MSt History of Art and Visual Culture - Course Handbook

2024-25

Disclaimer

The information in this handbook is accurate as at October 1st 2024. Although it may be necessary for changes to be made in certain circumstances, as explained at www.graduate.ox.ac.uk/coursechanges, it is hoped to keep such changes to a minimum. If changes are made the faculty will publish a new version of this handbook together with a list of the changes and students will be informed.

The Examination Regulations relating to this course are available at https://examregs.admin.ox.ac.uk or Appendix 2 below.

If you have any concerns or queries please contact the Graduate Office at graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk.

This handbook should be read in conjunction with the History of Art Introductory Guide for Graduates, which contains key departmental information. An electronic copy of this document can be found at MSt History of Art and Visual Culture (ox.ac.uk).

This handbook has been prepared for students starting the MSt History of Art and Visual Culture in Michaelmas Term 2024. We hope that it will be particularly useful to you when you first arrive in Oxford, but you are advised to refer to it throughout your course, as it will be of considerable help throughout the period of your study.

It contains information about the structure of the course, teaching and assessment deadlines, how to format and submit your work, and the exam conventions that set out how your work is marked. It also acts as a signpost to more general information, including useful contacts and locations around the Faculty and university.

Term dates can be found here: Dates of Term | University of Oxford 

As well as this handbook, you will also find these other sources of information useful:

The History of Art Introductory Guide for Graduates: MSt History of Art and Visual Culture (ox.ac.uk)

contains key departmental information
Canvas: https://canvas.ox.ac.uk/ To find information about your course, such as reading lists and available options.
The Oxford Historians Hub: https://ohh.web.ox.ac.uk/ To find information on studying history at Oxford, the termly lecture list, details of the Oxford History Graduate Network, how to present your work when submitting it, and other general information relating to your studies.
Examination regulations: https://examregs.admin.ox.ac.uk/. The definitive rules that govern the course.
Marking criteria and conventions  The rules by which your work is marked.

Your supervisor will review, monitor and comment on your academic progress using Graduate Supervision Reporting (GSR), which is accessible via Student Self Service (https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/selfservice). You are also encouraged to submit comments on this system.

An introduction to Oxford for new students is available on the university website: https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/new.

This programme is convened and administered by the Department of History of Art and the Faculty of History. If you need help or advice relating to your course, and can’t find the answer in this handbook or on Canvas, you should contact one of the following:

Details of the administrative staff that support the Master’s courses can be found on the Academic Administration page of the History Faculty website: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/administrative-staff.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the content of this handbook, please email them to admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk or graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk.

Welcome to your Master's course in History at Oxford. I look forward to meeting you in person at some point in the coming year and wish you every success in the months to come. Above all, I hope that you enjoy postgraduate study here and find it rewarding.

Our Faculty is one of the largest history departments in the world. It brings together an extraordinary array of scholars pursuing an unparalleled range of research. This is reflected in the abundance of research seminars, regular graduate workshops, special lectures and discussion panels that take place throughout the academic year. As a postgraduate student, you will probably be spending more time in independent study than you did as an undergraduate, and the live, in-person discussion available at a regular research seminar can be important for both social support and intellectual stimulation. You will find events listed on the Faculty website; while you will need to prioritise attendance at lectures and seminars in your own specialist area, you are welcome to attend anything that interests you. In this respect, I also encourage you to explore Oxford's intellectual life beyond the Faculty, in the Colleges, the lecture lists and seminar series of other faculties and departments, and at TORCH (the Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities).

The Graduate Joint Consultative Committee (GJCC), made up of academic staff and student representatives, meets every term. It works in conjunction with the Oxford History Graduate Network (OHGN), a student-led forum that organises social and academic events and raises matters of concern to students with the Faculty's graduate office. You can find more details of both these organisations at the links above and I would encourage you to think about getting involved

The MSt and MPhil in History bring together nine "strands", or different areas of historical research. You therefore belong to two cohorts: a smaller one focused around your particular strand and a larger one encompassing all students on the master's program. In your first term, the Sources and Historiography seminar will be your introduction to your specific strand, and your Theories and Methods class will bring you together with other students on the larger degree course. We hope that you will benefit from both the stimulus of working with historians of other periods and places, and the specialist expertise of the tutors on your strand.

