BA(Hons) History of Art and Design
Welcome to the 2021 online Degree Show, featuring dissertation research by students from BA History of Art and Design.
For these students, the dissertation is the fulfilment of a year’s intensive research. Topics emerge from students’ own enthusiasms and specialist teaching. Their independent study develops through a range of supported milestones, culminating in this final public presentation.
2021 has been marked by further challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic, resulting in disruptions to all aspects of daily life across the globe. For BA History of Art and Design this has been no exception. Students have turned the challenges posed by Covid to their advantage and have expanded the scope of their research topics and methods, such as making current virtual practices and human behaviours the topic of study, consulting online resources and conducting interviews online. For the second year, the Degree Show takes place online rather than in person. While students gather virtually again this year, their exhibition nonetheless represents a major achievement under extraordinary circumstances.
BA History of Art and Design is one of three undergraduate degrees exhibiting in the Degree Show from the History of Art and Design programme, alongside BA (Hons) Fashion and Dress History and BA (Hons) Visual Culture. As you will see, students’ projects in this programme cut across time and place, from the eighteenth century to the present, and include local concerns as well as international case studies. The themes cover gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, class and taste, politics and protest, consumption and collecting, craft and technology, horror and pleasure, structures and their subversion. The images, objects, media and sites include the sacred and the profane, the elite and the humble. Students in the History of Art and Design programme engage with painting, photography and performance; film and digital media; advertising, periodicals and packaging; architecture, furniture and interiors; historic houses, galleries and exhibitions; fashion, dress and textiles. Students conduct research in libraries, archives and museums, and via interviews and fieldwork.
Please take your time to enjoy the fruits of their labour; we are truly proud of them.
Dr Megha Rajguru and Dr Yunah Lee (Academic Programme Leaders, History of Art and Design) and the teaching team. With particular thanks to Dr Charlotte Nicklas and Dr Megha Rajguru for developing the exhibition
Course blog: https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/hoad/
Instagram: hoad_brightonuni
Twitter: @hoadbrighton