About the course

The MSt in the History of Design is a master's degree offered part-time over two years, taught through synchronous virtual and face-to-face teaching. The programme focuses upon design produced worldwide since 1851. Students progress from a grounding in material and historical analysis to dissertation research.

This course explores the fascinating histories of objects and environments created amidst the advent of modernity. The syllabus examines a variety of forms of design and craft. graphic design, decorative arts, industrial design, fashion, design for performance and display, the designed space of interiors, the built environment and landscape.

Core themes of the course include the rivalries between historicism and modernity; local and transnational identities; handicraft and industrial and digital processes; consumption, politics and sustainability; critical debates about manufacturers, mediators, and audiences in advice literature, advertising and film writing.

The development of a framework of interdisciplinary interpretative skills useful to understanding the history of design is a core aim. By providing grounding in the analysis of the techniques and materials deployed in creating things or places, the programme enables you to grapple with material evidence which enriches this distinctive field of historical research. The analysis of the historiography of political and aesthetic debates articulated by makers, critics and historians about design, its forms and purposes locates how these objects and sites embody historical memory, identity and ideology.

Teaching and learning

Teaching and learning takes a variety of forms in this programme. Three face-to-face site visits to the University of Oxford's unique museums and libraries and to collections nearby are blended with synchronous virtual seminars and workshops timed to be accessible worldwide outside conventional working hours. In keeping with the Oxford ethos, individual tutorials with the Course Director and independent research.

Assessment

Formal assessment is by means of analytical essay and dissertation writing, underpinned by informal assessment methods such as termly oral presentations by yourself to the group about your independent research.

Graduate destinations

Upon successful completion of this course some students have gone on to further graduate study, such as doctoral research and career progression in the museum and heritage sector, creative industries and university teaching.