Like any large institution, the collegiate University of Oxford is a complex place to navigate and it is entirely normal to find it difficult to get around both the place and its processes. Whenever you have questions that aren't answered in this handbook or elsewhere on the Faculty or University websites, you should contact your thesis supervisor or (for College or welfare issues) your College advisor, Tutor for Graduates, or College welfare team; your course tutors; or the convenor of your strand. You are also welcome to contact the Graduate Office, whether in person, by phone (01865 [6115011) or by email (graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk). If you still don't have an answer to your question, or if you have concerns you don't wish to share with your supervisor, tutors, or the office, please do contact either Richard Reid, the Convenor of the MSt/MPhil in History, or me.

While graduate study can be very exciting, it can (and should) also be challenging. We hope most of the challenges you face at Oxford will be intellectual ones, but other challenges – whether financial, personal, or related to physical and/or mental health – are not uncommon. If you feel you’re struggling for any reason, don’t go it alone: we may be able to help. So do reach out to one of the people mentioned or the Faculty’s welfare lead, Maya Blackwell (maya.blackwell@history.ox.ac.uk).

 

This handbook is intended to be a comprehensive guide to the teaching, assessment and administrative arrangements of the course (but please note that the formal rules governing the programme are set out separately in the University's Examination Regulations); it also contains useful information on other aspects of life in Oxford as a postgraduate historian. You can find further information about graduate matters on our Canvas pages.

Once again, welcome to graduate work in history at Oxford.

Dr Katherine Lebow

Director of Graduate Studies in History

1| Course Content and Structure

All course information can be found on Canvas.

The course extends over nine months and has three main parts:

  • The core course on Issues in Art History (taught in the first and second terms)
  • A special option course (also taught in the first and second terms)
  • A Dissertation (chiefly written in the third term, with research beginning as early as possible in the academic year).

You MUST check all deadlines against the Examination Regulations for your course. If there are any discrepancies with what is published here, the official Examination Regulations take precedence.

Extensions to deadlines for the submission of assessed work can be requested ONLY from the Proctors, where there is good cause, i.e. circumstances beyond your control preventing you from completing assessed work on time. Details of policy and procedure can be found here. Please note that you are responsible for the timely submission of your assessed work: submitting work, especially your thesis, after the original deadline may mean that your work will not be marked according to the usual timetable, and you must not make plans for graduation without first checking with the Graduate Office that your marks will have been ratified by the relevant Board of Examiners in time.  

Michaelmas Term

During Term

 Core course: Issues in Art History Attend weekly lectures and classes
Option Paper Attend weekly classes
History of Art Research Seminars Attend weekly seminars

Hilary Term

During Term

 Core course: Issues in Art History Attend weekly lectures and classes
Option Paper Attend weekly classes
History of Art Research Seminars Attend weekly seminars
Week 4, Friday Online Exam Entry

Complete online exam entry - Exam Schools will contact you with details of how to do this.

PLEASE NOTE that this is compulsory, and that Exam Schools charge a fee for late entries and modifications to exam entries.
Week 6, Friday Extended Essay titles

Submit your Extended Essay and Dissertation titles to admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk * 

Form available here
Dissertation title
Week 9, Friday (noon) Extended Essays

Online Submission via Inspera

Trinity Term

Week 0, Monday

(noon)

 Take home exam Take home exam (choice of topics) is uploaded to Inspera
Week 0, Thursday (noon) Take home exam Take home exam submission, online via Inspera
Week 1, Friday (5pm) Dissertation title, draft abstract, and bibliography

Submit finalised dissertation title, draft abstract & bibliography to admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk * 

Form available here

Week 9, Monday (noon)

 Dissertation Online Submission via Inspera

*Modification of your essay and dissertation titles is only possible up to five days before the submission deadline, and requires the permission of the course/option tutor or (for your dissertation) your supervisor. Once permission has been obtained, the new title should be sent to the History of Art Office and the Graduate Office by email (admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk, graduate.office@history.ox.ac.uk).

Please note that most title changes that are approved are small adjustments to the title and/or focus of an essay or dissertation. Proposed title changes that radically alter the topic of a piece of work are unlikely to be granted approval at a late stage

The core course is designed to ensure that the students are competent to deal with a range of primary material, whether text or artefact, and to ensure that they have an adequate grounding in the approaches and methods of the discipline.

