The Warburg Institute fosters an interdisciplinary approach spanning cultural, intellectual and visual history. Join us to conduct your PhD research in a world-renowned library and immerse yourself in a uniquely international research community.The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. It is dedicated to the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with special emphasis on the afterlife of
...
READ MORE
The Warburg Institute fosters an interdisciplinary approach spanning cultural, intellectual and visual history. Join us to conduct your PhD research in a world-renowned library and immerse yourself in a uniquely international research community.
The Warburg Institute is one of the world’s leading centres for studying the interaction of ideas, images and society. It is dedicated to the survival and transmission of culture across time and space, with special emphasis on the afterlife of antiquity.
The resources of the Institute are especially geared to students interested in interdisciplinary study, including the Archive, Photographic Collection, and open-stack Library with its unique cataloguing system specifically designed by Aby Warburg to aid research.
We encourage PhD and MPhil applications in the many areas of research the Institute supports including:
Art History
Iconography
Cultural History
Translation studies
Intellectual History
Renaissance Culture
Renaissance Architecture
History of Magic and Science
History of Cartography and Cosmography
Religious History
History of the Book
Structure
Full-time study for the PhD degree entails three or a maximum of four years' independent research, culminating in the writing of a thesis of not more than 100,000 words. Part-time students complete the same programme in five, or a maximum of six years. After submission of the thesis, the student attends an oral examination conducted by an internal examiner, from the University of London, and an external examiner, normally from another British university.
There is no formal coursework, but PhD students are expected to participate in the weekly seminar on Work in Progress and to present a paper every year from their second year onwards. In their first year they are required to attend weekly a class on Techniques of Scholarship; they may take language classes and other research training courses as necessary. They are encouraged to participate in the regular seminars held at the Institute during the academic year.
The Institute will accept suitably qualified students provided that their topic can be supervised by a member of the academic staff. Broadly speaking the area covered is cultural and intellectual history in the period 1200–1700; specific research interests of members of staff can be found here. Current dissertation topics include: From Astrology to Aliens: A Shift in Early Modern Cosmology, The Collection of Sir Richard Ellys (1682-1742) in the Context of Eighteenth-Century Book Collecting, The Workshop and its Painters: Perugino and the Perugineschi in Florence and Perugia.
