MLitt Art History: Dress and Textile Histories

This masters provides you with the skills to research and interpret everyday clothing, fashion and textiles in historical contexts. The programme introduces you to theoretical and object-based approaches through a combination of taught and research-based components, showing you how historic dress and textiles can be studied both in their own right and as a means to understand the past. Close links with local and national archives, libraries and museums, including Glasgow Museums and the Victoria & Albert Museum, means the programme offers you a unique insight into the study, curation, interpretation and preservation of historic dress and textile collections.

WHY THIS PROGRAMME

• The programme introduces you to specialist in-house staff and visiting experts in curation, costume design and making, and the wider heritage sector, demonstrating how dress and textile histories may be studied and applied professionally.
• Glasgow is the ideal city in which to study dress & textile history because of its vibrant local textile heritage and close links to national institutions. You will have the chance to engage with and learn from locally and nationally significant collections including the Scottish Business Archives at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Museums and National Museums Scotland.
• The core and optional courses give you the opportunity to conduct archival and object-based study for a range of chronological periods, offering hands-on experience and practical research skills.
• The work placement option enables you to develop your professional expertise within the heritage sector.

CAREER PROSPECTS

The attributes you gain from the programme will be attractive to employers from museums, the heritage sector, art dealers and auction houses. Other career paths include theatre, film and television production as a costume researcher/designer. The programme also offers an excellent foundation upon which to progress to PhD study and an academic career.