MA in Cultural, Intellectual and Visual History

Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London

About the degree

The Warburg Institute MA in Cultural, Intellectual and Visual History introduces students to the Warburgian view of the central value of the study of human civilisations, worldwide and throughout history.

Degree overview

The MA programme aims to:

• Give students a deep and systematic understanding of the current methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding the cultural, intellectual, and visual history of Western Europe


• Display mastery over the key elements of the history of philosophy, science, literature, the arts and visual culture, rooted in the Renaissance and the early modern period but embracing material from the middle ages to the advent of modernity


• Provide the advanced methodological skills required to enable the reading, understanding and critical analysis of primary source materials.


• Develop the language and palaeographic skills necessary to conduct research in these areas, particularly skills in Renaissance Latin.


• Prepare students to undertake a piece of sustained academic research including: designing research questions, selecting appropriate advanced methodological approaches while critically evaluating their effectiveness, and undertaking their own analysis of the evidence and generating their own arguments.

Teaching and Learning

Modules are taught by academics at The Warburg Institute. While the temporal and conceptual anchor of the MA is the Renaissance, its overall scope stretches from the medieval era to modernity. It emphasises the history of philosophy, ethics, religion and politics along with the cultural, intellectual, and visual dimensions of civilisations, both drawing on and foregrounding the interdisciplinary strengths of the Institute.