Art history research

Art history at Birkbeck is renowned as a centre of original and influential research in the discipline. All staff are active researchers and regularly publish in their field of expertise. Our research centres host many public events, creating a lively culture for thinking about art history in all its dimensions.

Located in the historic buildings of the Bloomsbury Group, within walking distance of national libraries, collections and archives, we provide a hub for the critical study and public discussion of a wide range of cultural forms. 

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, Art and Design research at Birkbeck was ranked 4th nationally with world-leading achievements for environment (90%), impact (67%) and outputs (65%).

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Congratulations: truly outstanding REF2021 result

World-leading: 90% environment, 67% impact, 65% outputs. Overall score 3.54. 4th nationally.

Studying for a PhD in History of Art at Birkbeck

We have an international reputation for its research in medieval, Renaissance and modern art. Our range of interests include: nineteenth- and twentieth-century design history; photography; museology; gender and representation; and interdisciplinary topics, particularly relationships between art and film; art and anthropology; and art and medicine.

Find out more about the PhD programme

RESEARCH CENTRES AND NETWORKS

History and Theory of Photography Research Centre

We aim to facilitate, exchange and showcase existing and new interdisciplinary research in the wider photographic and academic community.

Architecture, Space and Society Centre

We provide a focus for research activities taking place within Birkbeck and beyond in the area of architectural, design, and landscape history.

Centre for Museum Cultures

A hub for intellectual exchange and debate relating to all aspects of museology, curation, and heritage.

Murray Group

Discover the Murray Group and the range of seminars we have available.

Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities

We engage with important public issues to foster and promote a climate of interdisciplinary research and collaboration among academics and researchers.

Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies

A group focused on innovative research projects exploring the long nineteenth century (ca. 1790-1914).

Contemporary Poetics Research Centre

A forum for the study and performance of contemporary poetries, and research into their historical, political and theoretical contexts.

Eighteenth-century research group

We bring together researchers who use a wide variety of media to explore Europe in the eighteenth century.

Guilt Working Group

The relation between modern guilts and other forms and discourses of guilt is rich and strange. We aim to provide a focus for discussions around this concept.

Vasari Research Centre

We integrate digital research with educational and cultural projects using innovative approaches to technology.

Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality

We offer a forum for innovative interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange in gender and sexuality studies.

Centre for Medical Humanities

We draw together research in the field of medical humanities which take place across Birkbeck.

Areas of research expertise

All staff are active researchers in the subject. View their areas of research here

Staff research

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

Mapping Museums

An inter-disciplinary project that will map and analyse the emergence, character, and development of the UK independent museums.

Shakespeare in the Royal Collections

We are examining the place of Shakespeare in the Royal Collections by investigating the holdings and the stories they tell.

PAST RESEARCH PROJECTS

Our staff have been involved in many unique research projects, among them the following:

Aesthetics In Extremis: The Rise of Victorian Violence

How did the global geopolitical climate of the late nineteenth century affect its visual aesthetics and perception of violence?

Identifying with the Art of the Fifteenth Century

This project, supported by the British Academy, explores the art of fifteenth-century Europe and the interests which have shaped its study.

Madness and Modernity

This project looked at mental illness, the visual arts and architecture in fin de siecle Vienna.

Micromuseology

This project investigated whether museums might change if academics focused on small independent single-subject ones.

Ottoman Pasts, Present Cities

This research project looks to see what the past of the Ottoman Empire can teach us in the present about memorial connections between different groups.

SHOCK CITY: IMAGE AND ARCHITECTURE IN INDUSTRIAL MANCHESTER

Discover the study of the urban imaginary of ascendant industrial middle classes.

The Corporeal Territories of War

This Wellcome Trust funded project investigated the cultural significance of facial injury in First World War Britain.

The Fallen Woman

The Foundling Museum commissioned Birkbeck art historian Professor Lynda Nead to curate the exhibition because of her research on the visual representation of women in Victorian Britain.