Program Overview

---

Overview

The Department of History of Art is a thriving and collegial centre for the study of art, visual culture and theory. Staff specialisms range from medieval altarpieces to Soviet public monuments, from pre-Renaissance sculpture to contemporary art of the diaspora. We are interested in thinking across historical periods and through a variety of critical approaches.

We encourage you to participate in the stimulating intellectual and social life of the department, with regular research seminars and guest lectures, not to mention annual events such as the Autumn Art Lectures. We support interdisciplinary approaches and have expertise in topics such as the interrelationship between art and music, or art and writing, as well as issues of art and race.

We also have close links with many other departments in the school and faculty, as well as with national and local galleries and museums.

Key Information

Programme Duration

• MPhil: one year full-time; two years part-time
• PhD: up to four years full-time; up to eight years part-time

Start Date

• January 2025, September 2025, January 2026

Application Deadline

• January 2025 start: 1 December 2024
• September 2025 start:
  • Overseas applicants: 25 July 2025
  • Home applicants: 1 August 2025
• January 2026 start: 1 December 2025

Delivery Method

• Distance Learning, On-Campus

Location

• Clifton

Awards Available

• PhD, MPhil

Programme Structure

MPhil

• A standalone, one-year (full-time) research degree
• Students will undertake their own research project, concluding in the submission of a 25,000-word dissertation
• Students may have the option to audit units from our taught master's programmes if they are relevant to their research

PhD

• A research project undertaken across four years (full-time, minimum period of study three years), culminating in an 80,000-word thesis
• As well as having the option to audit taught units, there may be the potential for PhD students to teach units themselves from their second year of study onwards

World-Leading Research

• 5th: The University of Bristol is ranked fifth for research in the UK (Times Higher Education)
• 94%: 94% of our research assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent

Entry Requirements

MPhil

• An upper second-class degree (or international equivalent)
• Please note, acceptance will also depend on evidence of your readiness to pursue a research degree

PhD

• A master's qualification, or be working towards a master's qualification, or international equivalent
• Applicants without a master's qualification may be considered on an exceptional basis, provided they hold a first-class undergraduate degree (or international equivalent)
• Applicants with a non-traditional background may be considered provided they can demonstrate substantial equivalent and relevant experience that has prepared them to undertake their proposed course of study

Fees and Funding

Home

• Full-time: £4,850 per year
• Part-time: £2,425 per year

Overseas

• Full-time: £21,300 per year

Alumni Discount

• University of Bristol students and graduates can benefit from a 25% reduction in tuition fees for postgraduate study

Funding and Scholarships

• The University of Bristol is part of the South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership (SWW DTP), which will be offering studentships for September 2025
• For information on other funding opportunities, including University-funded studentships, please see the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences funding pages

Career Prospects

• A large number of graduates from this programme develop careers in higher education or work on high-level research projects in the fields of history of art and visual culture
• Some graduates take up careers in gallery and museum management and curation, art consultancy, publishing or in the commercial fine art market

Meet Our Supervisors

• Dr Grace Brockington
• Dr Peter Dent
• Dr Lucy Donkin
• Dr Freya Gowrley
• Dr William Hamilton
• Dr Catherine Hunt
• Dr Zehra Jumabhoy
• Dr Sophie Kelly
• Dr Zeina Maasri
• Dr Ann Matchette
• Professor Mike O'Mahony
• Dr Elizabeth Robles
• Professor Beth Williamson

Research Groups

• Much research is carried out by individual scholars, with specific expertise in the following areas:
  • British art and art criticism
  • Theories of modernism
  • Abstraction
  • Sculpture (especially late medieval and Renaissance)
  • 20th-century German art
  • 20th-century Russian and Soviet art
  • Representations of sport and the body
  • Medieval art, visual and material culture
  • Art and visual culture of the Black Atlantic
  • Medieval art and music interrelationships (including sound and architecture)
  • Early modern fashion
  • Collage
  • Images of the body
  • Art and Empire
  • Visual culture in the global south
• Staff and postgraduate research is focused around two principle research clusters: Transnational Modernisms and Mediterranean Visual Cultures
• Staff and postgraduates are also engaged in Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences interdisciplinary research themes and centres: Centre for Medieval Studies; Institute for Greece, Rome and the Classical Tradition; Centre for Black Humanities; Centre for Environmental Humanities