Teaching

This compulsory core paper introduces students to the major methodological issues, theoretical questions and historiographical traditions of the discipline of Art History, through a critical examination of key writing in the field. It aims to address the major challenges and issues that face all art historians today, no matter what their field. It is organised around a series of issues and readings that demonstrate how historiographical, theoretical and methodological questions relate to the actual practice of art history. Attendance at the classes is also compulsory for some new students pursuing research degrees, who thus enrich the discussion. In addition to occasional oral presentations, students write two short practice essays on assigned topics as part of the course’s formative assessment. The course is chiefly taught during the first two terms, although one revision session is also held in the third term. Formative assessment consists of meetings with the course tutor to prepare and discuss oral and/or written work and the writing of the two short practice essays. The paper’s summative assessment is by a take-home examination taken in the third term, in which students answer three essay questions.

Assessment

The course is examined by the compulsory paper (in the form of a take-home exam) on ‘Issues in Art History’, which consist of three essays of between 1,200 and 1,500 words each. [For instructions on regulations concerning word counts, see Section 2.] A choice of topics for these essays as prescribed by the examiners will be published on Inspera in Trinity Term.

These essays are assessed via double-blind marking by two expert examiners and then moderated by an external examiner. This paper accounts for 20% of the overall mark.

Submission

 Online Submission via Inspera

Please note that options available vary from year to year, depending on the availability of teaching staff. Optional courses will be provided by specialists from the History of Art Department. Option Papers are available at https://www.hoa.ox.ac.uk/masters-degree. The Faculty reserves the right not to run an option if there are insufficient numbers enrolled.

The examiners expect the two extended essays arising from your Option paper to be clearly distinct from each other and from the dissertation in either the issue discussed or the method of treatment.

Teaching

These papers build in-depth knowledge of particular fields upon the general awareness of themes and issues raised by the Issues in Art History core paper. Their content is reviewed every year according to developments in the field and the tutor’s understanding of it; as with all papers, modes of delivery are also reviewed in the light of examiners’ reports and students and student feedback. Depending on staff preferences and availability, not all courses are available every year.

Assessment

Assessment is by two extended essays, each on an agreed topic of the student’s choice: one essay of 2,500 words, normally on a methodological, historiographic or other issue to allow students to develop issues relevant to their research project (accounting for 7.5% of the total mark), and one essay will be a research project of 7,500 words on a topic selected in consultation with the option tutor (accounting for 22.5% of the overall mark). [For instructions on regulations concerning word counts, see Section 2.] Formative assessment consists of meetings with the tutor to discuss the papers and the reading of a draft for each paper followed by verbal and written feedback. You should follow the guidance of your tutor regarding the ideal schedule for completing drafts of each paper. You can meet with your supervisor for a total of five hours, so it is best to carefully plan how to gain maximum benefit from that time.

Summative assessment of the extended essays, as with each piece of examined material, is by blind- marking by two expert examiners and moderation by an external examiner. These essays account for 30% of the overall mark.

Titles

Extended Essay titles must be submitted to admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk by Friday week 6 of Hilary Term, using this form. When submitting your essay titles, please ensure that your option essay titles are preceded by identifiers ‘essay 1’ and ‘essay 2’. This is important because your transcript will only identify them as such, without a title, and you would want to know which essay got which mark. Keep a copy for your own records.

The titles of your essays should be as descriptive and precise as possible, posing a question or proposition that can reasonably be dealt with within the word limits set out about. Your supervisor will be able to provide guidance where needed.

Titles of submitted work must match previously submitted titles. Requests to change a title should include a brief explanation of why the change is required, and should be submitted using this form. Minor grammatical changes do not need to be submitted. If you fail to seek approval of your title modification at any time in advance of submission the Board of Examiners may impose a penalty.

Writing your essays

Guidance on writing up the essays, including format, citation style, etc. is provided on the Oxford Historians Hub. Note that the Conventions for the Presentation of Essays, Dissertations and Theses refer primarily to theses, and as such contain some instructions not generally relevant to an extended essay (for example suggestions on the use of a preface and table of contents). You should therefore use the Conventions with common sense. Bear in mind that your essays must be with your tutors in plenty of time for reading and commenting on them.

Submission

Online Submission via Inspera

All students must submit a dissertation. The topic should be selected in consultation with the candidate’s supervisor. The dissertation accounts for 50% of the overall mark.

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Your supervisor’s primary responsibility is to advise you on the programme of work necessary to complete your dissertation or thesis. To this end, they should maintain a general overview over your course work and academic development. They should help you to identify and acquire the knowledge and skills needed to complete your dissertation or thesis, and to further your aims for study or employment, insofar as these build upon the programme of graduate study. You can meet with your dissertation supervisors for a total of five hours, so it is best to carefully plan how to gain maximum benefit from that time.

