art history phd topics

PhD Program

The UCLA Department of Art History offers a two-stage graduate program toward the PhD. Students are not admitted for a terminal master’s (MA) degree. The MA is awarded in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD and is granted with the successful completion of the first stage of the program, typically at the end of the second year, 6th quarter, in residence. Normative time to degree for the PhD is seven years from the term of admission. For students entering with a MA in hand, the normative time to degree is five years from the term of admission.

All students are required to complete the M.A. requirements in the department. The Graduate Review Committee may waive the M.A. requirements, at the time of admission, for students matriculating with a M.A. degree in Art History or adjacent discipline from another institution. Following Academic Senate policy on duplication of degrees, a student who enters the program with a M.A. degree in Art History from another institution is not eligible to receive a second M.A. degree in Art History from UCLA.

Please see here for the official UCLA Art History Graduate Program Requirements published on the Graduate Division website.

• The student is assigned a faculty mentor upon admission to the program. The mentor is responsible for the student’s course of study and must be consulted at least once each quarter. A change of faculty supervision and/or change in field(s) must be approved by the Graduate Review Committee.
• The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) offers intellectual guidance, approves any exceptions to the program requirements, and adjudicates disputes between a student and his/her faculty mentor. The DGS further serves as Chair of the Graduate Review Committee, which governs the admissions process.
• The Student Affairs Officer (SAO) assists students with all the administrative aspects of moving through the program.
• Each spring quarter, the entire faculty reviews the status of each graduate student to ensure appropriate time-to-degree progress.

Toward the MA

Requirements for the MA

• Satisfaction of the first language requirement.
• Successful completion of AH 200 with a grade of “B+” or better.
• Nine graduate and upper division courses (36 units) completed while in the program. At least six of those courses (24 units) must be at the graduate level, including four graduate seminars. AH 200 may be counted towards the required six courses.
• Successful completion of a qualifying paper (approximately 30 pages) according to the standards and procedures outlined below.

* Typically the above requirements are completed within the first two years of study (6 quarters).

Distribution of Coursework

The nine required courses must include at least two courses from Group A and two courses from Group B noted below.

Qualifying Paper for the MA

• The qualifying paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper written for a class from the first year of coursework. It should be approximately 30 pages in length (excluding footnotes, images, and bibliography) and should demonstrate the student’s ability 1) to formulate a thesis, 2) to present an extended argument, and 3) to conduct original research. Quality of the writing will also be evaluated.
• By the end of the fall quarter of the second year, student selects a class paper from the first year in consultation with his or her advisor to revise and expand as the qualifying paper.
• In the following winter quarter, student enrolls for 4 units of 598 (RSRCH-MASTER THESIS) to work on the paper under the supervision of advisor.
• Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) will contact each student during the winter quarter (usually early February) to appoint a committee of three faculty readers for the qualifying paper, one of which is the student’s advisor. At least one of the faculty readers will have had no classroom contact with the student. All students may suggest potential readers; however, the DGS will balance the student’s request against equity of faculty workload.
• On the first day of instruction of the spring quarter, students submits three copies of the qualifying paper to the Student Affairs Officer (SAO) along with a list of the three readers assigned to review the paper.
• The qualifying papers will be distributed to the three assigned faculty readers and each reader will complete an evaluation form and submit it to the SAO within three weeks of receipt of the paper.
• By the fourth week of the spring quarter, the SAO will make available the papers with reader’s comments to the student and these papers will be added to the student’s permanent file.
• The Graduate Review Committee, taking into consideration the faculty reader evaluations, will determine whether the student will be awarded the MA and permitted to proceed into the PhDprogram. In some cases, the Committee may recommend that the student receive the MA degree but discontinue further graduate study. It is also possible (although very rare) that the student’s work may not be judged adequate to receive the MA.

Completion of the MA

• Prior to the third week of the spring quarter in the second year, the student should complete the “Petition for Advancement to Candidacy for the Master’s Degree” (provided by and returned to the SAO).
• Once the Department has accepted the qualifying paper, the student must file it with Graduate Division by the Monday of the tenth week of the spring quarter, formatted as a thesis.
• Graduate Division guidelines for formatting MA theses are available  here . Workshops on thesis formatting are offered at the beginning of each fall and winter quarters. See the Grad Division website for more information.
• Following the Department’s annual spring review of graduate students, the student must submit a completed form for transfer from the MA to the PhD program (provided by and returned to the SAO).

Toward the PhD

Upon the completion of the MA or starting with a MA from another institution, the student begins the PhD program having chosen a major field of study within art history, often known at the time of application. By the end of the second quarter of residence at the PhD stage, the student also selects a minor field, which may be outside the department (e.g. Architecture, History, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Archaeology, etc.). The major and minor advisors are responsible for the student’s course of study and completion of requirements within the selected field. Graduate Review Committee must approve any change of advisor(s) or the major and minor fields.

Requirements for the PhD

• Satisfaction of language requirements (minimum 2, including 1 from MA stage; more may be required depending on field of study)
• Completion of 8 graduate and upper division courses (32 units)
• Written comprehensive exams in major and minor fields
• Dissertation prospectus and oral qualifying exam
• Doctoral dissertation

• A total of 8 graduate and upper division courses are required, of which at least 4 must be art history courses at the graduate level.
• Of the nine courses (36 units) required for the MA, students may use a maximum of two of these (8 units) to count towards Ph.D. coursework. Students may also apply courses taken in excess of MA requirements towards fulfilling Ph.D. course requirements. (This does not apply to students who received their MA from other institutions/departments.)
• 5 courses in one field are required to claim it as the major field; 3 courses in one field are required to claim it as the minor field. The minor can also be from outside the department (e.g. Architecture, History, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Archaeology, etc.).
• Students entering the PhD stage deficient in Art History 200 (Art Historical Theories and Methodologies) or its equivalent must add this to the total requirements. In some cases, Art History 201 (Topics in Historiography of Art History) may be required by faculty/advisor recommendation. Any additional coursework required by the Graduate Review Committee at time of admission must be completed during the first two quarters of residence and may not count toward the minimum course requirements for either the MA or PhD degree.

Written Comprehensive Examinations

• Upon completion of coursework and fulfillment of language requirements, the student takes the PhD written comprehensive examinations in the major and minor fields of study, designed and evaluated by the student’s major and minor advisors respectively.
• The purpose of the examinations is to test the student’s breadth and depth of knowledge in his/her fields of study. If a student fails to pass the examination or part thereof, the failed portion may be repeated once no later than the subsequent quarter of residence. No further repetition will be allowed. The written comprehensive examinations may be taken during any two-week period of the Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters. Typically, students take these exams during the winter quarter of the second year in residence, 5th quarter, in the PhD program.
• The Department offers two formats for the major and minor written exams, the details of which must be worked out in advance between the student and the examiner. Format A: Take-home. 2-3 essay questions to be completed in 1 week (for the minor exam, 1-2 questions to be completed in 3 days). Format B: Sit-down. 2-3 essay questions to be completed in 6 hours (for the minor exam, 1-2 questions to be completed in 3 hours). Many faculty incorporate designing of a syllabus as an exam question and the formats above do not preclude this possibility. Such an assignment would count as one question/essay.
• The specific format and dates for the major and minor exams must be submitted to the Student Affairs Officer at least three weeks in advance using the appropriate departmental form.

Doctoral Committee

• Upon passing the written comprehensive examinations in major and minor fields of study, the student selects a dissertation topic and nominates the members of his/her Doctoral Committee in consultation with his/her advisor.
• This committee minimally consists of the major advisor, now serving as committee chair, two additional members of the art history faculty (normally, but not necessarily, including the student’s minor advisor), and one member from another UCLA department. For details on the acceptable status of these members and for minimum university standards of the doctoral committee,  please see page 14-17 in the Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study manual .
• The student and committee chair must agree on all committee members. Any changes in committee constitution after formal nomination must be reported to and approved by the Graduate Division; replacing the committee chair can only occur by consent or if the faculty member leaves UCLA.
• Please note that the Graduate Division generally approves Committee nominations within 2-3 weeks, and the oral qualifying exam may not be taken before official approval has been received.

Dissertation Prospectus and Oral Qualifying Examination

• The dissertation topic should be identified in discussions with the advisor. These discussions usually evolve organically through the course of study and are highly individualized. Typically, the oral examination is scheduled during the quarter following the successful completion of the written examinations.
• Once the Doctoral Committee has been officially approved by Graduate Division, and after having conducted considerable exploratory research and preparation for his/her dissertation, the student submits to each member of the Doctoral Committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus should not be distributed to the full committee without the approval of the student’s committee chair.
• The dissertation prospectus should not exceed 20 pages and include a statement of purpose regarding the art historical topic/problem being addressed (what is at stake in the study), tentative chapter outlines, working bibliography, research plan, methodological strategies, and preliminary schedule for completion.
• Students should submit the prospectus to committee members 2-3 weeks before the oral examination date to allow sufficient time for the prospectus to be reviewed. If any member of the Doctoral Committee finds the prospectus inadequate, he or she must notify the committee chair at least one week prior to the oral examination date. In some cases, the prospectus must be revised and/or the examination date postponed.
• The student is responsible for scheduling the oral exam, consulting with committee members well in advance regarding the date and time of availability of each faculty member. The SAO helps the student reserve an appropriate space for the exam.
• The purpose of the oral examination is to assess the validity and feasibility of the proposed dissertation topic and its methodologies, as well as the soundness of the student’s projected approach to completing the project.
• At the end of the examination, each committee member reports the examination as “passed” or “not passed.” A student may not pass and may not be advanced to candidacy if more than one member votes “not passed” regardless of the size of the committee, or if the major advisor so votes. Upon majority vote of the committee, the oral qualifying examination may be repeated once. Students upon passing the oral examination are formally advanced to candidacy by the Graduate Division.
• At the time of the exam, the Doctoral Committee decides, by unanimous agreement, whether or not to waive the final oral examination (not normally required) and selects, again by unanimous agreement, a minimum of three members, two from the art history faculty and one from an outside department, who will read, approve, and certify the final draft of the dissertation. For details regarding the acceptable status of these certifying members, consult the publication, Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.
• Upon passing the oral examination, the student is officially Advanced to Candidacy (ATC).

Dissertation and Final Oral Examination (if required)

• After advancing to candidacy, the student works on the dissertation in consultation with his/her advisor, committee chair, as well as Doctoral Committee certifying members according to the rules laid out in the above named publication. Upon completion of the dissertation or individual chapters thereof, and with  approval  of the committee chair, the student circulates a copy of the dissertation  in Week 1 of the quarter  for comments and suggestions from the certifying members of the Doctoral Committee.  Each  reader is allowed  four  weeks in which to read it and make corrections and comments, and the student is allowed  three  weeks in which to respond and revise the dissertation. It is incumbent upon the student to communicate in a timely manner with all certifying members of the Doctoral Committee to ensure adequate time for review. Committee members must be consulted as each reader may require more time.  PLEASE REVIEW the timeline for dissertation completion  which clearly outlines the schedule for submission during the student’s final quarter.
• After incorporating into the final draft of the dissertation the recommended changes, the student will circulate the dissertation again among the certifying members of the Doctoral Committee. This draft should be circulated sufficiently in advance of the deadline for filing the dissertation so that each reader is allowed at least two weeks in which to reread it (see quarterly Schedule of Classes for filing deadlines).
• Each certifying member of the committee then decides whether or not to approve the dissertation. In cases where less than the entire committee acts as certifying members, approval of the dissertation must be unanimous. If the entire committee acts as certifying members, the dissertation is considered approved with one negative decision so long as that negative decision is not that of the committee chair. After final approval by the Dean of the Graduate Division, the student files the required number of copies of the dissertation with the Manuscript Advisor of the Office of University Archives. Deadlines for filing the dissertation fall approximately two weeks before the date the degree is to be awarded.
• Note: A final oral examination is not normally required for Art History, but in some cases it may be requested by the Doctoral Committee (determined at the oral qualifying exam), and is held prior to filing the dissertation. All members of the committee must attend and vote. A student may pass with one negative vote so long as that vote is not that of the committee chair. In case of failure, the Doctoral Committee decides, by unanimous agreement, whether or not the candidate may be re-examined.
• Upon filing the dissertation, the student receives the Ph.D.

