Art History and History

Art history and history together address the question of how human experience is recorded and interpreted, in visual form and in written narrative. History is the discipline of reconstructing and making sense of the past through documents, accounts, and material traces, asking what happened, why, and what it means. Art history examines how objects, images, and architectural forms both represent and constitute history, asking what visual works reveal about the cultures that made them and how our ways of seeing and interpreting images have changed over time.

The two disciplines challenge each other productively, with history providing context for art and art enriching historical understanding.

At Essex, this five-year programme combines a foundation year with both the main degree content and a year abroad, providing an unusually sustained and expansive educational journey. The curriculum engages with the interactions and differences between history and the visual arts across different periods and places, encouraging you to look beyond superficial readings of art as mere historical illustration and to engage with the complex ways in which visual culture both reflects and actively shapes historical understanding. You will develop skills in archival research, close visual analysis, and critical historical argument alongside a comparative awareness of how different traditions have treated both their pasts and their visual heritage.

Graduates go on to work in museums and galleries, heritage organisations, auction houses, art journalism and publishing, cultural policy, education, and a range of roles in the cultural and creative sectors. The analytical and communication skills both disciplines develop are valued across many professional contexts. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in art history, history, or museum and heritage studies, and some pursue academic research careers in both disciplines.