Geography/History of Art

Geography and History of Art is a combination that connects two disciplines concerned with understanding how human beings inhabit, interpret and transform their world. Geography examines the surface of the Earth as the site of human living and working, exploring the variability of physical and human landscapes, the interactions between people and environments, and the spatial dimensions of social, economic and political life. History of Art, meanwhile, is the study of how human beings have represented their experience of the world through visual and material culture, analysing the style, context and meaning of works of art and architecture across time and across cultures.

At the University of Glasgow, this four-year full-time programme includes a year abroad, enriching both your geographical and art historical perspectives through study in a different national and cultural environment. Through your geography studies you will develop skills in qualitative and statistical data analysis, independent research and fieldwork, while your history of art work develops visual literacy, close reading of images and objects, and engagement with critical theories of representation, patronage and cultural meaning. The two disciplines share a concern with place and with how human experience is shaped and expressed in space, and studying them together produces an intellectually rich perspective that is genuinely cross-disciplinary.

Graduates from Geography and History of Art programmes carry a distinctive and versatile combination of skills into a wide range of careers. Geography graduates are valued in environmental consultancy, urban planning, international development and public policy, while history of art graduates move into museums and galleries, cultural policy, heritage, auction houses, art journalism and publishing. The combination opens particularly interesting doors in cultural geography, heritage tourism, landscape and garden history, and the increasingly prominent field of environmental humanities.

Postgraduate study in geography, art history, cultural studies or heritage management is a natural continuation.