This degree does not take for granted that 'art' or ÔcultureÕ is universally understood in the same way across the world or through time. It, therefore, places the specific activities we study as art in the context of literature, music, film, photography and the media. The modules in art history aim to deepen your understanding of how art has been produced and received by different societies at different times. On the cultural studies modules you will focus on cultural forms and processes, which, since the beginnings of Modernity, have shaped our contemporary societies and their globalizing cultures: revolution, democracy, the city, war, memory, entertainment, photography, psychoanalysis, cinema, music.

In studying both artistic and cultural practices, you will engage with a range of cultural theories that are relevant to both formal (art) and informal (cultural) activities by which individuals, groups and societies have tried to make sense of their changing worlds.

The programme develops your analytical skills to make critical interpretations of art and contemporary cultural forms. You encounter many approaches including philosophical aesthetics, anthropology, marxism, feminism, postcolonial thinking, critical theory and psychoanalysis. You learn the specific skills of close visual and textual analysis.