Dr Andrew Murray

Professional biography

Andrew joined the History of Art department at the Open University in 2019. He has been an associate lecturer at the OU since 2017. Previously he was a Stipendiat at the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte in Paris (2015-2016) and a PhD student at University College London (2011-2015). 

BA History of Art (University College London), MSt History of Art (University of Oxford), PhD History of Art (University College London).

Research interests

I specialise in the art and ceremony of late medieval France and Valois Burgundy (c. 1350-1520). I research how authority – cultural, legal and political – is manifested in visual culture, and I pay particular attention to the representation and performance of emotions and virtues. The historical aspect of this research has investigated the rhetoric of the common good and justice and how such rhetoric is evident in tomb sculpture, funerary ritual, ducal ordinances and courtly literature. My sociological research is in the history of emotions, and particularly the work of Johan Huizinga. 

More recently I have been writing about digital painting and visual culture, leading to publications on science fiction, AI-generated images, and the concepts of speculation and spectacle. 

Teaching interests

I have written about modern and contemporary art and visual culture for A236 Art and Visual Cultures in the Modern World, and have edited the second book for this module, VIsual Cultures of Modernity. I have also authored chapters on medieval and early modern art for the forthcoming module A237 Art and Life Before 1800. I am currently chairing the production of the new Art History MA. The range of subjects I have taught for the OU include Canadian film making, murals in Northern Ireland, the medieval Sahara, and Inuit visual culture, the history of slide projection, among many others.

I am currently one of the supervisors for Ruth Allen's thesis, The lives of medieval manuscripts at National Trust properties.

Prospective PhD student can get in touch with projects that concern either late medieval, North European art or contemporary visual culture. 

External collaborations

I am a convener of the seminar series Marxism in Culture, which is hosted at the Institute of Advanced Studies at UCL.

I am an editor of the journal Medieval Low Countries.

As an OU Nominated Academic, I have collaborated with the BBC in the production of documentaries and online educational resources.