BA History of Art and Archaeology

Learn a language as part of this programme

Degree programmes at SOAS - including this one - can include language courses in more than forty African and Asian languages. It is SOAS students’ command of an African or Asian language which sets SOAS apart from other universities.

The structure and contents of modules reflect the importance given to conceptual and methodological clarity, and to the independent interests of students. Particular importance is given to the training of student’s visual memory through the study of visual images.

Please note that a 15 credits module corresponds to a 0.5 unit (taught over one term) and a 30 credits module corresponds to a full unit (taught over both terms).

One purpose of the introductory year is to provide a basis for the student's selection of modules in the second and third years. In the first year, students must take six compulsory Art and Archaeology modules, including four 15 credits modules introducing the arts of Asia and Africa, and a 15 credits core module introducing theoretical issues about how and why art and archaeology are studied and discussed. In addition, students must take a 30 credits fourth ‘open option’ module (or two equivalent 15 credits modules) in another department.

In the first year, students are normally required to take six modules in Art and Archaeology to the value of 90 credits as follows:

• Theory in Art History and Archaeology (core)
• Great works: Recordings, Objects, Films (compulsory)
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of Africa
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of East Asia
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of the Near and Middle East
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of South and South East Asia

• A fourth 30 credits ‘open option’ module (or equivalent two 15 credits modules) from another department.
  


Further details of all modules are set out in the pages that follow.

Students who wish to take the BA History of Art and Archaeology must in their second and third years accumulate at least 120 credits from the modules designated as having
 archaeological content, selected from the list of second and third year modules below (modules listed under the heading 'Years 2 and 3 Modules with Archaeological Content').

Any student who passes at least 120 credits from modules designated as having archaeological content will automatically be placed in the History of Art and Archaeology programme, while those who do not will be placed in the History of Art programme.

• Theory in Art History and Archaeology
• Great Works: art, films, literature, music
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of Africa
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of East Asia
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of the Near and Middle East
• Themes in the Art and Archaeology of South and Southeast Asia

• Approaches to Modern and Contemporary Arts in Africa
• Africans in the Americas: Identities and Representation
• Art and Culture in Imperial China
• Art and Culture in Modern China
• Art and empire in India 1300-1800
• Art and Material Culture of the Islamic World: 7th to 14th Centuries
• Arts and Society in Africa
• Arts of the Buddha in Southeast Asia
• Arts of SouthEast Asia
• Art, Performance and The Body in Africa
• Chinese Art and Modernity
• Chinese Contemporary Art
• Collecting and Collections
• Comparative Avant-Gardes: Global Perspectives in Modern Art
• Contemporary Korean Arts in East Asia
• Critical Readings in Arts and Cultures
• Curating Global Arts
• Exploring Visual Expressions of the Mandala
• Gender, Art and Visual Culture: Explorations in the Representation of Southeast Asia
• Global Cultures of Chinese Ceramics
• Hindu Art in Medieval India
• House and Tomb in the Muslim World
• Islamic Art Theories and Aesthetics
• Japanese Art
• Mosaics, Manuscripts, and Wall Painting in Islamic Art
• Mughal Arts: Sound, Text, and Image
• Music and travel on the Silk Road
• Museums and Museology
• Paintings of Korea
• Representing China in Museums
• Southeast Asia in the Modern Imagination: Art, Visuality, Exchange
• The `Historical` Buddha: Explorations in Southeast Asian Arts
• Traditional Art and Modern South Asia
• Undoing Asia: Artistic Perspectives from the 20th and 21th Centuries
• Visual Arts of Africa and The Atlantic World: History, Creativity and Agency
• Visual Culture of Early-Modern Japan

• African Art III: the Art and Architecture of North Eastern Africa
• Art and Archaeology of Medieval China
• Art and Archaeology of Ancient China
• Art and Architecture of Medieval Islamic Turkey: the Seljuks and their Neighbours
• Art and Architecture of Tibet
• Arts, Culture and Commodification: Themes in the Global Creative and Cultural Industries
• Early Indian Art
• Gandharan Art and its Heritage
• Imag(in)ing Buddhas in South Asia (1)
• Imag(in)ing Buddhas in South Asia (2)
• Islamic Art and Architecture of Medieval Iran and Central Asia (10th-13th centuries)
• Islamic Urbanism: Medina to Dubai
• Mosque and Palace in the Muslim World
• Ottoman Art and Architecture (14th-17th centuries)
• Painting in Africa
• Royal Arts of Korea
• War and Peace in the Eastern Mediterranean: Art and Architecure of Medieval Syria and Palestine

• Independent Study Project in Archaeology

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules