Overview
Since 1930, The Courtauld has been among the world’s leading institutions for research in Art History and Conservation. Our internationally-renowned PhD programme is one of the largest in the United Kingdom, hosting over 100 doctoral students at any one time on their paths toward a PhD. At The Courtauld, you will join a cohort of the most ambitious and gifted students in your field as you pursue your research goals.
Our diverse cohort of students comes from across the United Kingdom and around the world to explore an equally wide range of research topics. Our students’ excellence is reflected in the large number of AHRC-funded awards gained over the last decade, one of a number of routes available for supporting your studies. Recent and current doctoral projects include mosaics in Constantinople, Buddhist wall paintings in Bhutan, Cubism in Japan, and post-war Korean avant-gardes, among many others.
A Courtauld Research degree includes scheduled skills and methodology seminars along with the main element: one-to-one supervision on your chosen project. Your supervisory team will guide your research, help plan, develop and shape your thesis, and support your scholarly and professional development in diverse ways.
A research-intensive institution, The Courtauld consistently achieves outstanding results in the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) audit. Courtauld teachers publish on a host of topics, with recent important books and articles on Persian kingship and architecture, Spanish Renaissance sculpture, Netherlandish artists and migration, gardens and empire in China, Victorian art and science, American fashion photography, and many others. Members of Faculty have extensive experience curating major exhibitions of historic and contemporary art, editing and contributing to academic journals, winning competitive research grants, speaking publicly in a great variety of institutions and events, and working in archives and collections worldwide. All this and more contributes to our mentoring of students as they undertake their doctoral careers at The Courtauld.
Research Forum
The Research Forum is central to The Courtauld’s intellectual community and to doctoral life here. Presenting a programme of leading professors, curators, conservation scientists, and artists from around the world, the Research Forum invites you to explore a wide range of art historical thinking and consider your research from new perspectives. Research programmes are further supported by a variety of thematic clusters. Groups such as the Sculptural Process Study Group and Painting Pairs: Art History and Technical Study highlight the Institute’s foundation in object-based research; Connecting Cultures, 1200–1850, Sacred Traditions and the Arts, and the Digital Art History Research Group underline the interdisciplinary nature of our teaching and research. The Courtauld is also home to several major research centres, including the Centre for American Art and the Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre.
These groups bring together postgraduates, faculty and visiting scholars for seminars, study days, site visits, and symposia, all supported by our professional Research Events team. From all this, doctoral students enjoy unique opportunities to suggest speakers, devise and convene events, chair sessions, and draw together research in published form. Courtauld Research students edit and produce immediations, The Courtauld’s annual, peer reviewed journal of art history, and have opportunities to contribute curatorially in our gallery and print room. Our doctoral students can also gain valuable teaching experience through our Public Programmes and at BA and MA level.
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Meet our students
Ambra
Translating Collectivity: Surrealism of the Levant
The Courtauld PhD Programme has given me generous means to develop my professional and personal life. The full programme of Skills and Methodology seminars in Year 1 prepared me for the different stages of PhD life and allowed me to discuss in a collective manner the key theoretical frameworks and objects of my thesis, helping me make important strides in my research. The method is rigorously theoretical, as well as encouraging of an object-based approach through active and critical close looking. Through these seminars I formed meaningful connections with my peers. The PhD Study Room at The Courtauld also allows for a dedicated study space where PhD students can work, discuss ideas or kick back after a long day.
Outside of The Courtauld, the potential for independent study and research within the city is large, and students can choose where to spend their time. Nevertheless, the Institute fosters a dynamic and exciting community, with which I sought to become more involved. I attended the rich programme of lectures and conferences at the Research Forum, as well as the smaller seminars and symposia that take place on a weekly basis. I organised and convened a seminar for two years, Conversations Across Time, with the intention of bringing together research students across periods to discuss and grow their research through informal feedback. I was a PhD Representative for the Student Union for two years: getting involved with the SU is a precious way to get involved with the administrative side of the Institute and engage with the student body in meaningful ways. Finally, I delivered seminars on a Teaching Assistant post; while this is not a compulsory part of the PhD programme, it is a valuable experience which enriched my professional life and my research.
Lan
Connections in the Making and Meaning of the Art of Bhutan and Tibet in the 17th and 18th Centuries: a Study of the Wall Paintings at Tango Monastery
I joined Courtauld in 2013 as an MA student of the Conservation of Wall Painting Department. The teaching staff were dedicated in their task of training us – the next generation of wall painting conservators. The outlook was fundamentally international with an emphasis on being at the cutting edge of conservation practice. The course was intense; days filled with lectures, site visits, and practical work and evenings for preparation and assignments. Teaching took advantage of the large professional networks associated with the department, allowing us to benefit from the first-hand experience of expert practitioners and researchers.
My cohort had seven women that came from different parts of the world with diverse academic backgrounds. We spent three years together in the lab, studio, and on-site, sharing accommodation during fieldwork and discussing wall paintings all the time. These shared experiences and interests naturally form the basis of friendships as well as a long-lasting network of colleagues.
One of the most precious and unique aspects of being at The Courtauld was the opportunity to do hands-on work during fieldwork campaigns every year. In fieldwork campaigns students function as full-team members rather than interns, sharing responsibility for planning and managing the programme of work. Crucially, we participate in discussion and decision-making with supervisors helping us to develop a critical approach to conservation. Each fieldwork experience was different but importantly they all involved an intimate engagement with the site and an expansion of my understanding of the roles and responsibilities of a conservator.
