Film & Visual Culture and History

Film and visual culture and history is a combination that explores both the moving image as a distinctive artistic and cultural form and the historical forces that have shaped human societies and left their traces in the visual record. Film and visual culture examines cinema, documentary, video, and digital moving image work through critical, theoretical, and historical methods, asking how images are constructed, how they circulate, and what they mean to the audiences that receive them. History develops the ability to evaluate evidence, construct arguments, and understand how past events and structures have shaped the present.

Together, they produce a graduate with unusually rich analytical tools for understanding both visual and historical culture.

At the University of Aberdeen this four-year full-time programme adds film and visual culture to rigorous training in history, benefiting from Aberdeen's position as top-rated in Scotland for the impact of its historical research. You will study the history and theory of the moving image alongside historical periods and themes of your choice, developing the close analytical skills that both disciplines demand alongside the critical frameworks needed to read films, visual documents, and historical sources with sophistication and rigour. A year abroad is incorporated into the programme, giving you the chance to study in a different intellectual and cultural environment.

Graduates from film and visual culture and history go on to careers in film and television, broadcasting, journalism, publishing, archives, museums, heritage, cultural organisations, teaching, and academic research. The combination of visual literacy, historical understanding, and strong analytical and writing skills is valued across a wide range of professional contexts, and the specialism in Scottish history that Aberdeen's exceptional research strength in this area offers is a particular asset for those interested in heritage, Scottish cultural institutions, and public history. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in film studies, history, or cultural heritage.