History of Art (MPhil / PhD)

The Department has a lively postgraduate culture, and students meet regularly to participate in reading groups, writing groups and special research skills seminars. There is an annual research forum, where professionals in related fields share their expertise. We also run a postgraduate seminar series, where internationally renowned scholars present current research.

Additionally, the Department advertises a number of teaching assistant part-time posts on an annual basis. Areas of teaching are related to the requirements of the Department's undergraduate programme. You are expected to participate in the Department's research events, including attending lectures, research skills sessions and other classes/workshops as appropriate.

You will have access to outstanding technical research support and facilities. The Peltz Gallery is a flexible exhibition space for digital and material displays, small-scale performances, lectures and meetings. A range of advanced technical resources is also available in the Vasari Research Centre. The Architecture, Space and Society Centre aims to provide a focus for the research activities taking place within Birkbeck and beyond in the area of architectural, design and landscape history. The History and Theory of Photography Research Centre facilitates, exchanges and showcases research on the history and theory of photography at Birkbeck and in the wider community.

Birkbeck's location in Bloomsbury offers excellent access to specialist libraries in the University of London, including the University of London Library, Institute for Historical Research, Warburg Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, and the major national resource of the British Library. You will also have easy access to specialist art libraries not far from Birkbeck, including the library of the Courtauld Institute of Art, the British Architectural Library and the National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A).

The great visual resources of the British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Gallery, V&A, commercial galleries like the Barbican Gallery, ICA, Hayward Gallery and Royal Academy, and temporary exhibition galleries also make London a particularly good place in which to undertake research. We also have links with Cambridge Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, Charles Dickens Museum, English Heritage, the Imperial War Museum, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, Sir John Soane's Museum, the Wallace Collection and the Wellcome Collection.