My primary academic interest has been always in Himalayan wall paintings. It was grateful to find a research topic that I really passionate about during my MA dissertation, and with support from professors and foundation I was able to continue the research as a PhD student. This research was structured to complement and support conservation projects within the department. Since then, I have been fortunate to dedicate my study to this subject that I love. My internal and external supervisors have kindly provided support throughout the time, as well as other senior colleagues in the broader Courtauld network. The environment here in the department was truly like a family where we learned from, and supported, each other.
Natasha
The Masculine Image in Qajar Iran (1789 – 1925)
I guess you could say I have enjoyed my time at The Courtauld, given that I’m still here nearly ten years after starting my BA! When I attended my undergraduate interview all those years ago, the student ambassador was posed with a question by a very eager parent: “what do you do after the undergraduate programme?” “Well,” came the answer, “if you’re lucky, you go on to do an MA, and if you’re even luckier you go on to do a PhD!”. Little did I know that, as luck would have it, that ended up being my trajectory as I waited nervously in a corridor. I can’t say I felt like the ‘typical’ Courtauld candidate – I was from a low income background, was state school educated and with no prior qualification in the subject apart from a love for art – even the grandiosity of the spiral staircase of the Somerset House campus alone made me think twice if this was the place for ‘people like me’, despite having fallen in love with the prospect of studying here. However, my fears were quickly allayed as, a little while later, The Courtauld became my academic home for the foreseeable future.
A Courtauld education, be it undergraduate or postgraduate study, is an exercise in saturation – be prepared to live and breathe art and investigate every foreseeable corner of the discipline. A rigorous and pioneering global approach to is given to both theoretical and material study; something which is highlighted by the component of methodology discussion seminars with the cohort during the first year as part of the PhD programme, which are taken alongside your own independent area of research. As a result, what can often be a lonely road of doctorate study can often result in a close-knit student body. World class supervision is also complimented by regular opportunities to present and publish your research, such as seminar groups for each subject area, yearly conferences and the Immediations journal. My own research was also supported by the ARHC CHASE consortium for the humanities, which as well as providing essential financial support also encouraged inter-disciplinary interaction with peers within other disciplines at participating institutions.
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Meet our alumni
Adele Tan (MA 2003, PhD 2009)
Senior Curator, National Gallery Singapore
After studying English Literature at the National University of Singapore, Adele completed both her MA and PhD at The Courtauld.
As a curator, Adele’s research focuses on contemporary Southeast Asian and Chinese art, with a special interest in performative practices, photography, and new media. Some of her major exhibitions include Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow (2017) and Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s-1990s.
Before joining the National Gallery Singapore, she was assistant editor at the British Journal Third Text and her articles have appeared in numerous other scholarly publications, exhibition catalogues and journals such as PAJ, Broadsheet, Yishu and Eyeline. Adele was part of the curatorial panel for the 4th Singapore International Photography Festival and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics.
In addition to her curatorial role, Adele also lectures at the National University of Singapore.
Jack Hartnell (BA 2008, MA 2009, PhD 2014)
Art History Lecturer, University of East Anglia, Norwich
Jack received his PhD in 2014, after which he held fellowships at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Columbia University in New York and the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschite in Berlin, as well as a position as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at The Courtauld. He joined the UEA faculty in 2017.
Jack’s research and teaching focuses on the visual culture of late medieval and early renaissance medicine, cartography, and mathematics. His most recent book, Medieval Bodies: Life, Death and Art in the Middle Ages, was the Sunday Times History Book of the Year in 2018.
Jack was also heavily involved in launching Courtauld Books Online – an important academic resource where users can find high-quality, peer-reviewed art history monographs, available to read online for free.
Nancy Ireson (PhD 2005)
Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
Nancy Ireson completed her BA, MA and PhD at The Courtauld, finishing her PhD in 2005 with a thesis on Making Images: The Work and Early Critical Reception of Henri Rousseau. After her time at The Courtauld she took up positions at some of the world’s leading art institutions, including Tate Modern, The National Gallery, The Courtauld, the Leverhulme Trust and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, as well as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Morgan Library and Museum in New York.
At Tate Modern, where Nancy was Curator of International Art between 2015 and 2018, she curated several blockbuster exhibitions, including the world-famous Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy exhibition (2018) and the memorable Modigliani exhibition (2017-2018).
Nicholas Cullinan (BA 2002, MA 2003, PhD 2010)
Director, National Portrait Gallery, London
Nicholas Cullinan is an art historian, curator and current Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London. He completed his BA, MA and PhD at The Courtauld and his PhD thesis, The Archeology of Knowledge: Excavating Arte Povera, was supervised by Professor Sarah Wilson. During his student days Nicholas worked as a visitor services assistant at the National Portrait Gallery, little knowing that he would later become its director, aged just 37. Nicholas has been responsible for leading a £35.5m transformation of the gallery, with the aim of making it “more relevant, more open and more accessible.”
Prior to taking the helm at the National Portrait Gallery, Nicholas worked in some of the most prestigious museums and galleries in the world, including the Guggenheim museums in Bilbao, New York and Venice, and curatorial roles at Tate Modern and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
During the course of his career Nicholas has curated highly acclaimed exhibitions, including Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs at Tate Modern, which was one of the most successful exhibitions in the gallery’s history.