Language Requirements

The completion of the PhD requires reading knowledge of a minimum of two foreign languages relevant to the student’s field of study (more than two may be required in some cases and must be determined in consultation with the faculty advisor). Applicants are expected to already possess reading proficiency in at least one of the two languages for which they will be responsible. New students shall sit for at least one language exam upon arrival at UCLA.

Students at the MA stage are expected to satisfy their first foreign language requirement by the end of the 3rd quarter in residence. It is highly recommended that they complete the second language requirement by the end of the 6th quarter in residence.

Students at the PhD stage are expected to satisfy their second foreign language requirement by the end of the 1st quarter and any additional languages by the end of the 3rd quarter in residence (or in consultation with the major advisor).

Fulfilling the Language Requirement

Option 1: Pass the Departmental Foreign Language Exam.

The language exam consists of translation of a text of 300-700 words chosen by the examiner to be translated into English in three hours (use of a non-electronic dictionary is allowed). Specific qualities of the language and expected level of proficiency in the field will impact the choice and length of the selected text. The Department expects accurate rendition in English rather than a strict translation, word for word, and values the quality of the translation over the completion of the exam.

Language exams are scheduled four times a year, approximately three weeks prior to finals week during the regular academic quarters. Entering students must sit for the first language exam in the first week of the fall quarter. Exam results will be sent out by email within three weeks of the exam date. If feedback on the exam is desired after the results have been announced, students are welcome to contact the examiner. If a student fails the exam and wants to appeal, he or she should contact the Chair of the Language Committee or Director of Graduate Studies.

Option 2: Complete UCLA courses  French 6, German 6, Italian 6, Spanish 25, or other relevant language classes with a minimum grade of “B”.

The following is a general guideline for language requirements in relation to specific fields of study. The final selection and number of languages is to be determined in consultation with the primary advisor.

African Indigenous African languages, Arabic, French, German, Portuguese Ancient/Mediterranean/Near East Akkadian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Latin Chinese/Korean/Japanese Two East Asian languages, for pre-modern studies additionally literary Chinese or Japanese Byzantine/Western Medieval French, German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Slavic Languages, Turkish, Spanish Indigenous Americas One European language, one indigenous language (e.g., Quechua, Nahuatl, Maya), one other language (depending on topic) Islamic Arabic, Turkish/Ottoman, Persian, French, German Latin America Spanish (mandatory), French, German, Portuguese Modern & Contemporary Europe & America French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian Renaissance/Baroque/Early Modern Italian, French, Spanish, German, Latin, Dutch, Slavic Languages, Latin and/or Greek (depending on topic) South Asia Sanskrit, Hindi/Urdu, Persian Southeast Asia Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian

Study at Cambridge

About the university, research at cambridge.

• Undergraduate courses
• Events and open days
• Fees and finance
• Postgraduate courses
• How to apply
• Postgraduate events
• Fees and funding
• International students
• Continuing education
• Executive and professional education
• Courses in education
• How the University and Colleges work
• Term dates and calendars
• Visiting the University
• Annual reports
• Equality and diversity
• A global university
• Public engagement
• Give to Cambridge
• For Cambridge students
• For our researchers
• Business and enterprise
• Colleges & departments
• Email & phone search
• Museums & collections
• Postgraduate Courses
• Department of History of Art
• About Us overview
• Slade Visiting Professors
• Recent Staff Publications
• Alumni overview
• Distinguished Alumni
• Keeping in Touch
• Equality Diversity Inclusivity (EDI)
• Athena SWAN
• Privacy Policy
• People overview
• Directors of Studies
• Head of Department
• University Teaching Officers
• Emeritus and Honorary Professors
• Affiliated Lecturers
• Research and other Fellows
• Associated Academic Staff
• Slade Professors
• MSt Building History
• Professional Staff
• Admissions overview
• Undergraduate study overview
• Why study Art History?
• The Course overview
• Years 2 and 3
• Teaching and Learning
• Studying in Cambridge
• What Our Students Say
• Careers in Art History overview
• Destinations of recent alumni
• Alumni Profiles
• Postgraduate Courses overview
• MPhil in the History of Art and Architecture overview
• How to apply for the MPhil in History of Art & Architecture
• MSt in Building History
• PhD in History of Art overview
• How to apply for the PhD in History of Art
• Language Centre
• Research overview
• Medieval and Renaissance Visual Culture
• Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Art and Architecture
• Modern and Contemporary Art and Theory
• Cambridge Visual Culture
• The Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture
• The Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre (CCRAC) overview
• The People’s Art School and Unovis in Vitebsk: An international conference organised by the Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre (CCRAC) in collaboration with the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven overview
• About the Conference
• Organisers and Sponsors
• Conference Programme
• Current PhD Topics in the Department overview
• Francesca Aimi: Domenico Veneziano in Context: Reassessing Florentine Visual Culture in the 1440s
• Anneke de Bont: The Christian Epistemic Image in Northern European Print, c.1570–c.1700
• Helen Bremm: Surrealist Tempera Paintings in Mexico and the United States, c.1940–1970
• Quaid Childers: Rococo Metalwork and Light
• Blanche Darbord: Model King or Tyrant?: Alexander the Great in Manuscript Illumination and the Representation of Kingship in Plantagenet England (1154-1485)
• Ciaran Hervás: Sexology and the Avant-Garde: Photographing Queer Embodiment and Desire in Interwar Paris and Berlin
• Kyoko Takemura: Re-evaluation of punch marks on early Italian paintings
• Research Collaborations
• Visiting Scholars
• Visiting Students
• Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships

• Seminar Series overview
• Graduate Research Seminars
• The Medieval Art Seminar Series
• The Cambridge Modern and Contemporary Art Seminar Series
• KUNST: German Theoretical Approaches to Art (1750-2000)
• The Cambridge Architectural History Seminars
• The Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture Seminar Series
• The Renaissance and Early Modern Seminar Series
• Outreach overview
• Masterclasses
• Sutton Trust Summer School
• Resources and Other Programmes
• Events overview
• Past Events

PhD in History of Art

• MPhil in the History of Art and Architecture

The PhD in History of Art is a three year research degree offering the opportunity for independent research under the supervision of an expert departmental member of staff. The Department of History of Art has expertise and welcomes candidates in many areas of history of art and architectural research, but is unable to offer places to candidates for whom no supervisor is available.  Applicants are admitted who meet the course requirements and whose research interests match those of an available established University Teaching Officer. The Department does not offer a taught PhD programme, unlike, for example, many North American Universities.

As well as the research and skills training programme offered by the Department, candidates have the opportunity to attend appropriate courses in associated skills, such as modern languages, palaeography, the use of bibliographic and other databases, and computer skills.

Course Structure & Examination

The PhD in History of Art is a three year programme which commences in October each year.  It is also available on a five year part-time basis.  Students submit their dissertations of not more than 80,000 words (60,000 words for the MSc degree) at the end of their third full-time year (or part-time equivalent) and will be invited to attend an oral examination which will usually take place during the three months following the submission of the dissertation .  The dissertation and the general field of knowledge within which it falls is orally examined by two examiners.  At least one of the examiners will be external to the University.

The programme involves minimal formal teaching. Students will usually have their supervisors confirmed before they have begun their course in October and will typically meet for 45 minutes on a fortnightly basis during term time.  A bespoke programme is evolved by the student in conjunction with their supervisor and will include attendance at the Department’s programme of research seminars and other relevant graduate courses. Attending lectures is optional but students are strongly encouraged to take advantage of lectures offered in the Department, their college and other departments and faculties relevant to their research topics.

As well as the research and skills training programme offered by the Department, students have the opportunity to develop their research skills by attending numerous courses, such as those related to the use of bibliographic resources and other databases, and specific computer skills. Informal opportunities to develop research skills also exist through mentoring undergraduate students and other opportunities presented by fellow students and members of staff.

Students will be provided with feedback via supervisions and their supervisor's termly reports which are available to them via their self-service pages on CamSIS.

Annual Review of Work

Students undertake an annual review of their work throughout their programme which is realised in different ways;  for example, the production of a report or undertaking a presentation. The purpose of the reviews is to ensure that students are on track to submit a successful dissertation by the submission deadline. The first review also serves as a registration exercise, for which students have to submit a report of 10,000 words which is orally assessed by two assessors. The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the student is suited to the demands of PhD research and to address any concerns if there are any. 

Examination

Students submit a dissertation, of not more than 80,000 words (60,000 words for the MSc degree) . The dissertation and the general field of knowledge within which it falls is orally examined by two examiners. At least one of the examiners will be external to the University.

At a Glance

Course length and dates:

3 years full-time/5 years part-time, October start.

Examination:

A dissertation, of not more than 80,000 words. 

Academic requirement:

A 1st class or a high 2i honours degree and a Masters degree with distinction (if a distinction category exists) in History of Art or a related discipline. 

English language requirement:

See Postgraduate Admissions Office . 

Applications accepted from:

The preceding September.

Application Deadlines:

The final deadline for applicants seeking funding is early January, for the exact date, please see the Postgraduate Admissions website. Even if you are not seeking funding, we strongly recommend that you submit your application by this date, as no applications will be accepted once this competitive and popular programme is full.

If places are still available on programmes beyond this deadline; self-funded applicants will continue to be considered until the final deadline in May, for the exact date please see the Postgraduate Admissions website No applications will be considered after this deadline.

The Secretary The Department of History of Art 1-5 Scroope Terrace Cambridge CB2 1PX Tel: 01223 332975 Fax: 01223 332960

Contact: [email protected] [email protected]

Site privacy & cookie policies, how to find us.

© 2024 University of Cambridge

• Contact the University
• Accessibility
• Freedom of information
• Privacy policy and cookies
• Statement on Modern Slavery
• Terms and conditions
• University A-Z
• Undergraduate
• Postgraduate
• Research news
• About research at Cambridge
• Spotlight on...

Jump to PhD

Recent ma topics in art history    .

"Sacred Space, Relics, and Performance: The Chapel of the Virgin Mary, Karlstein Castle" Olivia Bennes, 2024

"The Walers Art Museum's Ganymede Mosaic: Recontextualizing a Unique Polychrome Emblema from Greco-Roman Egypt" Grace Moorman, 2024

"The Shield, The Phallus, and The Rosette: Cy Twombly's Fifty Days at Iliam " Kait Morrison, 2024

"Business, Leisure, and Piety: Animal Motifs in the Floor Mosaics at the Villa of Piazza Armerina" Melissa DePierro, 2023

"Reexamining the ‘Vatican Runner’: A Unique Ancient Marble Sculpture of a Female Athlete" Alejandra Gonzalez-Calvo, 2023

"The Universal Contained: Karel Teige's Thinking Through Typography (1923-1927)" Jaime Hartman, 2023

"Christ Pantocrator: God, Emperor, and Philosopher: The Byzantine Iconography of Christ" Anna Johnson, 2023 with Distinction

"Dore Hoyer’s  Tänze  für Käthe Kollwitz:  Reframing  Ausdruckstanz   in post-World War II Germany" Alaine Lambertson, 2023 with Distinction

"'A Symphony in Lines': Sound in Abraham Walkowitz’s Abstractions of New York City" Lacy Hamilton, 2022

" Symbolic Epigraphy and the New Rome: Humanist Capital Letters on the Tomb of Leonardo Bruni" Noah Dasinger, 2022 with Distinction

" Displaced Movement: Body & Image in the Holographic Works of Simone Forti" Francesca Felicella, 2022

" Colors of Commemoration: Marble Loutrophoroi and the Polychromy of Athenian Funerary Monuments" Alex Hathaway, 2022 with Distinction

" Migrations of Word and Image: Leonora Carrington and La Dame Ovale , 1937-42" Tara Kraft, 2022

" Capturing the Vulnerable Body: Imogen Cunningham's Photographic Series Roi on the Dipsea Trail (1918)" Charlotte Melissa Gaillet, 2021

" Firm Humanity: John Brown's Blessing and It's Roots In Ecce Homo Imagery" Ashlyn Parker Davis, 2020

" An Unpublished Greek 'Grave' Relief in the Memphis Brooks Museum: Contextualizing Banquet Scenes within the Votive and Funerary Landscapes of Late Classical Attica" Bostick Miller, Holly, 2020 

" Her Creative Space: Photographs of Cecilia Beaux's Studio, 1885-1890" Earley, Catherine Ann, 2020

"' Do you have eyes but fail to see?': The Unfocused Gaze and the Devotio Moderna in Hans Memling's Devotional Diptych for Isabel la Católica" Williams, Hannah Grace, 2020

“Diana and the hunt: Myth and allegory in the Court of King Francis I” DuVall, Emily Claire, 2019 with Distinction

“The Medici Venus and the legacy of the Renaissance at La Specola” Glennon, Taylor Kay, 2019

“Ilya Kabakov, Charles Rosenthal, and ‘the Void’ of a Soviet Past” Erin Leigh Riggins, 2019

"Circumlitio: Pliny, Painters, and Polychromy" Bradley Brent Cavedo, 2018 with Distinction

" Part of a Larger Whole: Recontextualizing the Charleston Portrait " Jordan Dopp, 2018

" Cut From an Ethnographic Museum: Collaging the Other from Weimar Mass Media " Abigail Kosberg, 2018

" Reexamining Cindy Sherman's 1997 Film:  Office Killer " Augusta Gailey, 2018

"Monet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe : Class and Absence" Kendra Macomber, 2017

"Reconsidering New Objectivity: Albert Renger-Patzsch and Die Welt ist Schön" Margaret Hankel, 2017

"Disorientation in Millennial America: Michael Arad's Reflecting Absence and the Art of Michael Heizer" Claire Dempster, 2017

"Henry Fuseli's The Nightmare : An Examination of the Recent Scholarship" Melanie Davison, 2016

“The Virgin and her Purple Wool: Reenacting the Incarnation at the Altar” Jessica Lynn Golden, 2016

"Anthropomorphic Mechanomorphs: Suzanne Duchamp’s Diversion from Man’s Machine Aesthetic" Charlotte Jean Maier, 2016

“Every Movement Counts: Curating Dance at the Museum of Modern Art” Hilary Schroeder, 2015

"Memento Park and Skopje 2014: Transition, Monuments, and Memory" Linnea West, 2015 with Distinction

"Federico Barocci's Tale of Two Troys: Aeneas in Prague and Rome" Megan Neely, 2015

"The Empathetic Gaze: Theresa Bernstein's Early Images of Women in New York City"  Victoria Blanche Naden, 2014.

"Rites of Passage: Rineke Dijkstra’s New Mothers and Bullfighters Photographs" Erin Dunn, 2014

"The Subtle Body in the Esoteric Buddhist Art of the Himalayas: Practice and Representation" Linsday Ethridge, 2014 with Distinction

"The Roman Display Contexts of the Three-Figure Reliefs" Natalie Fort, 2014

"Projection as Paradise in Sarah Morris’  Los Angeles" Taylor Hobson, 2014

“Avant-Garde Mechanics: Montage Structures in Germaine Krull’s  Métal  and Joris Ivens’  De Brug ” Erin McClenathan, 2013

"A Measure of Grace: Measured Icons of the Russian Tsars (16th to 19th c.)" Stuart Gandy, 2013

"A Colorado Landscape: George Caleb Bingham's  View of Pike's Peak " Maggie Deiters, 2012

"Pan's Follower: Baccio Bandinelli's Villano Statue at the Boboli Garden" Kathryn Frances Hall, 2012

"(Dis)embodiment in Christian Marclay's Telephonic Series and  Video Quartet " Emelie Matthews, 2012

"'Continuous Rupture': Identity and Postcoloniality in Dr. Lakra's Tattooed Pin-ups" Kristina Stoll, 2012

"Alphonse Mucha's Slav Epic and the Projection of Czech Identity" Joan Tkacs, 2012

“Claude Cahun and the Photographic Self” Angela Woodlee, 2012

"Abolitionism, Memory, and the Civil War in William Louis Sonntag's Virginia Landscapes" Samantha Cole, 2011

"Leonardo da Vinci's  Saint Jerome in the Wilderness : An Image of Spiritual Beauty" Lindsay Marie Cox, 2011

"Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde, and Salome as Aesthetic Parody" Stacee L. Highsmith, 2011

"Space and Image: The Meaning of the Wall Paintings at the Hermitage of Ioannes (aka Ayvali Church, Cappadocia)" Alev Turker, 2011

"Building and Traversing a 'Pocket Cathedral'  an Interdisciplinary Reading of William Morris’s Wood Beyond the World" Laura Golobish, 2010

"Through a Shifting Lens: The Photo Criticism of Francis Wey" Maria Graffagnino, 2010

“Photography, Presence, and Physicality in the Work of Vija Celmins" D. Chad Alligood, 2009 with Distinction

"Hope for Salvation and Salvation Granted: The Bural Chapel and Reburial Ceremony of Pope Sixtus V in Santa Maria Maggiore" Jenny M. Beene, 2009

“ Cremaster 5 : Mathew Barney and the Neo-Baroque” Rebecca Brantley, 2009 with Distinction

"Erasing the Image, Revealing the Game: The Works of Paul Pfeiffer" Nathanael Roesch, 2009 with Distinction

"The Indecorous Angel in Caravaggio's  Inspiration of St. Matthew " Katie Seefeldt, 2009

"Portrait / Icon / Code: Marc Quinn's DNA Portraits and the Imaging of the Self" Brigette N. Thomas, 2009

"The ceramic sculptures of Carl Walters (1883-1955)" Micheal Antoni Karczewski, 2008

"Form as Content: The Miminalist Cube as Institutional Critique (1960-1969)" Caroline Cason Barratt, 2008 with Distinction

“The Lascivie: Agostino Carracci’s Erotic Prints as the Sources for the Farnese Gallery Vault” Waverley Wren Eubanks, 2008 with Distinction

"Elisabetta Sirani's  Judith with the Head of Holofernes " Jessica Cole Rubinski, 2008

"An Image of Southern Repose: Intentions and Implications of Thomas Addison Richard's River Plantation" Kate Bruce, 2007 with Distinction

"Victor Hugo and Surrealism: Phantom Drawings, Automatism and the Occult" Jill Allison Miller, 2007

The Image of a Queen: The Representation of Catherine De’Medici as Penelope in the Galerie D’Ulysse” Elizabeth Miller, 2007 with Distinction

"Materiality, the Model and the Myth of Origins: Problems in Eighteenth-Century European Terracotta and its Reception" Lauren R. Cannady, 2006

"Andea del Castagno's  Last Supper " Eva Maria Lundin, 2006

"How Do I Look: Identity and Photography in the Work of Nikki S. Lee" Matthew R. McKinney, 2006

"The Riace Bronzes" Michael Joseph Melen, 2006

"An Icon as a Prayer, a Poem as an Icon: The Personal Devotion of a Fourteenth-Century Poetess" Bojana Bjelicic-Miletkov, 2006

"The Artists of Les XX: Seeking and Responding to the Lure of Spain" Caroline Conzatti, 2005

"Thomas Moran's  The Old Bridge Over Hook Pond: Uncertain Crossings " Sandra Ann Pauly, 2005

"Man Ray and Futurism: An Overlooked Connection" Sarah Carrison Bockel, 2004

"William Baziotes' Duality: Escaping the Ordinary and Finding the Extraordinary" Sarah D. Crain, 2004

"Fra Angelico's Tempio Lamentation: A Consideration of its Function and Meaning" Carissa Maria DiCindio, 2004

"Where Remote Futures Meet Remote Pasts: Prehistoric and Contemporary Earthworks" Joshua Frederick Fisher, 2004

"Henrietta Shore in Point Lobos and Carmel: Spirit of Place, Essence of Being" Mina Tocheva Stoeva, 2004

"Nicolas Poussin's Realm of Flora : Painted Poetry in 17th-Century Rome" Amy Marie Costrini, 2003 with Distinction

"Raphael's  Lo Spasimo di Sicilia " Monica Culqui Jordan, 2003

"Michelangelo's  Last Judgment : The Influence of the Laocoon and His Sons" Michael Paul Kemling, 2003

"The Influence of Caravaggio on Jacques-Louis David's Development of French Neo-Classical Painting" Erin Claire Martin, 2003 with Distinction

"Gino Severini and the Symbolist Aesthetics of His Futurist Dance Imagery, 1910-1915" Shannon N. Pritchard, 2003 with Distinction

“Viewing the Back: The Reverse of Byzantine Icons” Katherine Marsengill, 2001

"The Play of Nature: Nation and Domesticity in Winslow Homer's Croquet Series" Heidi Domescik, 2001

"From Court to Pleasure Quarters" Kendal Anne Korach, 2001

"Han Dynasty Chinese Funerary Art in the Georgia Museum of Art" You Mi Kim, 2000

"Myth and Monument: The Sculptural Image of Robert E. Lee and the Ideology of the Lost Cause" Christopher R. Lawton, 2000

"Talking of Michelangelo: Mark Rothko's Interior, 1936" Mary Beth Looney, 2000

"Robert Mapplethorpe's Use of Mirroring, Reflection, and Reversal 1949 to 1960" Natalie C. Major, 2000

"An Analysis of the Form and Function of Gerrit Van Honthorst's Christ Before Caiphas " Christine Rienstra-Kiracofe, 2000

"Fransciscan Pedagogy: The Transept Frescoes in the Lower Church, San Francesco, Assisi" Lisa A. Walli, 2000

"Early Iconography of the Indian Sun-God Surya" David S. Efurd, 1999

"Max Ernst, Anticlericalism and the Crisis of Surrealism" Kathryn M. Floyd, 1999

"Italy and the North: Rogier Van Der Weyden's Medici Madonna" Amy E. Bardakjy, 1998

"Images of Female Piety and Devotion in Domenico Beccafumi's Stigmatization of Saint Catherine of Siena Altarpiece" Mary D. Koon, 1998

"A Diachronic Exploration of Two Groups of Mythical Women on Attic Vases on the Archaic and Classical Periods" John Stephenson, 1998

" Joeseph Fleeing Potiphar's Wife : An Allegory of Cosimo I De'Medici as Politician, Patriarch and Spouse" Marissa Vivona, 1998

"The Franciscan Allegories in the Lower Church at San Francesco, Assisi: Form and Meaning" Mary Anne Dougan, 1997

"James McNeil Whistler's The Artist in his Studio : A Study in the Concealment and Revelation of an Artist" Rhonda Reymond, 1997

"Search for Identity Feminism and the Art of Ana Mendieta" Kelly Dawn Baker, 1996

"Rereading Originality and Repetition: Matisse's  L'Ecorche " Shannon Kelley, 1996

"A Transformation in Consciousness: The Art of Nancy Spero" Mary Lee Sullivan, 1996

"A Reconsideration of Rosso Fiorentino's  Dead Christ " Tiffanie Townsend, 1996

"Edouard Manet's  Olympia : A Critical Analysis of the Literature" Bradley P. Fratello, 1995

"Essential Character: Images of African Americans by Howard Cook" D. Elise Blitch Drake, 1995

Back to  top

Recent PhD Topics in Art History

The Flaying of Marsyas or the Judgment of Midas: Titian's Self-Portrait 'in malo" Megan Neely, 2023 with distinction Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Shelley Zuraw

Handheld Cinema: The Ephemeral Avant-Garde, C.1917-44 Erin McClenathan, 2018 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Nell Andrew

Imaging the In-Between: The Serial Art of Richard Tuttle Laura Lake Smith, 2017 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Isabelle Wallace

Navigating a Land Divided: Charles Fraser, His Antebellum Landscapes, and the Refinement of Southern Taste Sandy McCain, 2015 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Janice Simon

The Power of Friendship: Amity and Politics in European Art and Gardens of the Eighteenth Century Emily Everhart, 2015 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Alisa Luxenberg

The Art of Reconciliation: The World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, New Orleans 1884 Sandra Pauly, 2014 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Janice Simon 

The Aesthetics of Absence: Mariele Neudecker, Thomas Demand, and Gregor Schneider Sarah Crain, 2013 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Isabelle Loring Wallace

Michelangelo as Patron: The Construction of his Artistic and Social Identities through Portraiture Michael Paul Kemling, 2013 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Shelley Zuraw

Giambologna's Bronze Pictures: The Narrative Reliefs for Ferdinando I de'Medici and the Post-Tridentine Paragone Shannon N. Pritchard, 2010 Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award in Fine Arts, 2011 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Shelley Zuraw

Cowboys and Indians: The American West in German Art of the Twentieth-Century Teresa Bramlette Reeves, 2008 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Evan Firestone

For Glory and for Beauty: Richard Morris Hunt, George Washington Vanderbilt, and All Soul's Church, Biltmore Village, North Carolina Rhonda Laseman Reymond, 2006 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Janice Simon

Narrative and Allegory in the Genesis Fresco Cycle in the Chiostro Verde, Santa Maria Novella, Florence Amber Allison McAlister, 2003 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Andrew Ladis

"In the Fullness of Time:" The Vault Mosaic in the Cappella Sant'Elena, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome Cynthia Anne Payne, 2003 Graduate Student Excellence in Research Award in Fine Arts, 2004 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Shelley Zuraw

Painting Monstrosities: The Grotesque, Mannerism, and Rosso Fiorentino Tiffanie Paige Townsend, 2003 Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Shelley Zuraw

Franciscan Spirituality and Papal Reform: True Cross Cycles in Tuscany, 1388–1464 Phyllis M. Rambin, 1999 Doctoral Advisor: Andrew Ladis

The "Curious and Poite" World of William Hogarth's The Analysis of Beauty Gail Kallins, 1998 Doctoral Adviser: Dr. Carolyn Wood

Back to top

MA or PhD in Art History

Virtual Open House For Prospective Applicants

November 1, 2024 12–1pm CT Zoom

• Learn more about the program, the department, and the university.
• Meet faculty, staff, and students.
• Ask questions about the program and application process.

The graduate Art History programs at UT, comprising the MA in Art History and the PhD in Art History, are among the nation’s largest and most distinguished, with nearly twenty full-time faculty members who are leading scholars in their fields and represent a diversity of critical and methodological outlooks. Students in Art History are regularly honored with prestigious awards and fellowships, and alumni from this program lead successful careers at colleges, universities, and museums worldwide.

The programs’ expansive scope comprises courses covering a wide range of periods and cultures of art, while areas of special concentration are represented by several active research centers. Interdisciplinary study and collaboration play a vital role in the program. Additionally, research is enhanced by access to the many resources available across campus including the Blanton Museum of Art, one of the country’s leading university art museums; the university’s notable library system; and cultural archives such as the Harry Ransom Center.

Eligibility

Applicants to the Master of Arts Program are expected to have completed a broad range of undergraduate coursework in art history (18 hours in art history are recommended) and related fields. MA students will be required to demonstrate proficiency in reading/translating one contemporary language other than English prior to beginning the fourth semester in residence.

Program Tracks

Four MA tracks are offered:

• General (allows students to cover diverse historical areas of art history)
• Ancient (Western and Non-Western)
• Medieval to Early Modern

Program of Work — General Track

Program of Work — Specialized Track

Specialized tracks.

• Modern    

Example Program Plan

Language Requirement

MA students must have reading/translation competence in at least one modern language in addition to English. The additional language will be relevant to the student’s areas of study and will allow the student to understand the scholarship of their field. The language will be determined in consultation with the Graduate Adviser and the choice is subject to ratification by the Graduate Studies Committee.

The choice of language is flexible but must be decided in consultation with one’s advisor/committee chair or the Graduate Adviser if an advisor has not yet been selected. Language courses cannot count toward fulfillment of the requirement for six hours of coursework taken outside the department (supporting work or Minor).

The language exam requirement must be fulfilled in one of the following ways:

• 4 semesters of college-level language courses passed at grade B or above. Advanced placement credit can count towards the required number of courses.
• Departmental exam to test translation proficiency in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Portuguese (and other languages as petitioned by students) administered 3 times each year (beginning and end of fall semester, and once during spring semester). Exams are graded by at least 2 faculty members. Language exams will be administered to students who wish take it in a given semester. The exam proceeds simultaneously, in a single location and time that works for all. This requirement can be fulfilled in one of the following ways, and must be satisfied by the end of the third long semester in residence.
• To compensate for the exceptional difficulty involved, students who plan on qualifying in a language other than the traditional European languages may be allowed to do so. Permission may be granted after consultation with the Graduate Adviser and after petitioning the faculty to substitute an instructional course in that language in place of a supporting (i.e. out-of-department) course.

Thesis Colloquium

During the semester of enrollment in Thesis research (ARH 698A, 3 hours), usually in the third semester of residence and after the completion of 18 hours of coursework, the student presents a topic for faculty approval in a Thesis Colloquium. Enrollment in ARH 698B Thesis (3 hours) may take place only after an approved presentation.

• In the first year, no later than the end of the Spring semester, the student will contact an Art History faculty member about supervising the thesis and initiate a discussion about possible topics.
• Students are encouraged to interview faculty in their area of specialization in order to find a faculty supervisor/committee chair. Students and supervisors must be in alignment to accommodate their professional goals. Failing to find a supervisor will result in termination from the program.
• The wise Art History Master’s student will take advantage of the summer following the first year to develop and research a topic or possible topics with the goal of being ready to schedule the colloquium in the early part of the Fall semester.
• If the colloquium is not held, a grade of Incomplete is assigned; a final grade will be assigned when the colloquium is held during the next long semester.

Refer to the handbook for details regarding the processes involved with submitting the final thesis and applying for graduation.

Program Handbook

Applicants to the Doctoral Program must have an MA in art history or an MA in a related field with substantial coursework in art history at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Applicants completing the second year of a Master’s program are also eligible to apply.

Program of Work

The Doctor of Philosophy degree requires at least thirty hours of coursework beyond the MA degree. Course requirements include:

• A minimum of five graduate seminars in at least two of the department’s chronological groupings of western and non-western art: Ancient; Medieval to Early Modern; and Modern
• Nine hours of supporting work, normally consisting of two graduate seminars outside the Department of Art and Art History in areas related to the major field, and one graduate reading course outside the Department of Art and Art History often taken in the context of preparation for the qualifying examination. All of these courses must be taken for a letter grade.
• A minimum of six hours of dissertation research and writing

Further requirements include reading/translation competence in at least two contemporary languages in addition to English, a dissertation colloquium, written and oral qualifying examinations that admit the student to doctoral candidacy, the dissertation, and the oral defense of the dissertation. PhD students who are employed as Teaching Assistants must enroll for one term in ARH 398T Supervised Teaching in Art History , a pedagogy seminar that meets one hour per week. This course does not count toward completion of the degree.

Doctoral students must have reading/translation competence in at least 2 modern languages in addition to English. These languages will be relevant to students’ areas of study and will allow individuals to undertake primary research and understand the scholarship of their chosen field.

Language courses cannot count toward fulfillment of the requirement for 9 hours of coursework taken outside the department (supporting work or minor). Each language requirement can be fulfilled in one of the following ways, and must be satisfied before advancing to doctoral candidacy:

• Four semesters of college-level language courses passed at grade B or above. Advanced Placement credit can count towards the required number of courses.
• Departmental exam to test translation proficiency in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Portuguese (and other languages as petitioned by students) administered twice per semester. Exams are graded by at least two faculty members. Language exams will be administered to students who wish take it in a given semester. The exam proceeds simultaneously, in a single location and time that works for all. The choice of language is flexible but must be decided in consultation with one’s adviser.
• Confirmation of completion of a modern language requirement from the student’s Master’s program.

To compensate for the exceptional difficulty involved, students who plan on qualifying in a language other than the traditional European languages may be allowed, after consultation with the graduate advisor and after petitioning the faculty, to substitute an instructional course in that language in place of a supporting (i.e. out-of-department) course.

Dissertation Colloquium

The Colloquium is intended to be an informal conversation with the faculty concerning the topic, its feasibility, and potential pitfalls that might affect the student’s ability to complete it successfully.

The Dissertation Colloquium is held during the third or fourth term of the student’s residence and after the completion of at least 18 hours of coursework. A week before the scheduled Dissertation Colloquium, the student presents to the Graduate Adviser for Art History and the faculty a written prospectus, prepared with the help of the dissertation adviser.

The topics for the qualifying examination are also set at the Colloquium, and the examining committee is determined. At this time, the composition of the dissertation committee is also discussed. The student must complete the Qualifying Examination by the end of the next long semester following the Colloquium.

Qualifying Examination

The student will be examined in four areas: at least two broad areas of expertise and one or two focused areas with the possibility of one area being directed by a faculty member outside the Department. All of these exams will be written and must be completed within a one-week period. In consultation with each faculty member on their examination committee, students will schedule three-hour time periods during which they will take the written exams.

At least two weeks before the examination, the student will confirm with the Graduate Coordinator the date and time of each examination and the name and email address of any examiner not on the Art History faculty. The student will determine the order of the questions. The Graduate Coordinator will solicit questions from each examiner.

Within several days of the completion of the last written examination, a two-hour oral examination on the same topics will follow with the entire examining committee. During this exam the examining committee will question the student about the exam questions. To schedule the oral examination, please use the same process used for scheduling the Colloquium. The student's performance on these exams will be ranked "Pass" or "Failure." For additional details and procedures, please refer to the Graduate Handbook.

Once the student has completed all program requirements and passed the qualifying exams, the committee supervising the dissertation is formalized in the doctoral candidacy application process.

Learn more about completing the Application for Doctoral Candidacy →

• After admission to Candidacy for the doctoral degree, the student must stay in continuous enrollment in dissertation hours each spring and fall until the degree is completed.
• Students doing research abroad while in doctoral candidacy may be eligible for Independent Study and Research status.

Example Topics

Below are examples of past qualifying examinations topics. Please note that these can include both general subjects and topics related to a particular student’s dissertation research:

Medieval Art

• Northern Renaissance Art
• French Court Culture and Patronage (possibly an outside the Department question)
• Fourteenth-Century Manuscript Illumination

Modern/Contemporary European Art

• European Art, 1890–1945
• Art of the United States, 1945–1985
• Art and Philosophy of Language (Examiner: Art History Dept.)
• Little Magazines and Literary Modernism (Examiner: English Dept.)

Dissertation

The dissertation must make an original contribution to scholarship. It normally requires fieldwork of at least a year’s duration. The Dissertation Committee directs the student during the completion of the dissertation. Defense of the dissertation (Final Oral Examination) before at least four members of the Dissertation Committee is a University requirement; the dissertation supervisor must be physically present for the defense to take place.

Learn more about submitting the request for the Final Oral Examination →

Refer to the handbook for details regarding the processes involved with submitting the final draft, defending, and applying for graduation.

• Current Graduate Students

Funding resources at the MA level, such as scholarships and in-state tuition waivers, are limited and awarded on a case-by-case basis. Each semester, MA students may apply for positions as a Grader for a large introductory/survey or upper-division class. Once assigned to grade for a course, the Grader must attend all lectures and grade all exams and assignments for the course. The number of Grader positions varies each year, and the salary is based on the number of students in the class. A few MA students also may be awarded Teaching Assistant positions, when these are available, again on a case-by-case basis.

The faculty’s goal is to support all admitted PhD students with a combination of Teaching Assistantships, Assistant Instructor positions, Graduate Research Assistant positions and scholarship funds so they can earn their degree with as little outside cost as possible.

A limited number of Graduate Research Assistant positions may be available each semester to both MA and PhD students.

All applicants are considered for financial support; it is not necessary to apply or request separately.

FAQ Visit Apply

Program Contacts

Rowan Howe Graduate Program Coordinator

Dr. Nassos Papalexandrou   Graduate Advisor

Your browser is unsupported

We recommend using the latest version of IE11, Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

Art History

School of art & art history, college of architecture design and the arts, phd art history, how to apply heading link copy link.

• Speech bubble icon Questions?
• People Icon How to apply?
• Graduate icon Apply!

misc Heading link Copy link

• Omur Harmansah on our Graduate Programs
• Poetics of Research and Practice in Art History

PhD Art History Heading link Copy link

• UIC’s PhD program in Art History is an internationally recognized, interdisciplinary center for the study of art and architectural history, theory and criticism housed at a public research University situated in the dynamic city of Chicago. We offer a rigorous and innovative academic education in critical and analytic thinking, research, writing, and visual literacy. Students leave the program with the necessary skills to enter the academic job market or to work as professionals in an array of settings.
• The program in Art History takes a global, interdisciplinary approach to research and education. Our faculty is committed to critical theory, historiographical inquiry and interdisciplinary work drawing from literary studies, political philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, and histories of technology and religion, and translation studies. Faculty work collaboratively with other academics and institutions around the world to investigate the local and intertwined visual cultures of the United States, the Ancient Americas, Europe, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, and West and South Asia. We are also invested in interrogating the changing place of art in a rapidly globalizing capitalist economy.
• Cross-disciplinary work with UIC’s distinguished programs in languages and literature, philosophy, film studies, women’s studies, history, and the social sciences is strongly encouraged. A student may also opt for a more formal relationship with other departments through the Interdepartmental Concentrations in Gender and Women’s Studies and Violence Studies.
• We also take advantage of the fact that we are located in Chicago, a city with world-renowned libraries, museums and institutions for art and architecture, including the Art Institute, Museum of Contemporary Art, Graham Foundation for Architecture, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Newberry Library, Field Museum, Renaissance Society, and UIC’s Gallery 400 and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. Our students have the opportunity to take classes from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago as part of their coursework, and to draw on faculty from other universities for their advisory committees.
• Approximately four students are accepted each year to the PhD program with full funding for four years (tuition and stipend). These fellowships, dependent on students’ good academic standing, often involve teaching or other types of departmental service. Our students have also been successful in obtaining further support from various university fellowships and positions in Gallery 400 and the Hull-House Museum. The department also supports travel for research and archival work, and conference presentations.

Requirements for the Degree

General requirements.

In addition to the Graduate College minimum requirements, students must meet the following program requirements:

• Minimum Semester Hours Required: 96 semester hours beyond the baccalaureate degree.
• Foreign Language Requirements: Students must present evidence of advanced knowledge of a language other than English as it relates to the student’s chosen area of research. Evidence of the ability to pursue research in additional languages may be necessary, depending on the availability of literature in the field selected, and the selection of those languages must be approved by the student’s advisor.
• Course Work: Candidates must complete at least 64 semester hours of course work beyond the master’s degree. Of this amount, 32 semester hours must be in graduate seminars, of which 16 semester hours must be taken in the department. At least 32 semester hours of credit beyond the MA degree must be at the 500-level. Of the 64 semester hours required beyond the master’s degree, a maximum of 24 semester hours of dissertation research are allowed.
• Required Core Courses: AH 510 and 511. Students who have taken equivalent course work as part of an MA degree may petition the director of graduate studies for a waiver of specific requirements; no course credit is given for a waived course.
• Grade Requirement: Because Art History is a competitive professional field, doctoral students are expected to earn As in their courses. Students should earn no more than one B during their tenure in the Art History PhD program at UIC, and no credit will be given for a course taken as part of the doctoral program in which the grade earned was less than a B. With the second B, or any grade below B, the student will be placed on departmental probation, requiring the student to demonstrate improvement by earning As during the next semester in which they take courses. The third B will be considered grounds for dismissal from the program, at the discretion of the faculty.
• Students who have taken equivalent course work as part of an MA degree may petition the director of graduate studies for a waiver of specific requirements; no course credit is given for a waived course.
• Preliminary Examination Required: written and oral, to be taken upon completion of the course work and satisfaction of the language requirement. The written examination will cover the student’s two areas of focus; the oral examination will be based on the written sections.
• Dissertation Required: the dissertation will make a contribution to knowledge in art history and will be publicly defended before the scholarly community.
• Semester Hours Required: The candidate must complete 96 semester hours beyond the baccalaureate degree, and 64 credits beyond the MA degree. Of this amount, 32 semester hours must be in graduate seminars, of which 16 semester hours must be taken in the department. At least 32 semester hours of credit beyond the MA degree must be at the 500-level. Of the 64 semester hours required beyond the master’s degree, a maximum of 24 semester hours of dissertation research is allowed.
• Transfer Credit: Students may petition to receive credit for courses taken at other universities.
• Required Core Courses: AH 510 and 511
• Students may also pursue topics that cross both areas of focus or expand beyond them. Each student will select 16 hours from seminars AH 441, 460, 463, 464, 465, 470, 471, 513, 522, 530, 540, 550, 560, 561, 562, 563, 570, and directed readings courses in the area of focus, as approved by the director of graduate studies.
• Students who have taken equivalent course work as part of an MA degree may petition the director of graduate studies for a waiver of specific requirements; no course credit is given for a waived course.
• Dissertation Research: AH 599. Ph.D. Thesis Research. May be taken for 0–16 hours on pass/fail option only. Prerequisites: Consent of advisor and the DGS.

Language Requirement

• Students must present evidence of advanced knowledge of a language other than English as it relates to the student’s chosen area of research. Evidence of the ability to pursue research in additional languages may be necessary, depending on the availability of literature in the field selected, and the selection of those languages must be approved by the student’s advisor or the DGS if the student does not have an advisor.
• Selection of Language: Reading knowledge of a foreign language relevant to the student’s plan of study is required. The Director of Graduate Studies or faculty advisor will approve the selection of a language. French and German are the languages most frequently selected for those pursuing the degree, but the study of any language important to the student’s area of research interest willbe considered.
• Receive a grade of B or better in a UIC foreign language reading course for graduate students (or its equivalent at another institution, with the approval of the DGS). These courses will not count toward the 36 credit hours required for the MA or PhD degree.
• Pass a language exam administered by a language department at UIC. The department recommends that students take the language exam during their first year of graduate study. In case of failure, the student may repeat the examination until it is passed. The foreign language requirement must be satisfied before the student registers for thesis research.
• A test administered by or through the Department of Art History of no more than two hours. The language test usually consists of a translation of a passage into English with the aid of a dictionary.
• 4 semesters of college/university language study, with a grade of B or better. Courses where readings are in translation may not be used. The last semester of study can be no more than 5 years prior to the student’s first year of graduate study.
• The equivalent of the above (determined by the Director of Graduate Studies) in workshops, summer programs, fieldwork or research in a foreign language, or other language-learning activities.
• A degree from a foreign university where English is not the primary language of instruction. In cases of languages, such as some Native American languages, where there is not a significant body of written material in the language, courses focusing on grammar and conversation, or spoken fluency as demonstrated by testing, may be used.
• Native speakers with advanced reading skills as determined by the Director of Graduate Studies are exempt from the language requirement as are those students who have completed: 1) study in a foreign language at a foreign university, 2) field work conducted in a second language, or 3) summer intensive second language programs at an advanced level.
• A test of language proficiency from the MA degree (must be noted on transcript).
• a clear statement of the problem to be investigated in the dissertation and a working thesis.
• a critical review of the state of the research on the topic.
• the initial expected archival sources.
• an outline showing how the topic will be developed.
• a working bibliography.

Prospectus Defense

• The student will meet with the advisor and at least two members of the Dissertation Committee to discuss and defend the prospectus. The prospectus defense provides an opportunity for the committee and the student to discuss the intellectual and methodological aspects of the dissertation and to formulate research plans and strategies. If the committee deems the defense has been satisfactory, the student will file a copy of the approved prospectus with the DGS within two weeks. If the defense is deemed unsatisfactory, the student may petition to have another defense.
• NOTE: This process is internal to the department and does not require filing with the Graduate College.

Preliminary Examination

• The purpose of the doctoral exam is to determine the candidate’s readiness to undertake dissertation research and passing it constitutes formal Admission to Candidacy. Effective Fall 2019, students should plan to complete their exams by the end of their third year so that they can begin the work of applying for external funding in the fall of their fourth year.
• Examination Committee: The student forms an Examination Committee when coursework and the language requirement are completed. The committee will be composed of at least five members of whom at least three are UIC graduate faculty with full membership, and two of whom must be tenured. It is recommended but not required that one member be from outside the Department of Art History, either from another UIC department or from outside the university. For all administrative purposes, the chair of the committee must be a full member of the UIC graduate faculty and must be a tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the Department of Art History. For the purposes of research guidance a student may also work with a scholar outside the department (or outside UIC) who effectively functions as a co-chair. Committee members must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate College who will appoint them. The committee recommendation form is located here .
• The Examination Committee will meet (part of the time with the student), elect a chair, set up the test schedule and approve the two fields of concentration and the reading list. Students are expected to prepare for the exam on their own and cannot assume that courses taken in the department will necessarily prepare them for it. They are strongly encouraged to consult those members of the graduate faculty who are responsible for their examination fields in order to become familiar with the expectations of those individuals. They are also encouraged to consult previous doctoral exams, which are available from the DGS. Doctoral candidates are expected to have a reading period of three to six months to prepare for the examination.
• Written Exam: Prepared by the Examination Committee, the Ph.D. exam format is a 72 hour take home-exam. Questions and answers can be delivered by e-mail with the consent of both faculty and student. Candidates will answer two questions in total, with one question pertaining to each of their subject areas. The committee will provide the student with at least two, but not more than three questions per subject area. Questions in both subject areas are distributed at the same time, however, to allow for flexibility and planning on the part of the student.
• Oral Exam: The written exam will be followed by an oral defense of the exam one to two weeks later. The oral component is intended to address issues/weaknesses in the exam that could cause complications for candidates as they approach the dissertation process.
• Exam Grading: The committee shall meet approximately half an hour before the oral exam to determine a “pass” or “fail” grade for the written component of the exam, and to briefly discuss each member’s questions for the student. After the oral exam, each member will assign a final grade of “pass” or “fail”, and the chair will inform the student of the committee’s decision immediately after the oral exam. A candidate cannot be passed with more than one “fail” vote. The examination report must be signed by all members of the committee. The results of the examination must be submitted to the Graduate College within two weeks of the completion of the exam.
• Admission to Candidacy: Students who have passed the exam will be notified of their Admission to Candidacy by the Dean of the Graduate College.
• Retaking the Exam: If the student does not pass the exam, on the recommendation of the committee, the chair may permit a second examination, which must be taken within one year. A third examination is not permitted. Students who do not complete the degree requirements within five years of passing the preliminary examination must retake the examination.

Doctoral Dissertation

• The dissertation should be a book-length study in which the candidate demonstrates a full range of scholarly skills. It should show insight and originality in the questions it proposes to answer. It should also present evidence of thorough research in primary and secondary sources. Arguments should be clear, well-written and persuasive both to specialists and to other scholars outside the field. The dissertation will make a contribution to knowledge in art history and will be publicly defended before the scholarly community.
• Advisor: The advisor will be the candidate’s dissertation director. He or she must be a member of the UIC graduate faculty and is considered the primary reader of the dissertation. The student will submit the name of the proposed advisor at the time he or she submits the prospectus.
• Members of the Dissertation Committee may or may not be the same as those on the Examination Committee, depending on the student’s choice. If, as the work progresses, the chair or any committee member no longer wishes to supervise a candidate’s dissertation, he or she must inform both the candidate and the DGS in writing. If the advisor or a member of the committee is, for any reason, unable to supervise the candidate, the candidate, in consultation with the DGS, will suggest an appropriate alternate. Candidates who wish to change chairpersons or committee members must secure the consent of another member of the graduate faculty to join the committee, notify the current chair, and submit the name to the DGS in writing. In all cases, any changes in committee membership must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate College.
• Change of Plans: If any substantive changes are made to the plans for the dissertation as outlined in the approved prospectus (which might include a change in direction, focus, methodology, or material covered), the candidate must write a revised prospectus and arrange a further defense.
• Monitoring the Dissertation: It is the advisor’s responsibility to decide when the candidate needs to submit all or part of the work-in-progress to other members of the committee for review. The committee members will give comments to the advisor who will convey them to the candidate. The director may call a meeting of the committee at any time that he or she deems appropriate.
• Dissertation Defense: A defense is scheduled after the Dissertation Committee members have tentatively approved the dissertation. The committee may accept the dissertation as it stands, accept it conditionally pending certain revisions, or reject it. Revisions can range from minor editorial changes to a major recasting of a substantial portion of the text. Normally the committee delegates to the chairperson of the committee the responsibility for ensuring that these revisions are made. All dissertations must meet the format and stylistic requirements of the Graduate College. There will be an oral defense of the dissertation attended by the doctoral candidate and the members of the dissertation committee, advertised and open to the academic community of the university and announced at least one week prior to its occurrence. The committee vote is pass or fail. A candidate cannot be passed if more than one vote of fail is reported.

Past Dissertations

• Deanna Ledezma, “The Fecundity of Family Photography: Histories, Identities, Archival Relations,” Spring 2022. Advisors: Ömür Harmanşah and Jonathan Mekinda
• Ionit Behar, “ Intimate Space and the Public Sphere: Margarita Paksa in Argentina’s Military Dictatorship ” Fall 2021. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Christopher Reeves, “ Playing Music Badly in Public: Brian Eno and the Limits of the Non-Musician ” Spring 2021. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Karen Greenwalt, “ An Aesthetics of Resistance: Rasheed Araeen, Bani Abidi, and Hamra Abbas ” Summer 2020. Advisor: Catherine Becker
• Simon Hinman Wan, “ Intertwined Genealogies: Dutch, Chinese, and Colonial Indonesian Architecture of Philanthropy, 1640-1740 ” Spring 2020. Advisor: Martha Pollak. [UIC Graduate College Outstanding Dissertation Award]
• Deepthi Murali “ Transculturality, Sensoriality, and Politics of Decorative Arts of Kerala, India ” Summer 2020. Advisor: Catherine Becker. [UIC Graduate College Outstanding Dissertation Award ]
• Georgina Elizabeth Ruff, “ A Medium to Transform the Power of the Sun: Light, Space and the Technological Apparatus .” Fall 2020. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Alice Maggie Hazard, “ “Weird Copies of Carnage:” Marketing Civil War Photographs and the Public Experience of Death ” Spring 2019. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Pınar Üner Yılmaz, “ An Analysis of Global Curatorial Methods: The Emergence and Crystallization of Istanbul Biennials .”Spring 2018. Co-Advisors: ​Ömür Harmanşah and Esra Akcan
• Robyn Rene Mericle, “ Before the Endless Miles of Wind and Sand and Empty Far Off Sky: Deserts in Hollywood’s Silent Era .” Spring 2018. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Khristin Landry-Montes, “ The Sacred Landscape of Mayapán, A Postclassic Maya Center ” Spring 2018. Advisor: Virginia E. Miller
• Alyssa Greenberg, “ Arts Awareness at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art Museum Education as Artistic and Political Practice ” Spring 2017. Advisor: Therese Quinn
• Tiffany Funk, “ Zen and the Art of Software Performance: John Cage and Lejaren A. Hiller Jr.’s HPSCHD (1967-1969) ” Fall 2016. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Margot K Berrill, “ The Host and the Roast: Kitchen Humor in Feminist Video Art and Pop Culture ” Fall 2016. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Cara A. Smulevitz: “ Girl, if you make the movie, I promise you somebody will see it” DIY, Grrl Power and Miranda July ” Spring 2016. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Juan Carlos Arias Herrera, “ Transformations of a Hungry Cinema: Images and Visibility of Hunger in Brazilian Cinema 1960s-2000s ” Fall 2015. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Jean Guarino: “ Urban Renewal in the Interwar Era: The Remaking of Chicago’s Loop, 1918 to 1942 ” Fall 2015. Advisor: Robert Bruegmann.
• Juan C. Arias Herrera: “ Transformations of a Hungry Cinema: Images and Visibility of Hunger in Brazilian Cinema 1960s-2000s ” Spring 2015. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Sarah M Dreller: “ Architectural Forum, 1932-64: A Time Inc. Experiment in American Architecture and Journalism ” Summer 2015. Co-advisors: Peter B. Hales and Robert Bruegmann
• Monica Obniski: “ Accumulating Things: Folk Art and Modern Design in the Postwar American Projects of Alexander H. Girard ” Summer 2015. Advisor: Robert Bruegmann.
• Brandon Ruud: “ Beneath the Surface: The Aesthetic and Ideological Appropriation of Native American Artwork ” Summer 2015. Advisor: Ellen T. Baird
• Mirela R. Tanta: “ State Art or Sites of Resistance: Socialist Realism in Romania: 1945-1989 ” Summer 2014. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins.
• Aleksander Najda: “ Apocalypse According to Vasily Kandinsky ” Spring 2014. Advisor: Peter B. Hales
• SooJin Lee: “ The Art of Artists’ Personae: Yayoi Kusama, Yoko Ono, and Mariko Mori ” Spring 2014. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins
• Sarita K. Heer: “ Re-Imaging Indian Womanhood: The Multiple Mythologies of Phoolan Devi ” Spring 2014. Advisor: Catherine Becker
• Erica N. Morawski, “ Designing Destinations: Hotel Architecture, Urbanism, and American Tourism in Puerto Rico and Cuba ” Summer 2014. Advisor: Robert Bruegmann.
• Gökhan Ersan: “ Building the Modern Turkish Household: Koç Industries ” Summer 2012. Advisor: Peter B. Hales
• Amy K. Galpin: “ A Spiritual Manifestation of Mexican Muralism: Works by Jean Charlot and Alfredo Ramos Martinez ” Spring 2012. Advisor: Hannah B. Higgins
• Margaret H. Denny: “ From commerce to art: American women photographers 1850–1900 ” Summer 2010. Advisor: Peter B. Hales
• Catherine E. Burdick: “ Text and image in classic Maya sculpture: A.D. 600–900 .” Summer 2010. Advisor: Virginia E. Miller [UIC Graduate College Outstanding Dissertation Award]
• Roberta Gray Katz: “ The Literary Paintings of Thomas Cole: Image and Text ”  Spring 2009. Advisor: David M. Sokol
• Vincent Leszczynski Michael: “ Preserving the Future: Historic Districts in New York City and Chicago in the Late 20th Century ” Summer 2007. Advisor: Robert Bruegmann.

Policies and Procedures

Administration of the ph.d. program.

• The Ph.D. program in art history is the responsibility of the Graduate Program Committee (GPC) and is administered by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). All questions or problems should first be directed to the DGS. If there are unresolved problems these may be taken to the chairperson of the department.
• Graduate students taking courses must meet with their advisor before registering each semester to discuss the available offerings and their progress toward the degree. Students are also encouraged to consult with other members of the department.

Registration

• Students normally register continuously until all course requirements for the degree have been completed. Those students on full-time status must register for 9 semester hours or more each semester.

Minimum Grade Point Average

• Required GPA: 3.00/4.00 or higher. Students whose GPA drops below this average must meet this requirement in the following semester of enrollment or be placed on academic probation. While on probation, students will not receive financial aid or fellowships. After two semesters on probation, the student will be dismissed from the program.

Time Limitation

• Students admitted to the PhD program with an approved MA, must complete the requirements for the degree within 7 consecutive years after initial registration as a doctoral student. Students entering the program with a BA must complete the requirements for the degree within 9 years after the initial registration. Exceptions to this requirement will be granted only upon application and then only if the justification is sufficient in the judgment of the GPC, the DGS, and the Graduate College.

Leave of Absence

• Except for international students whose visas require continuous registration and doctoral students who have passed their preliminary exams, graduate degree-seeking students may take one semester (fall or spring) plus the summer session off without formal leave approval from the Graduate College. Degree students who desire to take an additional consecutive semester off, for a total maximum of 3 consecutive terms, must file a Graduate Petition for Leave of Absence by the tenth day of the third term for which leave is requested. For exceptions to this policy, please consult the Graduate College  catalog .
• Time spent on leave formally approved by the department and the Graduate College does not count towards the time to complete the degree.

Below are requirements for students in the PhD program who wish to pick up a MA degree. It puts them on a pathway to complete their exams either in the third or fourth year of the program, depending on their rate of progress.

• Minimum Semester Hours Required: 36.
• Course Work: A minimum of 16 hours at the 400/500-level in art history courses. All students are required to take courses from at least four different tenured and tenure-track UIC Art History faculty members.
• Required Courses: AH 510 and 511. Of the remaining coursework selected with an advisor, all students are required to take at least one course in each of the following areas: Ancient/Medieval/Early Modern (before 1800); Modern/Contemporary (after 1800); and Africa/Asia/Indigenous Americas.
• Thesis or two-paper option.

Post-Exam Recommendations

• The Art History Department expects doctoral students to seek external support beginning in their fourth year of the program, after which no department support is guaranteed. Students entering the program beginning in the Fall of 2019 are required, at the start of their fourth year, to submit to their advisor a list of fellowships they are planning to apply for. After the fourth year, it is required that students requesting department support are also applying for external support.
• Students who complete their prospectuses and exams by the end of their third year and apply for fellowships in their fourth year and who wish to teach their own class will be given priority by the faculty when teaching assignments are made.

Art History Teaching Assistant Policy

The Art History department employs Teaching Assistants to help faculty members provide a rich and meaningful educational experience for both our students and the Assistants themselves. Toward that end, there are certain requirements of their positions that the Assistants are asked to meet.

Compensation and Appointment

• TAs receive a tuition waiver and a stipend set by the university
• TAs are selected by the Graduate Program Committee of the Department
• As far as possible, and taking into account the needs of both student and department, the department strives to provide students with nine-month appointments.

Expectations

• Newly appointed TAs are required to attend the TA orientation offered by the University shortly before the start of the Fall semester
• This may take the form of additional readings, the preparation of lecture notes, or the leading of group discussions of the course material.
• TAs may also be asked to run regular discussion sections and be responsible for developing material from the class lectures to facilitate discussion, for administering, and grading, course exams, for assigning and grading written assignments, for conducting review sessions, and for performing other relevant duties that the instructor might require.
• TAs are also asked to make themselves available for extra-class consultation with their students by maintaining regular office hours (usually one fixed hour and one or two by arrangement).

Survey of World History of Art (AH 110 and 111)

Most of the department’s Teaching Assistants are involved in the Survey of World History of Art (AH 110 and 111). For these classes:

• While this meeting normally takes from one to two hours, students are expected to keep their schedules sufficiently open following this meeting to be able to address unanticipated issues.
• The TAs are also expected to aid in the development of the writing and research skills of their students that are necessary for written assignments, as well as the development of student study skills in preparation for quizzes and exams.
• Finally, TAs are required to grade their students’ written assignments and exams in a timely manner.

Accountability and Evaluation

• Ultimate authority on all matters of teaching resides in the professor and any serious course-related problems relating to students’ academic performance, or ethical or personal issues should be brought to his or her attention.
• TAs will be evaluated every semester by the supervising professor and a short written statement summarizing that evaluation will be submitted to the Graduate Program Committee.
• 2019 TA Orientation slides

Funding Grad Research and Travel

The department seeks to support all graduate student research and professional activity to the best of our ability but can only do so to the extent that funds are available. We encourage students to apply for all relevant research and travel funding needs.

The review and selection will be conducted by a faculty committee, who will recommend a slate of awardees to the department for approval based on the following criteria:

• cohesiveness of the study or research plan and the clarity with which it is conveyed to the non-specialist
• direct impact travel will have on the research and/or professional standing
• strength of the overall academic record
• soundness of the budget request
• timeliness of progress toward the degree
• previous departmental awards may be considered

Please limit your research statement to 500 words or less. A typical budget generally includes transportation, lodging, and expenses for fieldwork. Please indicate if you have funding toward the travel from other sources and/or if such funding is pending.

The form can be found here . Applications will be considered annually on October 15th and March 15th.

Grad Sick Leave Policy

TAs can take a personal day and a set amount of sick leave if they are unable to work.

The Resource Guide provides this information on page 15:

• Paid Sick leave is based on the percentage of appointment (FTE). A maximum of 13 non-cumulative days and non-compensable work days of leave are accrued based on the percentage of the appointment for each appointment year. Sick time is accrued and earned based on FTE. Six and one half days at percentage FTE for a semester appointment are accrued.Days are equal to your “work day,” not set at eight hours of sick leave at the percentage of their ap-pointment.
• 0.25 FTE : 2.89 Earned Sick Time per Pay Period (hours)
• 0.50 FTE : 5.78 Earned Sick Time per Pay Period (hours)

Also consult the GEO contract policies on sick and leave policy.

Beyond that, TAs are meant to take a personal leave if they are no longer able to do their jobs. The Resource Guide provides this information on page 15:

• Leaves – Personal (unpaid)
• Personal Leave of Absence
• Graduate Assistants may be granted unpaid leave of absence during the term of their appointment, upon request to and at the discretion of the University and subject to such terms and conditions as the University may establish. Written request should be made to the department head or supervisor as soon as needed for leave is identified by the assistant. The request must include the start date and end date of the leave.

PROCEDURE FOR REQUESTING SICK/PERSONAL LEAVE

TAs should inform their supervisors immediately if they are unable to complete assignments by the agreed-upon deadline.

Art History guidelines for grad appointments

Departmental responsibility.

The Department of Art History wholeheartedly agrees to the recommendations to Provost Poser from the UIC GEO-Faculty Taskforce to formulate guidelines for appointments, reappointments and assignments for assistants dated March 31, 2020, the department will do the following:

• Post these guidelines to its website.
• Solicit the advice of graduate student employees when developing or revising appointment and reappointment guidelines.
• Communicate which factors enhance assistants’ eligibility for appointment or specific course assignments.
• Not make appointments and assignments in an arbitrary or capricious manner.
• Issue letters of appointment no later than 45 days before the start of the appointment (in the case of appointments made less than 45 days before or 45 days after the beginning of the semester, the letter of appointment shall be issued as soon as practicable).

APPOINTMENT CRITERIA

In general, PhD students in the Department of Art History receive financial support for their first four years in the program (though in many cases we are able to support students beyond their fourth year). This support most typically consists of a teaching or research appointment accompanied by a tuition waiver. The majority of these consist of appointments to the position of teaching assistantship for the department’s year-long survey course, AH 110 and 111.

The department will make every effort to make all appointments and reappointments according to the policy outlined here. The governing criteria are:

• Advancement of the Graduate Student Employee’s educational and professional goals through appropriate TA and RA appointments and, when possible, grant support for a semester or year devoted to dissertation completion.
• Even distribution of workload across TA and RA appointments. Typically the expected workload is 20 hours per week.
• Excellent TA and RA training, mentoring and orientation within the department.
• S/U evaluation of all TA and RA appointments which can affect future appointments.

To the extent possible, the Department seeks to make teaching appointments according to this sequence:

• TA for AH110 & 111, teach 2 discussion sections
• Teach a 100-level general survey course that you have previously TA’d for.
• Teach a 100- or 200-level GenEd course directly within your research area.
• RAship appointments will be assigned based on availability and need.

Students specializing in modern/contemporary art, interested in the curatorial track and who want to be considered for a Gallery 400 assistantship in the upcoming academic year are encouraged to speak with the DGS at the start of the spring semester.

Following the 4th year, positions will be offered to Graduate Student Employees according to departmental staffing needs. When funds are available, students may be offered a Dissertation Completion Grant to support their completion of the program.

APPOINTMENT COMPENSATION

Assistantships receive a tuition waiver and a stipend set by the university. See the Graduate College’s guidelines here .

APPOINTMENT GENERAL DESCRIPTIONS

All appointments are only guaranteed after an appointment letter is received and signed. All assistantship holders are encouraged to approach the Chair, DGS or their faculty advisor should any concerns arise.

Graduate Teaching Assistantship (TA)

The Art History department employs Teaching Assistants to help faculty members provide a rich and meaningful educational experience for our students and as a mentoring opportunity for the Assistants themselves.

• Newly appointed TAs are required to attend the TA orientation offered by the University shortly before the start of the Fall semester. See the 2019 TA Orientation slides here .
• TAs must attend all meetings of the course to which they are assigned and to do all the required readings for the class in addition to whatever auxiliary preparation the professor deems reasonable.
• This may take the form of additional readings, the preparation of lecture notes, or the leading of group discussions of the course material.
• TAs may also be asked to run regular discussion sections and be responsible for developing material from the class lectures to facilitate discussion, for administering, and grading, course exams, for assigning and grading written assignments, for conducting review sessions, and for performing other relevant duties that the instructor might require.
• TAs are also asked to make themselves available for extra-class consultation with their students by maintaining regular office hours (usually one fixed hour and one or two by arrangement).
• TAs are required to attend a weekly meeting (usually on Friday afternoons) at which the professor will discuss the content of each review session and other subjects related to the class.
• While this meeting normally takes from one to two hours, students are expected to keep their schedules sufficiently open following this meeting to be able to address unanticipated issues.
• The TAs are also expected to aid in the development of the writing and research skills of their students that are necessary for written assignments, as well as the development of student study skills in preparation for quizzes and exams.
• Ultimate authority on all matters of teaching resides in the professor and any serious course-related problems relating to students’ academic performance, or ethical or personal issues should be brought to his or her attention.
• TAs will be evaluated every semester by the supervising professor and a short written statement summarizing that evaluation will be submitted to the Faculty.

Graduate Research Assistantship (RA)

Research Assistantships support the research, teaching and administrative needs of faculty members, while also providing students with the benefits both of a flexible working schedule and of taking on responsibilities that (ideally) complement their own academic interests.

Research Assistantships are twenty-hour-a-week appointments that are ultimately designed at the discretion of the faculty member, in consideration of such factors as the scheduling and other constraints, particular skill set, and scholarly interests of the student. They may include off-site research.

Graduate Teaching Assistantship (Instructor)

It is the department’s goal to give academic track students the opportunity to teach their own classes both at the introductory 100 level and at the more specialized 200 level. Please bear the following criteria in mind:

• PhD students must be ABD before they teach their own courses at the 200 level.
• AH 100 (only if you have been a TA or taught it before)
• Any other 100 or 200-level course in your research area that fulfills at least one GE category
• While courses with general titles can often be tweaked to fit specific intellectual priorities, your proposed curriculum must also satisfy the parameters of the course description as it is laid out in the course catalogue.
• Please review sample syllabi from past 100-200 level courses taught by students and faculty.

In order to equitably and productively distribute teaching opportunities, we will consider the following:

• Whether or not applicants have previously had a chance to develop their own courses.
• How the proposed course might support the applicant’s progress through the program.
• The suitability of the proposed course in the context of other offerings within the department.

See the repository of past syllabi here.

See the special Summer Appointment guidelines below.

• In consultation with faculty and drawing on past syllabi, graduate student instructors will design their own syllabi–including lecture topics, readings, assignments, and course policies.
• Graduate student instructors are expected to be in residence for the duration of the semester during which they are teaching. When an occasional absence might be expected, the instructor should inform the chair of Art History and make appropriate arrangements for their students, including a guest lecture or alternate assignment. (In the case of online courses, graduate student instructors need not physically be on campus, but should meet with their students according to the schedule outlined on the syllabus.)
• Courses taught by graduate student instructors will have enrollments capped at 40 to allow the student instructor to balance the demands of teaching (preparing lectures and grading) with their own research.
•  Graduate student instructors will be expected to grade all assignments and exams and will be responsible for assigning their students’ final grades.
• In the week before the semester begins, graduate student instructors will submit their syllabi to the chair of the Department for review and suggested revisions if needed.
• First-time graduate student instructors will be evaluated through a classroom visit and teaching evaluation written by a faculty member in the Department.
• Concerns regarding students (wellness issues, academic dishonesty, or other challenges) should be discussed with the chair of the Department.

APPOINTMENT PROCEDURES

Academic year appointments.

Each spring, students are asked to complete a two-part form (see a sample form here), which includes a self-assessment (i.e. a review of progress made toward the degree) and, if appropriate, a request for funding for the following academic year. Students should carefully consider the appointments that are available as listed on the form (keeping in mind that this list is a working document and thus somewhat provisional). Requests for appointments should be made in consultation with students’ advisors.

Guidelines adopted by faculty when making appointment decisions include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Eligibility;
• Academic record and evidence of timely progress toward degree;
• Previous relevant experience;
• Previous success as a TA and/or RA;
• Likelihood of success in proposed position;
• Factors that may be relevant for specific appointment timeframes;
• Relationship between a given funding opportunity and the student’s dissertation research;
• Evidence of having pursued external support (in the case of students in their fourth year and beyond);
• Factors related to the academic mission of the department

Summer appointments

It is the department’s goal to grow our summer session offerings so that we can better support graduate students and serve undergraduates. To that end, we are looking to offer courses that will attract a robust enrollment and are taught by experienced, knowledgeable instructors. Please bear the following criteria in mind when preparing an application:

• PhD students must be ABD before they teach their own summer courses.
• AH 100 (only if you have taught it before)
• Whether or not the applicant has previously had a chance to develop her own course.
• The suitability of the proposed course in the context of other offerings during the summer and the spring semester before and fall semester after.

The Art History faculty will review the proposals, suggest changes and propose alternative course numbers to applicants as needed before deciding on a shortlist to give to the summer sessions office .

As you are preparing your proposal, please bear in mind that our course offerings are, in the end, determined by the CADA Dean’s office and summer sessions. We will vigorously present the final selection of proposals to them, but they have in the past significantly limited our offerings. We are actively seeking to lessen those limitations and provide more summer teaching opportunities for graduate students and more summer learning opportunities for undergraduates.

Your proposal should include the following:

• A paragraph describing the proposed course (perhaps include how you might envision using resources in the city).
• A sentence about how this course relates to your research interests or professional goals.
• A sentence describing why this course will be effective at drawing enrollments from UIC undergraduates.
• A list of courses for which you have previously served as the instructor of record (either at UIC or another institution).
• The term during which you would prefer to teach (four-week or eight-week).

The deadline for summer course proposals is September 15 each year. Please send your proposal to the Chair by email with “Summer Session Proposal” in the subject line. Your proposals will then be reviewed by the faculty of the Department of Art History.

Graduate College Fellowships & Awards

PhD in Art History

The University of Minnesota's Doctoral Program in Art History is a fully funded PhD program that trains scholars who go on to careers in universities, colleges, museums, and other arts institutions throughout the nation and the world. The Department of Art History is an exciting place to ground yourself in the theories and methods of art history, to pursue interdisciplinary work, and to develop a global perspective on the discipline.

Our current faculty and institutional strengths support specialization in the following overlapping fields: East Asian art, Modern European art and visual/material culture, Islamic art (including the medieval Persianate world and the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires), the global early modern in Europe, the Atlantic world, South Asia, Italian Baroque art, North American art and visual/material culture, film and photography, and contemporary art and theory.

As a major research university located in a thriving urban center, the University of Minnesota has much to offer students of the visual arts. On campus, the Weisman Art Museum, designed by architect Frank Gehry, features an outstanding teaching collection, stimulating exhibitions, and an active programming schedule. Beyond the University, you will find in the Twin Cities a lively arts community and world-class art institutions including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center, and the Guthrie Theater.

We are committed to supporting graduate students intellectually, professionally, and financially. The interdisciplinary programming of the Institute for Advanced Study and other campus centers provides many opportunities to exchange ideas with colleagues in other fields. You will encounter opportunities to curate exhibitions on campus and in the community and you will enter into a graduate student community that is remarkably active in presenting papers, both nationally and internationally. The Department of Art History's graduate student professionalization workshop meets several times each semester to discuss such topics as teaching methods, journal and book publishing, CV preparation, and the job market outlook.

