Undergraduate courses

History of Art single honours

History of Art joint honours

Our undergraduate teaching

We offer stimulating and challenging units on our undergraduate courses that draw directly on the research interests and published work of our staff, as well as the unique resources in Bristol and the surrounding area. You will get to study at the cutting edge of art history from experts in their field. And you will receive a strong foundation in a variety of visual cultures from South Asia through to the Americas in a way that is mindful of diversity and difference.  

At undergraduate level, we have designed an exciting new first year curriculum that will introduce you to the rich histories of exchange between diverse traditions of visual culture from around the globe, from the rise of Islam through to the present day. You will also develop the unique skills required in the analysis of different media, such as sculpture, painting, collage, film, photography and posters. We will help you choose your path from this broad foundation through our optional units, so that you are ready to undertake a piece of your own genuine research in your final year as the culmination of your journey to becoming an art historian. 

Unit descriptions 

For more detail of the breadth and range of the course units, please see our course structure.

In addition to these units, students can also take units from the History degree, which has the same basic structure and ethos of the History degree.

For more on the nature of our degree, see: 

Why study art history at Bristol?

Click here to see a short video featuring Professor Shaw-Miller talking about art history

Liberal Arts

The department also contributes to the following multidisciplinary courses:

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I was particularly drawn to Bristol because of its fantastic reputation, particularly in the working environment... I’ve since started working for the Rebecca Hossack Gallery in London, whilst pursuing printmaking as a career part-time.

Emily (BA History of Art, 2013)
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