Overview

Discover how society’s views, beliefs and actions are recorded in the things we make, use and value. Through the study of archaeology, anthropology and art history, you’ll learn how to examine the visual and material culture of societies across the world, from prehistory to the present. On this unique and dynamic course, you’ll gain a strong grounding in all three disciplines – archaeology, anthropology and art history – with a central focus on analysing and interpreting visual and material culture from around the world. You’ll gain key skills in interpreting the past and understanding its role in the present. During your degree, you’ll have the opportunity to study the visual and material cultures of African, Near Eastern, South American and Pacific societies, and the Mediterranean world, alongside this you will also engage with the arts of Europe and the Americas. You’ll also spend a year studying at one of our prestigious partner universities in the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. For many students, this overseas experience is the highlight of their time at university.

About This Course

You’ll study archaeology, anthropology, and art history as an integrated whole and develop a multi-faceted appreciation of the visual and material culture of a wide range of places and times. You’ll begin to understand how the interaction of people and things is fundamental to humanity. By studying archaeology you’ll gain the ‘long view’ of how people successfully (or unsuccessfully) adapted and changed over hundreds and even thousands of years. Anthropology will provide you with multiple perspectives on how we live and interact now. From art history you’ll gain an understanding of how human creativity has shaped the world we live in, from technological creativity to individual ingenuity. You’ll have the opportunity to study the collections of the world-famous Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, itself a celebrated icon of modern museum architecture. That means you will have access to important artworks from Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. You’ll be able to study relevant objects at first-hand, while learning about the processes of collecting objects for museums. You will be taught by world-leading experts from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, who will encourage you to approach works of art from different perspectives. The Department of Art History and World Art Studies at UEA is a world-leading art history department. Our main areas of research are the history of art and architecture in Europe and North America, the arts of Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America, the archaeology and anthropology of art, and museum studies and cultural heritage. We are part of a close network of internationally-renowned centres for the study and display of art: the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures.