Department launches 2025/26 research seminar series with engaging talks on art, culture, and history
The Department of Art History and Cultural Practices has launched its 2025鈥�26 Research Seminar Series, featuring engaging talks on art, culture, and history.
Highlights include sessions by Dr Niko Munz, Professor Partha Mitter, and Professor Justin O鈥機onnor and other academics. All are welcome to attend and join the discussion.
The Department of Art History and Cultural Practices launched its First Semester Research Seminar Series on Wednesday, 15 October, marking the start of a dynamic programme of talks exploring current debates in art history, visual culture, and creative practices.
The series opened with, who delivered a fascinating and thought-provoking presentation titled 鈥淲ho Deserved an Image? The Ethics of Early Modern Portraiture.鈥�
Dr Munz鈥檚 paper examined the social and moral dimensions of portraiture in the early modern period, prompting lively discussion about who was deemed worthy of representation and how power, status, and identity were negotiated through imagery. Many thanks to everyone who attended, contributed to the discussion, and helped to promote this excellent opening event.
Our second seminar took place on Tuesday 21 October at 5pm (UP 4.205), featuring (Hon. D.Lit, Courtauld Institute, London University; Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; Fellow, Association for Art and Architectural History; Emeritus Professor, Sussex University; Adjunct Research Professor, Carleton University, Canada; Member, Wolfson College, Oxford). Professor Mitter鈥檚 lecture, 鈥淭he Role of Print Culture in the Dissemination of Ideas of the European Enlightenment in the Indian Empire,鈥� will explore how print media enabled the circulation of Enlightenment thought across imperial and cultural boundaries, shaping intellectual and artistic exchange in the colonial world.
The third seminar, 鈥淛oy Diversion: Popular Modernism in Manchester,鈥� will be delivered by (Professor of Cultural Economy, Adelaide University; Visiting Professor, Shanghai Jiaotong University; and Hallsworth Visiting Professor, University of Manchester) on Wednesday, 29 October 2025, from 17:00 to 18:30. Professor O鈥機onnor will take a retrospective look at Manchester鈥檚 鈥渃reative city鈥� narrative and Joy Division鈥檚 place within it. Rather than focusing on the 鈥渨inners and losers鈥� of later gentrification, the talk will return to the late 1970s moment when Joy Division emerged, examining how their music reflected and shaped the city鈥檚 post-industrial identity. Through the lens of 鈥減opular modernism鈥� where popular culture met modernist art and architecture O鈥機onnor will ask how Joy Division鈥檚 bleak anthems came to symbolise Manchester鈥檚 reinvention and what they might tell us about our cultural moment today.
The Research Seminar Series continues throughout the semester, providing a welcoming space for critical dialogue and creative exchange. All are warmly invited to attend future sessions.
To view upcoming seminars and book your place, please .