Art History Staff & Student Consultative Committee
1:00 pm Boswell Room, Wednesday 26th November, 2014
ATTENDING:
Staff: Dr. Ulrike Weiss (Director of Teaching)
Dr. Julian Luxford (SSCC Co-ordinator)
School President: Hannah Chinn
Year Reps: (PHD) Elizabeth Swarbrick
(MLitt Museum & Gallery Studies) Zoe Ingram
(MLitt Photography) Nicole Festa
(MLitt Art History) Giulio Valmasoni
(4th Year) Lauren Peterson
(4th Year) Min Tse Chong
(3RD Year) Kelly Bertrando
(3RD Year) Lilian Alice Barnes
(2nd Year) Isabelle Mooney
(2nd Year) Vienna Kim
(1st Year) Zeynep Kaserci
(1st Year) Camilla Nebiolo
1. Apologies:
Dr Weiss
Vienna Kim
2. Review Minutes from 22nd October
 HC: The study abroad situation is in the works.
o JL: There are still deliberations about fees for the l’École du Louvre
opportunity.
 HC: There is interest in every department regarding joint dissertations,
and they will most likely appear as an option for all departments next
year.
 HC: The issue regarding History of Photography is being reviewed and
questioned.
o JL: Nothing can be done in this instance, but this will not happen
again.
3. Honours
Fourth Years
-In general people seem happy with courses. There are instances where people
feel unhappy with presentations from other people in the class. Some people
don’t take them seriously enough, and thus students aren’t learning from the
presentations, detracting from tutors.
-JL: If this is a real problem. In the course handbook there should be some
guidance for presentations. There is an issue with marking presentations,
because everything we mark is supposed to be able to be scrutinized by
someone else at another time to make sure its fair. This is very difficult to
do, and thus we can’t mark the presentation on quality. These tutors
should cut the person off if the presentation is bad. If there’s a chance I’ll
mention this issue in an upcoming meeting, or send an email.
-Many people like the professor, Sophie , who is here temporarily, and hope that
she stays longer.
-There are some issues with VATs for fourth years. Some classes are required to
learn every image, because tutors aren’t provided a list of designated images or
asterisking images that could appear on the test. Students are unhappy with this
and want a list or some guidance about which images to look over.
-JL- If the tutor says in the handbook that s/he will identity the image,
then they must provide students with a list for the VAT. However, if they
don’t specify, then there is no issue. I cannot really take this issue to a
meeting of staff, if they just want a list.
Third Years
Feedback has been positive. Every student who took the survey said that the
feedback they received from tutors was helpful. Although a few complained that,
while the feedback was helpful, it was returned to them late. This is perhaps the
result of the marking strike.
4. Sub-Honours
Second Years
-Feedback regarding the VAT: There have been a few requests that the images for
the lecture go up the same day as the lecture. There is a request for more VAT
preparation in tutorials. Some tutors provided a few weeks of VAT practice,
while others did not review for the VAT. The issue of wanting asterisks on
lecture images again came up. A few people felt that time provided for the VAT
did not allow them to develop an adequate response. This could be alleviated if
we were allowed more time, or had fewer questions.
First Years
- Everything is going fine..
5. Post Graduate
MLitt Museum & Gallery Studies
-I attended a PGA executive meeting, and brought up the issue of photography
course. Another issue that was brought up was the problem of spacing, but
generally the feedback in the meeting was positive.
-There is an issue that feedback for coursework is not coming back on.
- JL: There has been an issue in MGS in that one member of staff, Karen
Brown, has gone off on temporary leave. This is only a recent issue, as of
last week, but may have to do with why work is late.
-Interviews for L’École de Louvre have taken place, but we still don’t know if
course will take place.
-There have been socials and events that I have set up in the MGS course.
MLitt History of Photography
-Everything is fine.
MLitt Art History
-Everybody is happy. The Kate Rudy’s approach to the dissertation has been
very nice and well organized.
PhD
-N/A
6. Other Business
HC: There has been a positive response to opening up the art history building for
study space.
-JL: I’m sure you can do this already. Just ask Dawn for a room. Students
are always welcome to come and use the building. You’re entitled to do
this anywhere in the University, regardless of you’re subject.
1: 25pm meeting concluded