 1880-1912
Global perspectives on American art

Not available in 2016/17

Gothic: Artistic originality and the transmission of style in medieval art (not available in 2016/17)
Image and thought (not available in 2016/17)
Media and modernity: Art and mass culture, 1880 - 2000 (not available in 2016/17)
The apparatus of art history (not available in 2016/17)
Theories of vision: The eye and the gaze (not available in 2016/17)
Women, art and culture in early modern Europe (not available in 2016/17)

Dissertation

Up to 15,000 words on a topic of the student's choice. Students will begin to formulate and plan their dissertation in conjunction with their supervisors from the beginning of the course.

Applicants are normally expected to be predicted or have achieved a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours (or equivalent international qualifications), as a minimum, in a relevant discipline in the humanities or social sciences.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.75 out of 4.0.

Applicants are normally expected to have a previous degree in history, but for master's applications a number of candidates will be accepted without. You will need to ensure that you link your proposed dissertation topic with your previous expertise when you present it in your research proposal, or that you explain why you want to switch to study history, and to show that you have already done some background research into it. Your submitted written work should show your writing and research skills in their best light, as it will be important to show that you have the necessary skills required for historical research.

Although having a previous degree in history is not compulsory, you need to keep in mind that most of your competitors will have finished a history course with a first-class or distinction grade and they will have had the appropriate training for academic research in a historical context.

If you hold non-UK qualifications and wish to check how your qualifications match these requirements, you can contact the National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom (UK NARIC).

No Graduate Record Examination (GRE) or GMAT scores are sought.

Official transcript(s)
CV/résumé
Statement of purpose/personal statement:500 to 1,000 words, typically two to four pages double-spaced
Written work:Two essays of 2,000 words each or one essay of 4,000 to 5,000 words
References/letters of recommendation:Three overall, generally academic

ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

Higher level

Test	Standard level scores		Higher level scores
IELTS Academic Institution code: 0713	7.0	Minimum 6.5 per component	7.5	Minimum 7.0 per component
TOEFL iBT Institution code: 0490	100	Minimum component scores: Listening: 22 Reading: 24 Speaking: 25 Writing: 24	110	Minimum component scores: Listening: 22 Reading: 24 Speaking: 25 Writing: 24
Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE)	185	Minimum 176 per component	191	Minimum 185 per component
Cambridge Certificate of Advanced English (CAE)	185	Minimum 176 per component	191	Minimum 185 per component