News

Professor Elizabeth McKellar to be first female President of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain
2nd November 2020
The department is delighted to announced that our colleague emerita, Professor Elizabeth McKellar, has been appointed President elect of the SAHGB. She will take up office next summer, as the first female President.
The Art of the Sacri Monti (Holy Mountains)
23rd October 2020
Dr Carla Benzan, Lecturer in Art History, will be speaking about her research on the Sacro Monte (Holy Mountain) at Varallo on Friday, 30 October 2020. She is presenting on an intriguing and little-known phenomenon in early modern visual culture: the construction of enormous sculptural mountains in sacred spaces.
Beyond the Now
15th October 2020
Beyond the Now is a new social art practice collaboration providing a platform for art that responds to the COVID-19 crisis. Led by Art Historian Dr Kim Charnley, the first season launches today.
Pevsner and Lockdown
9th September 2020
Dr Clare Taylor, a Senior Lecturer in Art History at The Open University, devised an innovative way to combine her passions during lockdown. Find out how a series of architectural guides known as ‘Pevsners’ inspired her to explore rural Oxfordshire
Dr Renate Dohmen developing collaboration with Norfolk Museums on the topic of ‘Decolonizing the Museum’
4th September 2020
Dr Renate Dohmen, Lecturer in Art History, is currently developing a collaboration with Norfolk Museums on the topic of ‘Decolonizing the Museum’ (2020). The pilot project aims to support museum staff to explore approaches to decolonising the museum and its collections.
Open Arts Journal Issue 8 launched
2nd September 2020
Issue 8 (summer 2020) of Open Arts Journal: ‘Brexit Wounds: Arts and Humanities Responses to Leaving the EU’ edited by Fionna Barber and Eleanor Byrne has now launched.
Dr Carla Benzan co-organising online conference ‘Image and Ascent: Mountain Terrains in the History of Art’
2nd September 2020
Lecturer in Art History, Dr Carla Benzan is co-organising the online conference: ‘Image and Ascent: Mountain Terrains in the History of Art’ hosted by The Warburg Institute. Speakers will discuss recent interest in mountains across the humanities into dialogue with the history of images, offering a forum for new research concerning images of, and images produced in, mountainous terrains.
Dr Leah Clark receives Istanbul Research Institute travel grant for research in Istanbul
24th August 2020
Senior Lecturer, Dr Leah Clark is the recipient of an Istanbul Research Institute travel grant for research in Istanbul in 2021 for her project ‘Courtly Mediators: Transcultural Objects across Renaissance Courts’.
Remembering the Future: publishing in a time of plague
14th July 2020
Elizabeth Chappell is studying for a PhD with the OU. She was working on a co-edited special issue of Wasafiri: Japan – Literatures of Remembering, just as the pandemic hit. Here, she discusses its implications and the strategy she and her colleagues developed in response
Art History in the time of COVID-19
13th July 2020
Dr Leah Clark, Senior Lecturer in Art History at the OU, highlights the role Art History plays in helping us to make sense of the pandemic. Find out about the activities she and her colleagues have been involved with since lockdown started