Creative Arts and History
Creative arts and history is a combination that brings together making and interpreting, asking both how creative works are produced and what they mean within the historical contexts that shaped them. Creative arts practice develops your capacity for visual and aesthetic expression, exploring the possibilities of different media and the ideas that underpin artistic production. History trains you to analyse evidence, construct arguments about the past, and understand how cultural, political, and social forces interact over time.
Together, they give you a rich toolkit for engaging with the world through both active creation and critical analysis.
At the School of Oriental and African Studies, this three-year, full-time degree is shaped by SOAS's particular focus on the arts and histories of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, meaning your creative and historical studies are informed by a far wider range of traditions and perspectives than is typical of arts and humanities programmes in the UK. A foundation year is available for students who benefit from additional preparation before entering the main degree. You will develop your practical creative skills alongside the research, writing, and analytical abilities that historical study requires, and you will encounter artistic and historical traditions that are often marginalised in curricula focused narrowly on the Western canon.
A typical entry tariff of 120 points reflects the programme's accessibility for motivated students from varied backgrounds.
Graduates of this combination go on to work in the arts, heritage, cultural policy, publishing, education, broadcasting, and the museum and gallery sector. The combination of creative production skills and historical analytical ability is distinctive and valued in organisations working at the intersection of culture and knowledge. Postgraduate study in art history, museum studies, cultural policy, creative practice, or area studies is a natural next step for those wishing to specialise.