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Study information

Programme Specification for the 2020/1 academic year

BA (Hons) Art History and Visual Culture and Drama

1. Programme Details

Programme nameBA (Hons) Art History and Visual Culture and Drama Programme codeUFA3HPSSPA01
Study mode(s)Full Time
Academic year2020/1
Campus(es)Streatham (Exeter)
NQF Level of the Final Award6 (Honours)

2. Description of the Programme

This programme is a challenging and flexible degree that builds on two internationally-renowned centres of excellence in research, teaching and theatre practice. Our teaching grows out of our wide-ranging, world-leading research interests and we provide a supportive and high-quality environment for learning. The programme will give you a thorough grounding in the main themes and methods of Art History & Visual Culture and Drama. It will be of particular interest if your background is in fine and modern art, the history of art, cinema, performance, literature, cultural history, philosophy, sociology or modern languages. Art History & Visual Culture and Drama enables you to divide your time equally between two related subject areas.

In Art History & Visual Culture, you will learn how to interpret works of art (including architecture and design) and visual images (including images, objects and practices) in order to understand contemporary and past societies and you will be able to follow your interests through a wide range of optional modules: you can choose to study art and material culture in ancient societies; look in detail at the way art history works; or focus on visual culture within a specific society or time period right up to the modern day. Modules are designed to provide you with a sense of the range and variety of artistic and visual works, and to encourage you to engage critically with these works understood in their historical and theoretical contexts. You will explore the media, techniques, and historical contexts relevant to the production of these works, the terminology used to describe and evaluate them and the institutions that present them to the public.

In Drama, you will develop an understanding of performance skills alongside a critical and imaginative engagement with the social, historical and cultural contexts of theatre. Involvement in contemporary theatre is central, both as a subject of research and as a practical experience through performance and community-based activities. Studio-based work also equips you with abilities to communicate effectively, to pursue creative analysis and to initiate and organise complex individual and group projects.

You will study half of your modules from Drama and the other half from Visual Culture. As a whole, Drama and Visual Culture offers you a coherent programme of study, balancing core elements with a choice of specialist topics to suit your individual aspirations and requirements.

Advice and guidance on your programme can be sought from your personal tutor and programme director. All staff offer regular office hours that you can drop into without a prior appointment for this purpose.

3. Educational Aims of the Programme

This programme aims to develop your competence in the subject specific and research skills required in both Art History & Visual Culture and Drama, through extended practical work, engagement with primary sources, relevant critical material, and theoretical contexts. You will acquire a thorough grounding in the core principles of Art History & Visual Culture and Drama, through a programme which engages you imaginatively in the process of understanding and analysing both subject areas. Art History & Visual Culture and Drama will involve you in learning with broad coverage, content, and methodology: throughout the programme, you will study a wide range of techniques and texts, film, video, performance and digital arts, painting, sculpture, illustration and architecture.

You will also acquire advanced competence in core academic, personal and key skills, particularly those based on social interaction and communication, providing a basis for career progression in the academic and professional worlds. You will be exposed to a variety of teaching and assessment methods within appropriate learning environments, supported by feedback and monitoring. You will also be given an opportunity to develop your independent study skills through a piece of individual research, and to develop your professional skills: through close association with practitioners within the professions of theatre and performance, and through engagement with galleries, museums and the University’s own art and heritage collections.

The programme provides an intellectually stimulating, satisfying learning experience, and forms a sound basis for further study in Art History & Visual Culture, Drama or related disciplines. It aims to develop a range of subject specific, academic and transferable skills, including high order conceptual literacy and communication skills of value in graduate employment. Art History & Visual Culture and Drama, like other programmes offered within the College of Humanities, encourages you to become a global citizen, a productive, useful and questioning member of society, and provides thorough training for further study or a specialist career. You may utilise the skills you develop in a range of sectors, including heritage management, museums and galleries, arts administration, consultancy, market research, the civil service, education, teaching, new media industries, journalism and publishing, research, charities, information science, advertising and public relations.

4. Programme Structure

5. Programme Modules

The following tables describe the programme and constituent modules. Constituent modules may be updated, deleted or replaced as a consequence of the annual programme review of this programme.

http://intranet.exeter.ac.uk/humanities/studying/undergraduates/modules/

You may take optional modules as long as any necessary prerequisites have been satisfied, where the timetable allows and if you have not already taken the module in question or an equivalent module. You are expected to balance your credits in each stage of the programme, taking 60 credits from Art History & Visual Culture, and 60 credits from Drama.

You may take elective modules up to 30 credits outside of the programme in the second and final stages as long as any necessary prerequisites have been satisfied, where the timetable allows and if you have not already taken the module in question or an equivalent module.

Stage 1


30 credits of compulsory Art History & Visual Culture modules, 60 credits of compulsory Drama modules, and 30 credits of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules.