Your supervisor will generally be your Option Paper tutor, though if more appropriate supervision is available for your particular topic another supervisor might be assigned. Your supervisor will take on primary responsibility for guiding the dissertation and advising on research resources. You should agree a definitive title for your dissertation with your supervisor(s). When you first submit your preliminary title to admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk on or before Friday week 6 of Hilary Term, it may reasonably be a fairly generic descriptor of the topic of research, but should be precise enough to convince the Head of Department and the Chair of Examiners that the proposed research is a realistic goal for a 15,000-word dissertation. The form can be found here.

Titles of submitted work must match previously submitted titles. Titles can be changed or made more precise by submitting a change of title form. Changes of title do not need a new abstract, but you should include a brief explanation of why the change is required. Minor grammatical changes do not need to be submitted. If you fail to seek approval of your title modification at any time in advance of submission the Board of Examiners may impose a penalty.

The examiners expect the dissertation to be clearly distinct from the two extended essays arising from your Option paper in either the issue discussed or the method of treatment. The dissertation must include some study of original source materials, whether in printed, manuscript, visual or other form.

Permission to include any appendices to the dissertation must be sought in good time by letter to the Chair of Examiners (c/o the Manager of Administration, History of Art Department), at the very least 14 days in advance of the submission deadline. Appendices thus approved will not be included in the word count.

The following notes for students and supervisors provide rough guidance for students and supervisors - individual progress rates will vary, depending (for example) on the level of your background knowledge; whether you need to acquire new technical skills; the speed at which you identify a workable topic; the accessibility of sources in Oxford or Britain; the time needed to process data; the extent to which the research programme makes feasible the drafting of chapters while research is in progress, etc.

Michaelmas term:

  • Meet supervisor
  • Identify any training needs
  • Plan lecture/seminar attendance and a programme of secondary reading necessary to set the scene for proposed research
  • Initial exploration of primary sources
  • Discuss subject and nature of the research proposal you plan to submit as part of your examination
  • Expect to spend one day a week on preparing your dissertation project, and arrange to see your supervisor (if not your Option Course tutor) once or twice after the initial meeting

End of Michaelmas Term:

  • Discuss whether applying for doctoral research in Oxford or elsewhere, and if so nature of doctoral research proposal (deadline for submission of the application mid-January)

Christmas vacation

  • Proceed, against the background of continuing work as above, to refine definition of dissertation topic
  • Continue to identify and establish familiarity with primary and secondary sources central to your proposed master’s research
  • If applying for re-admission to doctoral programme, AHRC funding, or other funding requiring a doctoral research proposal, work with supervisor to refine that well in advance of the January application deadline

Hilary Term

  • Finalise plan of work remaining for dissertation and agree this with supervisor
  • Revise the structure of your master’s dissertation in the light of this ongoing exploration
  • Expect to continue spending one day a week on your dissertation project
  • Again, arrange to see your supervisor (if not your option course tutor) for two sessions

Easter vacation/Trinity Term

  • Complete research, modifying plan and structure as necessary in process
  • Submit finalised dissertation title, draft abstract & bibliography to admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk by Friday 1st week.
  • Produce draft – make sure draft is in supervisor’s hands in plenty of time for supervisor to comment (supervisors are not expected to comment on drafts received later than Monday of 6th week)
  • Revise in light of comments: make the most of the opportunity to work full-time on your dissertation up to submission, extensively consulting original sources and carefully revising your dissertation, giving it a tightly argued structure and presenting it in idiomatic English which makes it accessible to a non-specialist reader

The dissertation should consist of up to 15,000 words. [For instructions on regulations concerning word counts, see Section 2.] The dissertation must be accompanied by a short abstract which concisely summarises its scope and principal arguments, in about 300 words; the abstract should be bound into the dissertation, immediately after the title page.

Guidance on writing up the dissertation, including format, citation style, etc. is provided on the Oxford Historians Hub. A complete draft of your dissertation should be with your supervisor(s) in plenty of time for reading and commenting on it, ideally at least a fortnight in advance of the submission deadline.

Dissertation submission and word limit

Your dissertation needs to be submitted online on the Inspera platform by noon on Monday week 9 of Trinity Term. Refer to Section 2 for guidance on how to submit your dissertation.

