Philosophy, Politics, Art BA(Hons)

Year 1

You start your study with a grounding in the key disciplinary areas, learning how best to benefit from lectures, small-group seminar discussions and debates, and from individual tutorials.

Modules

• Art, Culture and Commerce

  In this module you will explore core concepts and historical phenomena, including colonialism, consumption, national identities and class constructions, which impacted on art, design and culture from the closing decades of the eighteenth century to the opening decades of the nineteenth. Through lectures and seminars, you will explore how enlightenment ideas and philosophies, as well as revolutionary upheavals and developing institutional practices, informed the conditions in which art and design was produced and consumed.

• Art, Design and Modern Life

  Through lectures and seminars, you will examine how ideas of ‘the modern’ and the contradictions of modernity are manifested in a wide range of visual and material culture including realist paintings, photography, advertising, dress, cities and international exhibitions during the long nineteenth century. The module relates practices of art, design, exhibition and dress to changing social structures and occupational patterns that informed many of the debates around art and design in the period.

• Philosophical Inquiry

  This module introduces you to key topics in philosophy. Studying moral and political philosophy will enable you to explore questions such as How can I act ethically? and Could a more equal society be built? Philosophy of science and epistemology will empower you to interrogate arguments behind various truth claims encountered today. You will explore Plato, Hume, Kant, Utilitarianism; inquire into the nature of art and freedom; and interrogate philosophy’s historical complicity in sexism and racism.

• Critical Approaches: Core Concepts in History of Art and Design

  This module will introduce you to core concepts and key words in the humanities (including ideology, gender, class, nationality and ethnicity) and will provide opportunities for evaluating your utility as a means of understanding art and design through your application to practices, sites and artefacts.

• Art: Philosophy and Politics of Representation

  This module is an introduction to current issues in the philosophy of art and aesthetic theory, and their relation to politics and to social and historical contexts.

• Introducing Themes in History of Art and Design

  In this module you will undertake an intensive themed study related to your individual preferences and/or programme of study. The module will introduce you to the teaching and learning methods most relevant to the investigation of a particular area of inquiry within the History of Art and Design programme.

Our courses are reviewed and enhanced on an ongoing basis in order to make sure that what you learn with us is relevant and that your course enables you to develop appropriate skills. When you apply to study with us, we will inform you of any new developments in your chosen programme through our applicant portal.

Year 2

Modules

• Modernity: Interrogation and Representation
• 
Art, Politics and Philosophy from Modernism to Postmodernism
• Modernism, Ideology and the Avant-garde in the Twentieth Century
• 
After Modernism: Postmodernism and Beyond

• Critical Traditions in Western Thought 1: Dare to Know: Enlightenment and Social Change for PPA

Options*

Choose one from

• Critical Traditions in Western Thought 2: Post-Enlightenment Dilemmas

• Creative option (students choose from a range of options)


*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

You will study with a close community of students from the History of Art and Design programme in our Pavilion Parade building.

Final year

In your final year you develop your individual research project with one-to-one supervision on a topic in which you become an expert.

Modules

• Art, Politics, Philosophy: Representation and Engagement after Postmodernism
• Project for Philosophy, Politics, Art

Options*

• Real World Research in Art and Design History
• Professional Paths in Art and Design History
• Special Subject: students engage in an intensive themed study of a subject specialism within the History of Art and Design programme. You can choose from a range of modules.

*Option modules are indicative and may change, depending on timetabling and staff availability.

Resources

• You will have opportunities to take part in subject-related events at the university including evening lectures and debates organised by the student-run Humanities Society and the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics.
• The university's excellent art and design library is nearby.
• Screen Archives South East, a moving image archive, is based on campus.
• Our Dress and Textiles Teaching collection gives you the chance to closely examine and photograph historical and world fabrics and garments.

The university has close relationships with local festivals and organisations such as CineCity, the Brighton Photo Biennial, Brighton Festival, Brighton Festival Fringe, Brighton Digital Festival, Fabrica and Lighthouse. These connections provide many opportunities for students.

Students have access to the world-class Design Archives.

Meet the team

The University of Brighton was one of the founding institutions for research in design history and our teaching team are world authorities in both design and dress history and the culture of photography, integrating their own research with their teaching.

Dr Nicola Clewer, course leader

Nicola is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and course leader for the Philosophy, Politics, Art BA. Nicola graduated from the University of Brighton with a BA in Humanities before studying for her MA in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. She returned to Brighton to do her PhD where she also began lecturing on the Humanities BA and MA programmes and the History of Art and Design BA programme. Her research and teaching are focused on the relationship between aesthetics and politics. More specifically, her work to date has interrogated the philosophical, political and aesthetic dimensions of memorialisation in the neoliberal conjuncture. Her current research explores the question of the limits of representation and the politics of the sublime in a range of different, although interrelated, contexts.

Find out more about Nicola.

Find out about our other staff: Dr Lara Perry, Dr Harriet Atkinson, Dr Zoe Sutherland, Dr Naomi Salaman, Dr Thomas Bunyard, Dr Verity Clarkson, Dr Jonathan Gilhooly, Dr Anthony Leaker, Dr Yunah Lee, Dr Charlotte Nicklas, Dr Annebella Pollen, Dr Louise Purbrick, Dr Megha Rajguru and Dr Anna Vaughan Kett.

International requirements and visas

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visas and immigration advice

Course fees

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included in the fee, while studying a course in the School of Humanities are listed here.

• For a number of courses you will have the opportunity to attend field trips and off-site visits. These are optional and are not required to pass your course but under normal circumstances we would expect a budget of approximately £150 per year will cover the costs of particular trips. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken.
• You will have access to computers and necessary software, however many students choose to buy their own hardware, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
• In most cases coursework submissions are electronic but you may wish to print notes and should budget up to £150 per year for printing.
• Course books are available from the university but you may wish to budget up to £200 to buy your own copies.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships, as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2020–21.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK/EU students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Local area

Campus where this course is taught

Accommodation

Maps