Architectural History

The course draws on considerable experience in providing advanced tuition in architectural history. It benefits from the close links within the department between the disciplines of architectural history, art history, English local history and landscape archaeology.

The course has links with other parts of the University, particularly the Faculty of History, the Department of History of Art, and Kellogg College, amongst the fellows of which is the largest concentration of architectural historians associated with the University.

Supervision is possible in most areas of British architectural history from the middle ages to the present, and some European and American topics. In terms of Great Britain, academic staff currently have particular research interests in ecclesiastical buildings; country houses and their landscapes; the British home since 1700; railway stations; the history of building conservation; Regency architecture; architecture of the period 1880-1940; Gothic Revival; urban and institutional architecture, especially of London and Oxford, from 1660 to the present.

The course is overseen by the Continuing Education Board of the University. Admission is through the Department for Continuing Education.

The part-time DPhil regulations require a period of five to eight years’ part-time study. You may be required to undertake appropriate research training provided within the department. Doctoral training is provided through the department’s Graduate School, and other agreed learning requirements (eg foreign languages) can draw on the resources of both the department and the wider University.

You will be strongly encouraged to participate in seminars and informal meetings with staff and other researchers both within the department and elsewhere in the University. The major commitment of time will be to individual study and research, involving wide and intense reading, data collection (which may include fieldwork) and analysis, and writing.