Art History and Hebrew

Art history is the discipline that teaches you to read images and objects as carefully and critically as you read texts. It examines the visual culture of human civilisations across time and place, asking what artworks mean, how they were made, how they were received, and what they reveal about the societies that produced them. Hebrew, one of the world's oldest continuously used languages, gives you access to one of the most important ancient and modern literary and religious traditions, from the texts of the Hebrew Bible to contemporary Israeli literature and culture.

At the University of St Andrews this four-year full-time programme develops your visual literacy and analytical skills alongside genuine linguistic competence in Hebrew. In art history you will learn to analyse the history, context, style and meaning of images and objects, engaging with different critical approaches and theoretical frameworks. You will explore the complex roles that visual culture plays in questions of aesthetics, politics, power and identity, and examine how art and its display have both reflected and shaped human history and experience.

In Hebrew you will develop reading, writing, speaking and listening skills while also engaging with the rich literary, religious and cultural heritage the language unlocks. A year abroad gives you the opportunity to deepen both strands in an international setting.

The combination of visual and linguistic expertise, with the particular cross-cultural resonance of Hebrew in relation to art history's engagement with sacred imagery, iconography and the history of religion, makes this a distinctive and intellectually rich pairing.

Graduates move into careers in museums and galleries, art criticism and journalism, auction houses, heritage management, cultural policy, education, and academic research. Many continue to postgraduate study in art history, Jewish studies, cultural studies, museum studies or related fields.