Subject to choosing 120 credits for the stage overall, you must:

a select either AHV1005 and AHV1009, or AHV1012, selecting 30 credits in total.

Compulsory Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
AHV1011 Questions and Methods in Art History and Visual Culture 30No
DRA1004 Acting and Not Acting: The Dialectics of Performance 30No
DRA1010 Pretexts and Contexts of Drama 1 30No

Optional Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
AHV S1 BA CH opt 2020-1 [See note a above]
AHV1005 Inside the Museum 15 No
AHV1009 Topics in Art History and Visual Culture II 15 No
AHV1012 Approaches to Art History and Visual Culture 30 No

Stage 2


30 credits of compulsory Art History & Visual Culture modules, 30 credits of compulsory Drama modules, 30 credits of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules and 30 credits of optional Drama modules.

Subject to choosing 120 credits for the stage overall, you must:

b select 0-30 credits from this list of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules (including HUM2000 and HUM2001 Humanities in the Workplace).

c select 0-30 credits from this list of optional Drama modules (including HUM2000 and HUM2001 Humanities in the Workplace). Please note that you must take DRA2067 if you wish to take a practice option in the final stage.

Compulsory Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
AHV2015 Art History and Visual Culture Field Study for Blended Learning 30No
DRA2064 Performance and Interpretation 30No

Optional Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
AHV S2 BA CH opt 2020-1 [See note b above]
AHV2002 Debates and Contestations in Art History 15 No
AHV2007 Contemporary Visual Practices 15 No
AHV2009 The New York Avant-Garde 1955-1980 30 No
AHV2011 Global Art and Empire, 1850-1950 15 No
AHV2012 Revolutions: Art and Society in France, 1770-1848 30 No
AHV2013 Photography and Evidence 15 No
AHV2208 Ideal Cities? Urban Cultures of Renaissance Italy 15 No
MLF2066 Intimate Spaces of the French Enlightenment 15 No
MLM2011 Encounters and Entanglements: Chinese Art in Global Perspective 15 No
AHV2016 Contemporary Art and Curation 15 No
DRA S2 BA SH and CH opt 2020-1 [See note c above]
DRA2007 Theatre Practice II: Interpretative Acting 30 No
DRA2013 Theatre Practice Dance/Choreography 30 No
DRA2026 Applied Drama: Interactive Theatre 30 No
DRA2045 Theatre and Health 30 No
DRA2061B Digital Theatrecrafts 30 No
DRA2072 Culture in / as Performance 30 No
DRA2073 Social Practice in Art and Performance 30 No
DRA2085 Cultures of the Street 30 No
DRA2087 Activism and Performance 30 No
DRA2090 Northcott Production 30 No
DRA2067 Staging The Text 30 No
HUM HUM2000-HUM2001
HUM2000 Humanities in the Workplace 30 No
HUM2001 Humanities in the Workplace 15 No

Stage 3


0-30 credits of compulsory Art History & Visual Culture modules, 0-30 credits of compulsory Drama modules, 30-60 credits of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules, and 30-60 credits of optional Drama modules.

Subject to choosing 120 credits for the stage overall, you must:

d select either AHV3000 or DRA3094 (you cannot choose more than one module from this group).

e if selecting DRA3094,select 30-60 credits from this list of optional Art History & Visual Culture modules.

f if selecting AHV3000, select 30-60 credits from this list of optional Drama modules.

Compulsory Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
AHV3000 Art History and Visual Culture Dissertation [see note d above]30No
DRA3094 Theatre Dissertation [see note d above]30No

Optional Modules

CodeModule Credits Non-condonable?
AHV SF BA CH opt 2020-1 [See note e above]
AHV3000 Art History and Visual Culture Dissertation 30 No
AHV3002 Understanding Space in Renaissance Italy 15 No
AHV3003 The Face 15 No
AHV3007 Global Modernisms 15 No
AHV3008 Performance Art 15 No
AHV3009 Paris to the World: Modelling the Modern City 15 No
AHV3010 Art, Industry and the Modern, 1840-1900 30 No
AHV3012 Installation Art 15 No
EAF3233 Surrealism and Its Legacies 30 No
EAF3515 Something to See: War and Visual Media 30 No
MLG3036 Dictatorships on Display: History Exhibitions in Germany and Austria 15 No
AHV3005 Queer Visual Practices 15 No
AHV3013 Art, Industry and the Modern, 1840-1900 15 No
HUM3015 The Place of Meaning: Gardens in Britain and China 15 No
DRA SF BA SH and CH opt 2020-1 [See note f above]
DRA3009 Theatre Practice II: Directing 30 No
DRA3011 Practice II: Technical Specialisation 30 No
DRA3012 Theatre Practice I: Applied Drama 30 No
DRA3030 Interpretative Acting II 30 No
DRA3075 Playwriting 30 No
DRA3076 The Actor's Body: Intercultural Theories and Practices 30 No
DRA3087 Working Together: Performer Training for Collective Creation 30 No
DRA3088 Women and Theatre 1700-1928 30 No
DRA3092 Theatre for a Changing Climate 30 No
DRA3095 Music Drama 30 No
DRA3096 Wild Performances: Theatrical Encounters with Animals and Landscapes 30 No
DRA3100 Physical Performance 30 No

