History of Art is committed to the pursuit of research excellence across a range of artistic media drawn from different historical periods and geographical areas. Our academic staff and research students contribute to national and international scholarly debate through the publication of high quality books, peer-reviewed articles, and other outputs. In short, we offer a rich, lively and pluralist research environment.

With a diverse graduate student body, History of Art trains its doctoral candidates to be engaged critical thinkers. We encourage a variety of approaches including, but not limited to, close looking and object-based analysis, critical and cultural theory, and historical contextualisation; and we foster sensitivity to the creative use of images in all their aspects, from mass culture to fine art.

Staff Research

• Dr Flavio Boggi - the artistic culture of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Tuscany and Emilia, notably the social and political circumstances in which the art of this period was created and received. More
• Dr Mary Kelly - East-West dialogues in art history and visual culture from 1860 to the present, and on women’s art and gender theories. More
• Dr Sabine Kriebel - modern art and photography, with particular emphasis upon the art of the Weimar Republic. More
• Dr Kylie Thomas - photography, violence and history; LGBT and anti-racist activism; South African politics and society during and after apartheid. More

Current Postgraduate Research

• Denis Bilo, PhD candidate. Working title: 'Painting Papal Supremacy in the pontificate of Paul V'. Co-supervised by Dr Flavio Boggi and Dr Hiram Morgan (History). 
• Chris Clarke, PhD candidate. Working title: 'The Curated Encounter: Experiencing the Contemporary Art Exhibition'. Supervised by Dr Sabine Kriebel.
• Maureen Considine, PhD candidate. Working title: 'The memorialisation of the experiences of the laundry and industrial school inmates under the Good Shepherd regime'. Supervised by Dr Sabine Kriebel.
• Laurence Counihan, PhD candidate. Working title: 'An Archaeology of Machine Vision: The Technical Image in Systems Art'. Supervised by Dr Sabine Kriebel. 
• Sarah Kelleher, PhD candidate. Working title: 'Sculpture's Metamorphoses: A Study of the Work of Maud Cotter, Dorothy Cross and Alice Maher since 2000'. Co-supervised by Dr Sabine Kriebel and Dr Ed Krčma (external).
• Giulia Luciani, PhD candidate. Working title: 'French Women Orientalists, 1899-1929: Gendering Artistic Societies in the Cities of Paris, Algiers, Tunis and Rabat'. Supervised by Dr Mary Kelly.
• Giulia Priori, PhD candidate. Working title: 'Rita Duffy & Miyako Ishiuchi: A transnational study of the heritagisation of traditional textile industries in Ireland and Japan and their use in contemporary art practices'. Co-supervised by Dr Mary Kelly, Prof Jools Gilson (Theatre) and Dr Till Weingartner (Asian Studies).
• Chloe Rudolph, PhD candidate. Working title: 'Self-Immolation and Shattered Teeth: Female Martyrdom and the Tuscan Renaissance Woman'. Supervised by Dr Flavio Boggi.

Completed Postgraduate Research

• 2023, Matthew Whyte, PhD. Archaism and Reform in Michelangelo's Early Religious Sculpture, supervised by Dr Flavio Boggi. 
• 2018, Ann Murray, PhD. From Mars to Kassandra: The Memorialisation of World War I in the Work of Otto Dix, supervised by Dr Sabine Kriebel.
• 2018, Matthew Whyte, MRes. Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel Sibyls: Virtue, Morality, and Gender, supervised by Dr Flavio Boggi. 
• 2017, Stefania Sapio, MRes. The mechanical origin of an authentic photographic affect, supervised by Dr Kirstie North.
• 2017, Sinéad Meehan, MRes. Remembering a Revolution: Dublin, 1916-2016, supervised by Dr Simon Knowles. 
• 2016, Kirstie North, PhD. Pedem referens: Art Historical Memory and the Analogue in the Work of Tacita Dean, Jeremy Millar and Lucy Skaer, supervised by Dr Ed Krčma.
• 2016, Rachel Warriner, PhD. Nancy Spero: Pain and politics, 1966-1976, supervised by Dr Ed Krčma.
• 2012, Elaine Hoysted, MPhil. The art of death and childbirth in Renaissance Italy: A priviliged status in motherhood, supervised by Dr Flavio Boggi. More
• 2011, Simon Knowles, PhD. Changing Perspectives, Altering Perceptions: Picturing the Victorian London Street as Narrative Space, supervised by Dr Flavio Boggi.
• 2008, Emma Rowe, MPhil. Mexican Muralism in the 1930s: Beyond Revolution and the Pre-Columbian, supervised by Dr Sabine Kriebel.