Department of History & Art History, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

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Welcome to the Department of History and Art History. We offer three degree programmes in History, Art History and Visual Culture.

History is...

History is much more than the study of the past: it is the study of how and why the past has meaning in the present. As an intellectual discipline History explores how and why change has occurred in human societies over time. The study of history asks us to think about ourselves as individuals and as members of a society and a culture located within a broad continuum of human experience across time and space. It helps us to recognise the distinctive forces which have shaped our own society and determined our particular place within it, while also making us aware of common links which we share with all humanity.

Art is...

Art is an essential part of the human experience. It is seen and made everywhere. Works of art provide us with a means of understanding cultural and ideological changes in society through the ages. Art is a political statement. It is also an aesthetic object; it is Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and it is Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe, something intended to be looked at and appreciated for its intrinsic value. But what is this value? Is it beauty? The study of visual art at Otago reconciles art history (the study of art within the historical and cultural context of its creation) and art theory (the interrogation of diverse theoretical and conceptual issues vital to the study of art).

Visual Culture is...

Visual Culture is an interdisciplinary programme at the University of Otago. It seeks both to understand visual artifacts (including, for example, documentary photographs, diagnostic imaging, fashion and cityscapes) and to analyse 'vision' as a social and cultural process. Visual Culture examines the technologies by which images are produced, circulated and received, as well as the theories of seeing that make the visual world intelligible. So, rather than concentrating primarily on images themselves as objects, it addresses the relationships between images, discourses, societies, and persons. Much of the research in Visual Culture is concerned with the ways in which images inform our sense of ourselves as subjects, the nature of the society we inhabit, and our imagination of the world. more...

Contact Details

2nd Floor Arts 1 (Burns) Building
Tel 64 3 479 8606
Fax 64 3 479 8429
Email: history.arthistory@otago.ac.nz

Department of History and Art History
University of Otago
P O Box 56, Dunedin 9054
New Zealand

Head of Department
Professor Barbara Brookes

Postgraduate Enquiries
Dr Judith Collard

History, Art History and Theory Students Association