AR122-4-SP-CO:
Writing and Researching Art History
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2025/26
Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 4
Inactive
Monday 12 January 2026
Friday 20 March 2026
15
23 February 2024
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA V305 Curating with Politics,
BA V306 Curating with Politics (Including Foundation Year),
BA V307 Curating with Politics (including Placement Year),
BA V308 Curating with Politics (including Year Abroad)
This module is intended as a skills-building course for first year art history students, to develop writing skills across a range of assessed and non-assessed writing types (essay, critical review, reading summary, label text, catalogue essay etc).
The module will also present an introduction to research methods in art history, and a historical overview of art historical writing.
The aim of this module is:
- To introduce students to methods, histories and approaches to art historical writing.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to have:
- An understanding of primary and secondary research methods in art history.
- An understanding of expectations for academic essay writing.
- Improved writing skills across a range of writing modes (including but not limited to catalogue essays, critical reviews, label texts, and reading summaries).
- Competence in using physical and digital resources for academic work in art history.
Overall, the module is intended to clearly explain the relationship between research methods and writing in academia generally, and in art history specifically.
It will examine how art historical writing works in relation to existing knowledges, and in the absence of existing knowledges – how, for example, do auctioneers and curators write about artists for whom no existing literature exists?
Over the course of a term, it aims to explain to students how their writing at university must differ from that they undertook at school not just in the level of proficiency, but in relation to academic methods of knowledge production.
Topics will include
- What is a university? And even more broadly, what is academia?
- What is 'research''?
- How does research work in specific contexts for art historical writing: reviews, academic essays, catalogue essays, curatorial statements, didactic labels, connoisseurship, auction catalogues etc., and what is the relationship between these forms?
- How can we think about bibliographies and footnotes in these contexts?
- How does primary source research work, practically? Specifically, how does primary source research work for art history?
- What is the relationship between academic art history and institutions such as museums?
- In light of these frameworks of practical and historical knowledge, how should students approach writing essays and other outputs?
This module will be delivered via:
- One 2-hour seminar per week
There will also be a Reading Week when no teaching will take place, exact week to be confirmed.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Exam |
Main exam: In-Person, Open Book, 120 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
| Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during September (Reassessment Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Matt Lodder, email: mlodder@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Matthew Lodder
PHAIS General Office - 6.130; arugadmin@essex.ac.uk.
Yes
Yes
Yes
No external examiner information available for this module.
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
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