Birkbeck Department of History of Art
Our Relationship
The Society is affiliated to the Department of History of Art at Birkbeck, University of London. Our association with Birkbeck reaches back to 1981 when the Society was launched by a small group of alumni as ULEMHAS (the University of London Extra-Mural History of Art Society).
Affiliation gives us unique access to art history experts and contacts in the art world. Lecturers from Birkbeck are generous with their support for our activities and provide at least one of the six or so free evening lectures each year. All members of the Society are eligible to join the main Birkbeck Library in Malet Street at no cost (see the panel at the side of this page). A number of the Society’s events are held in Birkbeck’s landmark Keynes Library in Gordon Square.
For our part, the Society supports Birkbeck History of Art students through The London Art History Society Research Fund which is administered by the college and currently provides money to help with student costs associated with academic research, with travel, and with college conference organisation. The Society also funds an annual prize for the best MA dissertation each year.
We encourage all Society members to feel involved in Birkbeck life, to attend college events and to explore undertaking courses at Birkbeck. We post details of all Birkbeck courses, events and opportunities which we think are likely to be of interest to members in the Birkbeck area of this website. Please read more by clicking the panels below. The liaison representative between the Society and Birkbeck is committee member John Peacock, and you can obtain any further information you would like by emailing John on jandapeacock@gmail.com.
How the Society's annual donation is used
Each year the Society donates a sum of money to Birkbeck’s Department of History of Art. The amount varies between £2000-£3500 per year and comes out of the Society’s proceeds from its subscriptions and its activities. The donation is known within the Department as the London Art History Society Research Fund.
The object of the fund is to help MA and PhD students with the costs of necessary research or field work associated with their projects. Students apply for a grant from the fund — which is administered by the college — and if successful they receive the money they require.
The range of projects is astonishingly and impressively wide, and students’ research and travel needs are equally diverse. By clicking the heading to this item you can read a selection of successful applications — and a few of the many expressions of thanks from those students whose work our Fund has enabled.
Birkbeck’s Department of History of Art
Everything you need to know about the department. Discover the wide range of courses offered at all levels, ranging from excellent short Certificate courses of a single term’s duration through to part or full-time undergraduate courses of 3-4 years, one-year conversion courses to MA entry, and a wide range of postgraduate studies.
Short Certificate Courses at Birkbeck
Would you be interested in doing a Certificate course at Birkbeck? Click the link above to find out more.
All Certificate modules earn either 15 or 30 credits which can go toward an eventual Certificate of Higher Education History of Art awarded by Birkbeck University of London. That Certificate in turn will allow you to progress directly into the second year of a number of BA courses including BA History of Art. But there is no requirement for anyone doing a Certificate course to go any further than you wish to, and each module — which lasts one or two terms (£650/£1300) — is complete in itself, and offers an undergraduate-level introduction to the subject in question.
Certificate Course on Bologna: Arts and the City
Interested in learning more about the art and history of Bologna? This Certificate course will allow you to explore the rich heritage of the city and its district in the delightful company of one of Birkbeck’s star lecturers, Dr Kasia Murawska-Muthesius. Kasia is known and loved by many of our Society members, and delivered an engaging and hugely successful seminar on the Nude for us last year.
Blog
Events, talks, student discussions, diaries, news — the busy life of the Department seen through the eyes of its Head of Department, Dr Leslie Topp, and its students.
the london art history society review and Birkbeck
Our annual scholarly journal, the Review, contains many contributions from Birkbeck lecturers and students. Back copies of the Review, together with an index, are available online from this website by clicking the link above.
Birkbeck's School of Arts full programme
Use the link above to discover Birkbeck’s wide range of courses in areas which complement art history — literature and creative writing, languages, philosophy, social history, film, media and cultural studies.
Birkbeck Library
The Birkbeck Library in the Malet Street building holds an important collection of art historical material, as invaluable for general background reading as it is for detailed study. All London Art History Society members are entitled to acquire a Birkbeck Library card and use the library on a reference basis completely free of charge. Enhancing your membership of the Library to include borrowing rights is possible for a price of £70 per year. More information.