Join a media and memory course you can study flexibly, 100% online.
Explore how our cultural and collective memories are shaped by visual representations and media.
In this postgraduate-level online short course, you’ll discover how a wide range of media shape our understanding of the past – from painting to photography, comics to documentary film.
With the guidance of experts from a range of disciplines, you’ll develop your visual literacy in analysing these artforms, a key skill in our increasingly visual world.
And you’ll examine the meaning and importance of these artforms in shaping our views of the past and the present.
Diversifying perspectives
The course encompasses material from diverse perspectives and cultures. Through its focus on our different portrayals and uses of the past, it also actively engages with discussions around decolonisation.
Who can join this online media and memory course?
This interdisciplinary course is open to graduates from any discipline.
It’s ideal learning for anyone with an interest in history, art history, visual studies, cultural heritage, or in exploring a specific personal heritage and its visual representations.

Build credits towards a postgraduate certificate
This short course is part of:
You can use the credits you earn on this course towards this postgraduate qualification.
What you’ll study
In this course, you’ll study the role played by different media in visualising history and memory.
You’ll explore a wide range of media, including:
- paintings
- photography
- monuments
- museums
- films
- comics, and
- political cartoons.
Through these different media, you’ll examine relevant case studies relating to history, memory, and heritage.
You’ll study the visualisation of history from a theoretical and critical perspective, and can pursue further research on specific media and topics that interest you.
Content advice
The content and discussion in this course will cover themes that some students may find upsetting, including: questions of memory around issues of racism, slavery, conflict, and antisemitism; and difficult histories, from the Holocaust to postcolonialism.
This content advice is here to prepare you for the discussion of these topics. The classroom will be made a space to engage sensitively with this content in an academic context. Confidential and impartial support is also available from the Student Advice and Support Office.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to...
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Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the role of visual media in the construction of cultural memory.
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Apply methodologies for the analysis of visual culture.
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Synthesise material from disparate sources, and take account of the wider cultural context of topics under consideration.
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Select, evaluate, and organise primary and secondary material.
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Articulate your views more confidently in speech and writing.
Choose the University of Aberdeen for online media and memory courses

Fits around full-time work
This online course fits around work, with flexible hours and 24/7 study access.

1st in the UK for Art History
We’re ranked 1st in the UK for positive student responses in the 2024 National Student Survey.

Over 525 years of excellence
Study with the fifth-oldest university in the English-speaking world, founded in 1495.
How you’ll study
Online learning
This distance-learning media and memory course is delivered flexibly, 100% online.
You can learn with us anywhere, no student visa required, and manage your study hours to suit you.
Your teaching
This course is taught at postgraduate level.
Teaching is delivered through MyAberdeen, our online Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). It holds all the materials, tools and support you’ll need in your studies. Take a look around MyAberdeen.
You can access your learning materials on computer, smartphone and laptop, 24 hours a day. You’ll find a range of online resources available, including:
- videos
- pre-recorded video lectures
- reading materials
- discussion boards with your tutors and peers
- online access to our award-winning Sir Duncan Rice Library.
Despite the online nature of the programme, there was a high level of connection and engagement with instructors.
Grace Seeley, Freelance Writer, PgCert Heritage and Memory Studies student
Your tutors
This interdisciplinary course is delivered by the School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture, and the School of Divinity, History, Philosophy and Art History.
You’ll learn from a team of academics, from fields including cultural studies, history, art history, museum studies, languages, politics, and film and visual studies.
The professors that contribute to this programme come from a variety of departments and specialties, which provides for fresh ideas and shows students the career possibilities that exist within this sphere of academia.
Grace Seeley, Freelance Writer, PgCert Heritage and Memory Studies student
Your course coordinator

Dr Hans Hönes
Hans is a Senior Lecturer in Art History. He also coordinates our MA in Art History.
Hans is a leading researcher in the field of art historiography and art theory. Much of his work addresses the history of humanities more broadly.
Hans has published extensively on art historiography since the eighteenth century, and has written and edited books on Heinrich Wölfflin, eighteenth-century antiquarianism, and art history and migration.
View Hans’ profileWhere this will take you
Towards a postgraduate certificate (PgCert)
You’ll earn 30 credits at Masters level (SCQF Level 11) with this course. You can use these credits towards our online:

PgCert Heritage and Memory Studies
Earn a postgraduate qualification in Heritage and Memory Studies. Develop your skills in the theories and approaches used in researching memory and heritage, and explore issues of remembering the past in the modern world.
View PgCert Heritage and Memory StudiesI have really enjoyed my time working on PgCert Heritage and Memory Studies. Whether you’re new to Memory Studies or not, this programme will introduce you to theories, interdisciplinary concepts, and case studies that will fundamentally impact the way you view the past, present, and future.
Grace Seeley, Freelance Writer, PgCert Heritage and Memory Studies student
Careers
This course is designed to help you progress in or towards careers in areas including:
- arts and arts management
- the heritage, museum or community sectors
- local government
- consultancy.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
Your employer or professional institute may recognise this course for CPD hours. Talk to your employer or institute to find out more.

Free career support
Access our free careers service while you study.
- 1:1 appointments
- CV checks
- Interview prep
- Job opportunities
Choose the University of Aberdeen for flexible online courses

Learn anywhere
On smartphone, desktop and laptop, with no need for a student visa.

1st in Scotland for French and Iberian Studies
We’re ranked 1st in Scotland for student positivity for both French Studies and Iberian Studies in the National Student Survey 2024.

20% alumni discount
University of Aberdeen alumni get 20% off this online course.
Entry requirements
This course has no formal entry requirements. You decide if it’s suitable for you.
The course is delivered at Masters level. At this level, you’d usually have at least:
- a 2:2 UK honours degree (or equivalent) in any discipline, or
- relevant professional experience that supports this level of learning.