| History of Art |
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Course Offered :
Current Fellows and Lecturers Dr Jane Garnett (Tutorial Fellow) Wadham is one of six colleges admitting students for the recently established degree in the History of Art. This is an exciting development in the University, and the course is a distinctive one, which builds on a wide range of expertise in different aspects of visual culture. Students acquire a grounding in a core tradition of Western culture, as well as being introduced to approaches to the history of art in other cultural contexts, and learning to set Western cultural assumptions in a global comparative framework. There are invaluable opportunities to work with some of the museum curators in Oxford. The collections within the University are extraordinary: the Ashmolean Museum, the Christ Church Picture Gallery, the University Museum, the Pitt Rivers Museum of ethnography and the Museum of the History of Science. There is also an acclaimed modern art museum. The historic architecture of Oxford itself offers rich possibilities for study. Students have an unparalleled opportunity to develop a visual understanding in an interdisciplinary framework. Teaching Structure The core teaching on methodology is conducted in the History of Art Department, and students then go to many different tutors for tutorial work on their various options. The History tutors at Wadham, Dr Jane Garnett and Dr Matthew Kempshall have strong interests in art history and visual culture and Dr Garnett was involved in the construction of the degree. Many students who have read History or a joint school with History have developed art historical strands within their degree (and in some cases have gone on to postgraduate work on visual themes), so there are well-established points of reference. College tutors in Modern European Languages, English and Chinese also have visual interests, including the study of film. We also have postgraduate students taking the Masters degree in Art History. The College will thus offer a welcoming environment for the sort of cross-fertilisation which is of the essence of the degree itself. Careers The Oxford degree provides an excellent foundation for a career in academic art history and teaching; in the museum or gallery world; in the conservation and promotion of heritage; in cultural policy; in publishing, the media or advertising; as well as in the whole range of careers open to all humanities graduates. Further Information For more information on the course and applying please see the University Prospectus. Please see the departmental website for further details and answers to frequently asked questions. Student Profile Sally Caswell, 3rd Year
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I had never done History of Art before I came to Oxford and originally I was very apprehensive about this. I imagined that everyone would have done History of Art for at least two years and would be talking completely over my head and I would feel completely lost. This wasn't the case at all. About half the people on my course hadn't done History of Art before and those who had didn't find it much of an advantage anyway. The course is so varied that everyone will find something of interest and most of the things none of us had studied before - History of Art A' Level or not. In the first term we looked at "Approaches to Visual Culture" which basically meant we had lectures on a lot of areas of art such as patronage, Islamic art, Chinese art and French Salon criticism. We also studied "Antiquity to Antiquity" which looked at ancient civilisations and the effect their art had on subsequent generations of art. This was initially quite scary as I had never even heard of Pliny! But again everyone was in the same boat and the tutors did try to ease you in gently.