Program Overview

You’ll study archaeology, anthropology and art history as an integrated whole, and will 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. This means you’ll have access to important artworks from Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Americas, and Europe. You will be able to study relevant objects at first hand, while learning about the processes of collecting objects for museums. You’ll be taught by 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.