For my dissertation? We're talking like 5 years ago here, but it started with the De Stijl and Bauhaus movements, went onto Dada and then progressed from the 1930's to modern day showcasing how everything was influenced along the way. Then the conclusion was about how abstract art and more traditional, 'complex' art are basically running on cycles, similarly to fashion.
(Fashion was my second choice for uni, so quite alot of my work ended up referencing it.)
Basically like all good art students, It was alot of pretentious dribble masked by a coherent structure.