6. Programme Outcomes Linked to Teaching, Learning and Assessment Methods

Intended Learning Outcomes
A: Specialised Subject Skills and Knowledge

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
On successfully completing this programme you will be able to:
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be...
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class):...and evidenced by the following assessment methods:

1. Identify Art History & Visual Culture and Drama as broad subject disciplines
2. Demonstrate comprehension and intelligent engagement with forms, practices, traditions and histories of performance and of theoretical explanations of those histories
3. Demonstrate comprehension and intelligent engagement with the work of key practitioners and practices and/or theorists and their cultural and/or historical contexts
4. Engage critically with artworks, images and representations, performances and installations and relate them to issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history
5. Analyse and apply the dominant concepts, methods and debates informing the study of art history and visual culture
6. Identify and explain the cultural and socio-historic contexts in which dramatic and visual sources have been produced, performed, presented and consumed
7. Apply critical terminology and, where appropriate, linguistic, stylistic, and formal terminology to an understanding of both Art History & Visual Culture and Drama

A1-7 are acquired through lectures, seminars, workshops, studio-based sessions, rehearsals, study groups, tutorials and other learning activities throughout the programme. The degree of specialization of subject knowledge increases during the programme, culminating in the dissertation modules. Option modules at stage 3 are most closely related to the research specialism of the staff teaching the module. The precise method of teaching varies according to each module. On team-taught modules you will normally engage in both lectures and seminar groups. In smaller options you will normally spend most of your contact time in seminar groups and workshops.

Your learning is further developed through engagement with assessments, following guidance from tutors and lecturers and through feedback on work submitted.

The assessment of these skills is through a combination of presentations, performance and participation in seminars, log-books, web-based assessments, essays, exams, other written reports/projects, and a dissertation. Essays, exams and presentations are especially significant within the programme because they assess each of the skills, A1-7. The assessment criteria explicitly recognize the skills outlined.

Intended Learning Outcomes
B: Academic Discipline Core Skills and Knowledge

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
On successfully completing this programme you will be able to:
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be...
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class):...and evidenced by the following assessment methods:

8. Apply critical skills in the close reading and analysis of performance and visual texts
9. Articulate knowledge and understanding of concepts and theories relating to Art History & Visual Culture and Drama
10. Demonstrate sensitivity to generic conventions and to the shaping effects upon communication of circumstances, authorship, production and intended audience
11. Demonstrate responsiveness to the central role of language and visual media in the creation of meaning and a sensitivity to the affective power of language and visual media
12. Communicate effectively and construct a coherent argument in both oral and written presentations
13. Command a broad range of vocabulary and an appropriate critical terminology
14. Apply bibliographic skills appropriate to the disciplines of Art History & Visual Culture and Drama, including accurate citation of sources and consistent use of conventions in the presentation of scholarly work

These skills are developed throughout the programme in all modules. They are developed through lectures, seminars, studio-work, written work, and oral work (both in presentation and seminar discussion), and reinforced through the range of option modules across all three stages. They will culminate in the substantial and independent research skills demonstrated within the dissertation.

The assessment of these skills is through a combination of presentations, performances and participation in seminars, log-books, web-based assessments, essays, exams, other written reports/projects, and a dissertation.

Intended Learning Outcomes
C: Personal/Transferable/Employment Skills and Knowledge

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
On successfully completing this programme you will be able to:
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) will be...
...accommodated and facilitated by the following learning and teaching activities (in/out of class):...and evidenced by the following assessment methods:

15. Apply advanced literacy and communication skills in appropriate contexts including the ability to present sustained and persuasive written and oral arguments
16. Analyze and critically examine diverse forms of discourse, both textual and visual
17. Acquire and interrelate substantial quantities of complex information of diverse kinds, in a structured and systematic way, and involving the use of the distinctive interpretative skills of the subject areas
18. Apply research skills for the retrieval of historical material, and develop the ability to gather, sift and organize this material independently and critically, evaluating its significance
19. Interrogate and apply a variety of theoretical positions, and weigh the importance of alternative perspectives in a critical and self-reflective manner
20. Exercise independent thought and judgment
21. Engage with others through the presentation of ideas and information in groups, and work towards the collective negotiation of solutions
22. Plan and execute written and other forms of project-work
23. Complete tasks under time-constrained conditions and effectively manage deadlines and targets
24. Employ information-technology skills, including the ability to access and assess electronic data via the internet and through other forms of interactive media
25. Adapt and transfer the critical methods of the discipline into unfamiliar contexts, including a variety of working environments

Personal and key skills are delivered through all modules, and developed in lectures, workshops, study groups, tutorials, work experience and other learning activities throughout the programme.  

