Module manager: Dr Rebecca Starr
Email: r.starr@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is not approved as a discovery module
This module builds core skills through a focused critical engagement with methods in art-historical research. Combining detailed reflection on the concerns and approaches of key art historians with work-in-progress explorations of the development of live research, the module equips you to build your own projects with a strong sense of the resources and choices open to us, and of the discipline of Art History as an inclusive, dynamic space to be developed though the questions that matter now. Please note this is an optional module and runs subject to enrolments. If a low number of students choose this module, then the module may not run and you may be asked to choose another module.
Key objectives of the module are to advance your confidence, reflexivity, and depth of intellectual and creative engagement in the formulation and development of the key building-blocks for sustained research in the history of art. The module looks ahead to the dissertation, with a focus on the elements needed to make it a success. The module combines an engagement with methods in art-historical research, insight on the ways in which research projects take shape in practice, and workshops focused on your own research ideas and interests. You will acquire an understanding of how to plan a cohesive research project, from devising research questions, to identifying sources, to synthesizing your findings and presenting your work, both orally and in writing. Through module readings, in-class discussions and reflective writing, the module aims to ground advanced-level research and an independent, critically aware sense of your potential to contribute to the pressing and current debates in the field.
On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:
1. Identify and map out appropriate approaches and areas of study for sustained research in art history
2. Discriminate between, and assess the relative merits of a range of methodologies
3. Deploy effective models of information-gathering and academic presentation in the foundational elements of a research project in art history
4. Demonstrate critical reflexivity about your own position as a researcher in this field
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module you will be able to:
5. Demonstrate active learning: learning through practice, learning proactively and adopting effective learning strategies
6. Search for, evaluate and use appropriate and relevant information sources to help strengthen the quality of academic work and self-directed research
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lecture | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Seminar | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Seminar | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| Private study hours | 180 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 20 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
Emphasis throughout the module on seminar-based teaching, workshop activities (including group work), and student presentations will embed formative feedback on module’s core skills outcomes, and on the acquisition of subject-knowledge in art-historical methods and research practices. In addition, formative feedback will be given on a formally structured research proposal: this represents a central form of written presentation in academic writing, complements the bibliographic and literature-review exercise as the grounding of a sustained research project. Looking beyond the module to PLOs, it also feeds into the skills underpinning the dissertation.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | written | 65 |
| Coursework | written | 35 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 10/09/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team