The students are uniquely skilled in their ability to look backwards and forwards at the same time: drawing on historical examples to envision and understand their own processes; sometimes to even further them and experiment with historic traditions, which have often fallen out of fashion. Their processes are innately research-led and this is due to the nature of their studies, inhabiting both practical and historical disciplines.

You can find their work here on this website.

This year saw the first off-site show for the MAFA all-programme exhibition, which welcomed numerous visitors from beyond the University and the opportunity to test ideas on a different audience. We have also seen work being made on monumental scales - large-format works are dominating studios - and work which is challenging societal perceptions of difference and deep explorations of selfhood.  

The breadth of dissertation topics produced by the MAFA students is indicative of the wide range of expertise of the teaching and research staff in the subject area, but also the levels of enquiry our students have for their subject. We often see in our MAFA cohort the blending of their own practice into their research for History of Art. This year, we've seen dissertations on Artemisia Gentileschi, post-Covid digital art, graffiti in Scotland, Black art and diasporic memory, Islamicate ornamental language in Italy, as well as conservation and restoration, among many other fascinating topics. 

  • An Exploration of Weimar-Ear Representations of Female Sexuality in the Works of Jeanne Mammen and Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler
  • Our House, In the Middle of our Street: Tullie House and the Radical Power of the Museum Display in the Redefinition of ‘Local’ Identity in Post-Brexit Carlisle
  • Queer Performance and Censorship in Singapore: A Study of Josef Ng’s Brother Cane (1994) and Loo Zihan’s Cane (2012)
  • Playing with the Environment: Problematising Digital and Material Space through the Playable Videogame Artwork
  • The Imperial Still Life: Juan Sánchez Cotán, Juan van der Hamen and Antonio de Pereda.
  • ‘We Were Here’: The African Presence in 16th-Century Venice

Congratulations to all of our students, and thank you for sharing your learning journey with us!