Utrecht University

Art History at Utrecht University focuses on art, architecture and cultural heritage from the Middle Ages to the present. We look at our own geography and at transcultural relations and exchanges with other places in Europe and the world. We seek the challenging, new and relevant questions that can provide art and architectural history and the heritage sector with creative, critical ideas, analyses and solutions. To this end, we engage in critical scholarship and theoretical reflection. We develop creative and innovative research methods, also inspired by interdisciplinary technical, digital and other perspectives. We seek to deepen the study of objects and images by connecting them to ideas, environments and people, from makers and commissioners to mediators and users. This connects us to the heritage sector. We maintain productive relationships with museums, heritage institutions and other cultural and art institutions and places at home and abroad. There is significant potential for interdisciplinary collaboration with other departments and research domains within History and within cross-departmental and faculty-wide research hubs, including for example the Heritage and Public History Lab, the Network for Environmental Humanities, the Center for Digital Humanities and with research groups from other faculties.