MA History of Art and Archaeology

Course overview

The MA History of Art and Archaeology programme is a unique opportunity to study the History of Art and Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Your extensive choice of modules will allow you to shape the degree around the areas that interest you most – you can either focus on a region or experience a broad range of themes.

Students explore a wide range of arts and material culture, from Islamic art to African diasporic art, contemporary Korean ceramics and South East Asian Buddhist monuments, exploring their specificity and the links between them, in historical and contemporary periods. Modules include field-trips, museum and storage visits, talks by curators, artists and other practitioners.

You will consider theoretical and methodological questions and are invited to question the relevance of the disciplinary distinction between History of Art and Archaeology to the study of the non-Western world. Courses cover a time period spanning from antiquity to present-day, contemporary art.

Teaching

Teaching consists of a combination of lectures and seminars. Classes are normally between two and three hours per week for each module. Teaching methods include lectures with discussion, seminars (at which students present papers) and museum visits. Students at all levels are expected to take an active part in class presentations. A particularly important element is the training of the student's visual memory.

In addition to their studies on the MA programme, students at SOAS can participate in a wide range of research seminars, lectures and conferences that regularly take place in the School and in the University of London.

Employment

Students in the School of Arts develop a ??critical and theoretically informed approach to global arts and culture. In addition to an intercultural awareness and practical expertise, graduates gain a wide portfolio of transferable skills which are especially sought after in the creative and cultural industries.

We will consider all applications with 2:ii (or international equivalent) or higher. In addition to degree classification we take into account other elements of the application including supporting statement and references.