Art History and History
Art history and history are disciplines that complement each other in the study of how human beings have understood and represented their world across time. Art history examines visual works, including paintings, sculpture, architecture, prints and material objects, asking how they were made, what they meant to those who created and used them, and how they have been interpreted since. History approaches the past through documents and other written sources, reconstructing events, social conditions and the ways in which people experienced and understood their own time.
Together, they provide two powerful methods for recovering and interpreting the human past, each illuminating dimensions of experience that the other might miss.
At the University of Essex, this three-year full-time programme promotes awareness of the interactions and differences between history and the visual arts in history, investigating the ways in which the two disciplines can be integrated. The programme challenges you to look beyond superficial ideas that treat works of art simply as documents of a kind of historical truth, encouraging you to engage with visual culture as complex, layered and contested. You will develop skills in visual analysis, archival research, critical writing and the theoretical frameworks of both disciplines, learning to move between textual and visual evidence and to build interpretive arguments that draw on both.
Graduates of art history and history programmes go on to careers in museums and galleries, heritage organisations, art market roles including auction houses and commercial galleries, archival and library work, arts journalism and criticism, publishing, education, the civil service and cultural policy. The research, analytical and communication skills developed transfer widely across professional contexts. Further study at postgraduate level in art history, history, museum studies, curating or cultural policy is a common next step for those who want to pursue specialist or academic careers.