The assessment of these skills is through a combination of presentations and participation in seminars, log-books, web-based assessments, essays, exams, other written reports/projects, and a dissertation.

Outcomes C15-20 are also strongly developed in the course of the portfolio of assessed essays and other written work produced through Stages 1, 2, and 3. These assessments work on the principle of offering formative feedback to support the development of your written work within as well as between modules. Feedback on one assignment is intended to inform the next piece of work you undertake on the module; the next piece of work on the programme, or the future learning of graduates.

Outcome C21 is associated especially with the range of group presentations taking place in modules during all three levels. Group presentation assessment brings into focus an important range of skills for students, including sharing workloads, responsibility for tasks, team-working, collaborative and communicative skills. Individual contributions to group work are also assessed individually, most often in the form of a reflective presentation report.

C22-24 are also accomplished in the course of ‘real-time’ formal assessments such as presentations and end of module exams, which occur in all three levels of the programme.

C25 is particularly related to the optional module ‘Humanities in the Workplace’, and to the range of work conducted in the field through Visual Culture and Drama options.

7. Programme Regulations

Classification

Full details of assessment regulations for all taught programmes can be found in the TQA Manual, specifically in the Credit and Qualifications Framework, and the Assessment, Progression and Awarding: Taught Programmes Handbook. Additional information, including Generic Marking Criteria, can be found in the Learning and Teaching Support Handbook.

8. College Support for Students and Students' Learning

All students within Art History & Visual Culture and Drama have a personal tutor for their entire programme of study and who is available at advertised ‘office hours’. There are induction sessions to orientate students at the start of their programme. A personal tutoring system will operate with regular communication throughout the programme. Academic support will be also be provided by module leaders. You can also make an appointment to see individual teaching staff.

9. University Support for Students and Students' Learning

Please refer to the University Academic Policy and Standards guidelines regarding support for students and students' learning.

10. Admissions Criteria

Undergraduate applicants must satisfy the Undergraduate Admissions Policy of the University of Exeter.

Postgraduate applicants must satisfy the Postgraduate Admissions Policy of the University of Exeter.

Specific requirements required to enrol on this programme are available at the respective Undergraduate or Postgraduate Study Site webpages.

11. Regulation of Assessment and Academic Standards

Each academic programme in the University is subject to an agreed College assessment and marking strategy, underpinned by institution-wide assessment procedures.

The security of assessment and academic standards is further supported through the appointment of External Examiners for each programme. External Examiners have access to draft papers, course work and examination scripts. They are required to attend the Board of Examiners and to provide an annual report. Annual External Examiner reports are monitored at both College and University level. Their responsibilities are described in the University's code of practice. See the University's TQA Manual for details.

(http://as.exeter.ac.uk/support/admin/staff/qualityassuranceandmonitoring/tqamanual/fullcontents/)

12. Indicators of Quality and Standards

The programme is not subject to accreditation and/ or review by professional and statutory regulatory bodies (PSRBs).

13. Methods for Evaluating and Improving Quality and Standards

The University and its constituent Colleges draw on a range of data to review the quality of educational provision. The College documents the performance in each of its taught programmes, against a range of criteria on an annual basis through the Annual Programme Monitoring cycle:

  • Admissions, progression and completion data
  • In Year Analysis data
  • Previous monitoring report
  • Monitoring of core (and optional) modules
  • External examiner's reports and University and College responses (reported to SSLC)
  • Any Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body/accrediting body or other external reports
  • Consultation with employers and former students
  • Staff evaluation
  • Student evaluation
  • Programme aims

Subject areas are reviewed every four years through a periodic subject review scheme that includes external contributions. (http://admin.exeter.ac.uk/academic/tls/tqa/Part%209/9JREVISEDPSRSCHEME.pdf)

14. Awarding Institution

University of Exeter

15. Lead College / Teaching Institution

Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS)

16. Partner College / Institution

Partner College(s)

Not applicable to this programme

Partner Institution

Not applicable to this programme.

17. Programme Accredited / Validated by

0

18. Final Award

BA (Hons) Art History and Visual Culture and Drama

19. UCAS Code

WW42

20. NQF Level of Final Award

6 (Honours)

21. Credit

CATS credits ECTS credits

22. QAA Subject Benchmarking Group

[Honours] History of art, architecture and design
Level 1

23. Dates

Origin Date

01/10/2015

Date of last revision

08/08/2019