Assessment

Formative assessment consists of meetings with your supervisor to discuss the dissertation and the reading of a draft followed by verbal and written feedback. Summative assessment, as with each piece of examined material, is by blind-marking by two expert examiners and moderation by an external examiner. The dissertation accounts for 50% of the overall mark.

M.St. students are expected to attend the weekly Art History Research Seminars in Michaelmas term, the weekly Slade Lectures in Hilary term, and the Terra Lectures in Trinity Term.

The programme of teaching is also supported by regular graduate seminars in the History Faculty, which run throughout the academic year and will be attended by graduate students and staff.

Details can be found in the Lecture List on the Oxford Historians Hub (https://ohh.web.ox.ac.uk/termly-lecture-list) but note that a weekly email alert will tell you about all the seminars, lectures and visiting speaker presentations organised by the Faculty of History.

 

Appendix

The History Faculty is able to provide some support for student research through its trust funds, but you are expected to explore also other sources of support such as your college. Details regarding trust funds can be found on the Oxford Historians Hub.

The Faculty also offers annual prizes for the best dissertations. A central list of all University prizes can be found here.

2024-25, Master of Studies in History of Art and Visual Culture (ox.ac.uk)

The regulations of the Board of the Faculty of History are as follows:

1. Every candidate must follow for at least three terms a course of instruction in the History of Art, and must, upon entering for the examination, produce from his or her society a certificate to this effect.

2. Syllabus

The course shall comprise: I, one compulsory paper; II, one optional paper chosen by the candidate; and III, a dissertation.

I. The compulsory paper entitled 'Issues in Art History’ will be assessed by three essays of between 1,200 and 1,500 words each. A choice of topics for these essays as prescribed by the examiners will be published by the department by noon on Monday of 0th week of Trinity Term. Each essay must be uploaded to the University approved online assessment platform by noon on Thursday of 0th week of Trinity Term in the year in which the examination is to be taken.

II. Optional papers will cover topics and issues of art history and visual culture from the later Middle Ages to the present, as approved from time to time by the Committee of the History of Art. A definitive list of the optional papers available in any one year will be posted on the notice boards of the Faculty of History by Friday of fourth week of Michaelmas Term at the latest. Optional papers will be examined by one short essay of 2,500 words and one research project of 7,500 words.

III. A dissertation of not more than 15,000 words on a topic in the history of art, to be approved by the candidate's supervisor and the Head of the Department of History of Art prior to the submission of essay and dissertation titles to the Chair of Examiners for the degree.

3. Candidates shall make written application for the approval of the titles of their essay and research project in their optional paper, and also notify the examiners of the title of their dissertation by the examination entry date.

4. Each essay and research project for the optional paper must be uploaded to the University approved online assessment platform by noon on Friday of Week Nine of Hilary Term. The dissertation must be uploaded to the University approved online assessment platform by noon on Monday of Week Nine of Trinity Term. The dissertation must include a short abstract which concisely summarizes its scope and principal arguments, in about 300 words. For both the essays and the dissertations, the presentation and footnotes should comply with the requirements specified in the Regulations of the Education Committee for the degrees of M.Litt. and D.Phil. and follow the Conventions for the presentation of dissertations and theses of the Board of the Faculty of History.

5. A candidate who fails the examination will be permitted to re-take the examination on one further occasion only, not later than one year after the initial attempt. Such a candidate whose dissertation has been of satisfactory standard will not be required to re-submit the dissertation, while a candidate who has reached a satisfactory standard on both the option and the prescribed issues in art history essays will not be required to re-take those parts of the examination.

Contacts

Director of Graduate Studies: 

  • Dr Simon Skinner

Programme Convenors: Professor JP Park; Professor Geoffrey Batchen

The main office contact for all graduate matters is: admin@hoa.ox.ac.uk

History of Art Department Manager: Penelope Lane

History of Art Academic Assistant: Rebecca Knight-Morgan

Graduate Officer: Joe Shepherd

Assistant Graduate Officer: Maya Blackwell

Teaching Officer: Callum Kelly

Admissions Officer: Liz Owen

Please note that from the start of the 2025-26 academic year, the Faculty will relocate to the new Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. More detailed information on arrangements for the Faculty’s move to the new building, including the Academic Office location and opening hours, graduate study and social space, and library resources, will be communicated separately to all continuing graduate students during 2024-25.

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