Art and Design History MA

Facts about Art and Design History

Qualification	MA
Duration	Full time: 1 year Part time: 2 years
Attendance	Full time: 2 days per week (Tuesday and Wednesday) Part time: 1 day per week (Tuesday or Wednesday)
Assessment	Seminar presentations; essays; dissertation (12,000-15,000 words)
Course structure

Choose Kingston's Art and Design History MA

If you are interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary study of the history of both art and design, this course is ideal. As well as advancing your knowledge of developments that have occurred in these vibrant areas of practice over the past two centuries, the course will also provide you with transferable skills in history, theory and research.

What will you study?

You will study a series of dedicated taught modules that are concerned with issues of research methodology, critical theory and analysis, and subject-specific case studies. You will be expected to conduct research around the broad themes and subjects addressed by each module. This research will allow you to tailor your own path of study according to your particular interests and future aspirations.

For examples of work by other students of this course please watch our MA showreel video.

Research areas

Many of the staff in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture are research active. This ensures they are in touch with the latest thinking and bring best practice to your studies.
Find out more...

Course structure

Please note that this is an indicative list of modules and is not intended as a definitive list. Those listed here may also be a mixture of core and optional modules.

Core modules

Materialising Histories I
Materialising Histories I

This module addresses the history of relationships between artworks and their physical environments. It includes theoretical material concerning spectatorship, the history of collecting and museums, and the history of interior design and architecture.

The teaching – in the form of sessions on a wide range of topics led by researchers in these fields – elaborates on the ways in which two- and three-dimensional objects have informed the spaces in which they have been sited, and, vice versa, how these spaces have shaped the meanings of the objects they have housed.

The module aims to expand students' knowledge and understanding of objects and environments by thinking through the relationships between them.
Materialising Histories II
Materialising Histories II

This module builds on the material encountered in Semester 1.

This session presents case studies within art and design history that interrogate the critical interface between writing and its object or, in this context, between texts on art and design and art and design practice. Specifically, students will examine texts that approach art and design, and their histories, from the perspective of socio-political, ethical and moral concerns and in the framework of interdisciplinary and transnational research on film, performance, photography, sculpture and painting.

The module focuses on student-led seminars, punctuated with key lectures.

Students are expected to prepare for seminars by reading a key text or extracts, and provide a short contribution comprising images, quotes and analysis prior to the sessions.
Critical Issues in Research
Critical Issues in Research

This module discusses the main topics of current critical and methodological debates within art and design history. You will learn to debate and analyse 'critical positions', both orally and in written form.

Each week you will consider a single theme summarised broadly by a single word. This approach enables you to:
- explore how art and design has been explained and theorised through the critical gaze of history; whilst
- acknowledging and investigating the role of theory as a generative aspect of the art and design process.
Download full module guide (PDF).
Special Study Subject
Special Study Subject

This module is an opportunity to engage with current research in the School. Each year, a thematic topic is chosen for this module - previous examples have included Boundaries and There's No Place Like Home.
Dissertation
Dissertation

This double module is designed to ensure that students can produce a substantial, original body of authoritative work by engaging in both primary and secondary research at masters level. It enables them to achieve a comprehensive understanding and application of the key issues of the subject selected and aims to develop in students a commitment to research and understanding of its likely role in their future careers. Students are supported by tutorials and assessment is by a written dissertation.