BA Film Studies and Art History

Example structure
Studying at Essex is about discovering yourself, so your course combines compulsory and optional modules to make sure you gain key knowledge in the discipline, while having as much freedom as possible to explore your own interests. Our research-led teaching is continually evolving to address the latest challenges and breakthroughs in the field, therefore to ensure your course is as relevant and up-to-date as possible your core module structure may be subject to change.
For many of our courses you’ll have a wide range of optional modules to choose from – those listed in this example structure are just a selection of those available. The opportunity to take optional modules will depend on the number of core modules within any year of the course. In many instances, the flexibility to take optional modules increases as you progress through the course.
Our Programme Specification gives more detail about the structure available to our current first-year students, including details of all optional modules.
Please note that in your first year you choose one of these three modules: Art, Sex and Death; Space, Place and Locality; Art Revolutions. You do not take all three.
Year 1
Art and Ideas: I(A)
Art and Ideas: I(B)
Culture, Work and Society
Approaches to Film and Media
The Enlightenment (optional)
Space, Place and Locality (optional)
Year 2
Narrative and Film (optional)
After Impressionism: European Art From Van Gogh to Klimt (optional)
Becoming Modern: European Art From Futurism to Surrealism (optional)
World Cinema (optional)
Art in Latin America II: Modern and Contemporary
Art, the Law and the Market (optional)
Final year
Photography in History
The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Film, New Media, Software and the Internet
Art and Power (optional)
Inventing the Future: Early Contemporary 1945-1980 (optional)
Advanced Film Production (optional)
Hollywood Directors (optional)
Year abroad
On your year abroad, you have the opportunity to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised. The rest of your course remains identical to the three-year degree.
Teaching
Close examination of texts written by artists, critics, art historians and philosophers
Subsidised gallery visits to work ‘in situ’ for each course
Gain practical experience in curating, such as handling and installing artworks
Hands-on experience of camerawork and film production
Explore film theory through use of film and literature
Teaching takes the form of lectures and seminar sessions or discussion classes
Assessment
Art History includes assessed coursework, for example essays, analysis of source material, exhibition reviews and virtual portfolios, coursework reports, oral presentations
Film Studies coursework includes essays, exhibition reviews and virtual portfolios, coursework reports, individual and group presentations, book reviews, viva voce examinations, and an independent research project (a dissertation)
Written examinations are also taken for the majority of modules at the end of each academic year
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