All accepted students are fully funded. Students are guaranteed five years of funding through a combination of teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and fellowships. Assistantships provide an annual stipend, a full-tuition scholarship, and health insurance. In addition, every year the department nominates students for collegiate- and university-wide recruitment, predoctoral and dissertation write-up fellowships that provide additional stipend and release from TA-ing. Students who win external fellowships are allowed to save a year of their UMN funding for a sixth year.   

College Resources for Graduate Students

Visit CLA’s website for graduate students to learn about collegiate funding opportunities, student support, career services, and more.

Student Services      Career Services     Funding & Support

PhD Art History Admission

The Department welcomes graduate applications from individuals with a broad range of life experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds who would contribute to our community of scholars. Review of applications is holistic and individualized, considering each applicant’s academic record and accomplishments, letters of recommendation, and admissions essays in order to understand how an applicant’s life experiences have shaped their past and potential contributions to their field.

University Application Materials

The application for admission as well as general information about applying is available from the Graduate Admissions website; please visit  Graduate Admissions  to apply. Prior to applying you must first determine if you are eligible -  application eligibility (undergraduate degree requirements) . International applicants, please also see  Bechtel International Center  and Graduate Admissions  International Applicants  for more information and any additional application requirements. Prospective students may apply beginning in late September (please verify the precise date on the  Graduate Admissions  website). The following documents are required by the university and can not be waived; please click on the links for more detailed information about each:

Letters of Recommendation : Three letters of recommendation are required. The department does not accept applicant recommendation via a letter service (i.e. Interfolio or other service). It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that letters are submitted to the electronic application by the published deadline. Please only submit three letters.

Transcripts : Upload a scanned copy of your official transcript(s) with the online application. Applicants must upload transcripts from every post-secondary institution attended as a full-time student and for at least one academic year. Transcripts from current degree programs also need to be submitted.

Statement of Purpose : You must indicate in the first sentence of your SOP the name of the program to which you are applying and the area you wish to study (e.g. PhD in Art History – Modern). The Statement of Purpose should describe succinctly your reasons for applying to the proposed program at Stanford, your preparation for this field of study, research interests, future career plans, and other aspects of your background and interests which may aid the admissions committee in evaluating your aptitude and motivation for graduate study. Applicants can include and mention faculty members, with overlapping research interests whom they would like to work with and why, in their statement of purpose. The Statement of Purpose must be: 1,000 words or less; single-spaced; formatted with 1-inch margins and 12-point, Times New Roman font.

Application Fee : The application fee $125, is non-refundable, and must be received by the application deadline (fee waivers are available to eligible students. Please see  Graduate Fee Waivers  for more information). The Department does not offer fee waivers outside of the process at the Graduate Fee Waivers page. Please do not contact the department requesting to waive the application fee.

GRE Scores: Graduate Record Exam (GRE) General Test is no longer required for admission to the Department of Art & Art History.

TOEFL Scores : Required when first language is not English; IELTS is not accepted. Please note that the department can NOT waive the TOEFL requirement. If you wish to submit a request for TOEFL waiver, please see  GRE and TOEFL Requirements . It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that the scores are submitted to the electronic application by the published deadline.  (Note: To bypass the entry of TOEFL scores in the application, enter a future test date. You can add in the additional information section of the application that you have received a waiver from Graduate Admissions.)

Online Application

* Please note all application materials, once submitted as part of your application, become the property of Stanford University. Materials will not be returned and copies will not be provided for applicants nor released to other institutions. Please keep a copy for your records. Re-applicants must submit new supporting documents and complete the online graduate application.

Writing Sample Requirement

In addition to the University application materials listed above, applicants in Art History are required to submit a writing sample.  You should upload your writing sample along with your online application (only one writing sample will be accepted). It should be 20 pages maximum, including illustrations and bibliography – neither papers over this limit nor entire Master’s theses will be accepted.

Start Your Application

For admission in Autumn Quarter of the next academic year, all required application materials, including your test scores and recommendation letters, must be received on-line by no later than  December 1 at 9:00 pm (PT).

Note: The Graduate Admissions period opens in late September each year for applications to be submitted by the published deadline in December (for matriculation beginning in the following academic year). After April 15th each year, the Graduate Admissions period is closed, and the online application will reopen during the following September.

Selection Process

Application review takes place between mid-February and mid-March; applicants are notified by e-mail of their status around March 15th. Accepted students are admitted for the following Autumn Quarter; no applicants for mid-year entrance will be considered.  You will be contacted via e-mail regarding your application status after the deadline; please do not contact the Department in this regard. Applicants who are chosen as finalists for admissions are asked to make themselves available for an individual interview by faculty via Skype.  Admitted prospective students are invited for a campus visit intended to introduce them to faculty, current graduate students, and to members of the larger Stanford community involved in the arts.  Library, museum and other facilities are part of this introduction to the PhD program in Art History at Stanford.

The Art and Art History Department recognizes that the Supreme Court issued a ruling in June 2023 about the consideration of certain types of demographic information as part of an admission review. All applications submitted during upcoming application cycles will be reviewed in conformance with that decision.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars

Join dozens of  Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences  students who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as  Knight-Hennessy Scholars (KHS). KHS admits up to 100 select applicants each year from across Stanford’s seven graduate schools, and delivers engaging experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders ready to address complex global challenges. As a scholar, you join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of your PhD studies at Stanford. Candidates of any country may apply. KHS applicants must have earned their first undergraduate degree within the last seven years, and must apply to both a Stanford graduate program and to KHS. Stanford PhD students may also apply to KHS during their first year of PhD enrollment. If you aspire to be a leader in your field, we invite you to apply. The KHS application deadline is October 11, 2023. Learn more about  KHS admission .

This dialog contains an alert message for the Penn State community.

The College of Arts and Architecture encourages UArts students to explore our undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the visual, design, and performing arts. For additional information, please visit our UArts student welcome page .

• Undergraduate Degree Programs
• Graduate Degree Programs
• Summer Session Courses
• Accreditation
• Department of Architecture
• Department of Art History
• Department of Graphic Design
• Department of Landscape Architecture
• School of Music
• School of Theatre
• School of Visual Arts
• Stuckeman School
• Research & Creativity
• Centers and Initiatives
• Performances & Exhibitions
• Event Calendar
• Palmer Museum of Art
• Center for the Performing Arts
• Penn State Centre Stage
• Penn's Woods Music Festival
• Penn State Blue Band
• Schools, Units and Offices

This dialog contains the full navigation menu for arts.psu.edu.

College of Arts & Architecture

Resources For

• Parents and Guardians
• Alumni and Friends
• A&A Dean's Office
• Academic Advising
• Access and Equity
• Digital Learning
• Sustainability

Helpful Links

• Buy Event Tickets
• Parking at Penn State
• Plan a Visit
• Careers with A&A

Social Media

Art History, Ph.D.

Ph.D. in Art History (+Dual Ph.D.)

TODO FIXME : DRAFT : WORK IN PROGRESS

Become a professional in the field advance your career with an advanced degree..

Advanced study of visual arts spanning periods, cultures, and geographies. The Art History Ph.D. program can deepen your expertise and advance your Art History career.

Program Application Deadline

The deadline for applications for AY 2024–25 is January 15, 2024.

To be assured full consideration, please review all details on program and admission requirements, and ensure that you apply by this deadline.

Earn a Ph.D. in Art History at Penn State

Our Ph.D. students and alumni have earned Fulbright and Getty Fellowships, the Rome prize, tenure-track positions, and curatorial fellowships and jobs. For more than fifty years, our graduates have been writing books, organizing exhibitions, teaching college and pre-collegiate students, and ensuring the preservation and understanding of our cultural heritage. Join us!

The Ph.D. in Art History program will prepare you to broadly influence art and culture through careers as scholars and educators, as museum curators, as public advocates of cultural heritage, and as arts administrators, to name just a few of the professions that recent program alumni have entered. Breadth of knowledge is as essential for museum professionals as it is for academic researchers. For this reason, advanced study of the visual arts and material culture from diverse periods and geographies is required of all graduate students, with Ph.D. candidates attaining deep expertise in at least one field of art historical research. The department’s faculty includes specialists in African, Asian, and European art and the arts of the Americas.

Graduate faculty members and advisors are leading scholars in their fields. Our interdisciplinary program challenges you to think critically and creatively in order to make a meaningful contribution to the field. The Ph.D. in Art History program also offers dual-title Ph.D. options in Asian Studies or Visual Studies.

Nancy Locke

• Professor of Art History
• Director of Graduate Studies in Art History

[email protected]

814-865-4877

Is the Ph.D. in Art History right for you?

A Ph.D. makes possible the highest level of career success in art history. Our program has a track record of excellent outcomes in diverse career paths, with particular success in placing students in academic and museum careers.

We help you ask and answer the big questions in your area of study. Our graduate students have opportunities to teach, research, and work on digital humanities projects with our Center for Virtual and Material Studies. The Palmer Museum of Art also provides internships to prepare you for curatorial work.

Engage with a dynamic cohort of fellow students and a supportive community of scholars.

Degree Options

Dual-title degree options add a significant interdisciplinary breadth to your Ph.D. scholarship. These two dual-title programs develop context through which you can learn to synthesize knowledge within and across disciplinary boundaries in both scholarship and teaching.

Dual Ph.D. and Asian Studies

The primary objective of the dual-title degree program in Asian Studies is to engage critically and substantively with the teaching, research, and scholarship of Asia, a diverse area with a population of some 4.5 billion. The program integrates knowledge and methodology across disciplines of Asian Studies and Art History.

Graduate students are trained in such a way that you will be equipped to represent, understand, analyze, and appraise the crucial and current scholarly issues in Asian Studies in the context of your art discipline focus.

The program aims to produce doctoral graduates with a competitive advantage for employment that relates to Asia in academia, museum, curatorial, and other professional fields.

Graduate Bulletin Links

• Asian Studies Bulletin page
• Graduate Studies information related to the dual-title Ph.D in Art History + Asian Studies .

Dual Ph.D. and Visual Studies

Humanistic study. Technological dynamics. Analyze images, physical and virtual environments, and visual sign systems; histories of visual modes of communication, apprehension, and aesthetic pleasure; and conceptions of the nature of visuality itself. Challenge boundaries. Challenge yourself.

The dual-title Ph.D. in Visual Studies fosters an interdisciplinary approach to humanistic study, which, spurred by technological dynamics that increasingly integrate text and image, engages analysis of specific images, physical and virtual environments, and visual sign systems; histories of visual modes of communication, apprehension, and aesthetic pleasure; and conceptions of the nature of visuality itself. Students in this program analyze and assess visual media that, integrated with texts, are integral to humanistic scholarship and pedagogy today.

Dual-title degree programs increase the intellectual rigor and breadth of graduate work and provide a context in which students learn to synthesize knowledge within and across disciplinary boundaries in both scholarship and teaching. Drawing from knowledge and practices produced across the humanistic disciplines while responding to ongoing challenges to conventional disciplinary boundaries, this degree highlights existing strengths of graduate training in the humanities at Penn State, structures the continuing development of these programs, and credentials our graduates’ training and work with visual forms, environments, and media.

• Visual Studies Bulletin page
• Graduate Studies information related to the dual-title Ph.D in Art History + Asian Studies

Professional Development

Our department is regularly invited to select graduate students to participate in major graduate student symposia, including the Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Barnes Foundation Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art. Penn State art history graduate students often present papers at scholarly conferences/symposia across the United States and abroad (for which the department provides partial financial support).

Financial Support

• George Dewey and Mary J. Krumrine Endowment This endowment helps support publication projects of art history faculty and graduate students.
• Graduate Assistantships There are about nineteen graduate assistantships filled by graduate students in the Department of Art History each year.
• University Fellowships and Awards Qualified incoming graduate students may also be nominated by the department for University Fellowships, Bunton-Waller Graduate Awards, Graham Fellowships, and other awards. The department also has funds to help support graduate students in their research and travel related to their theses. The department awards dissertation fellowships and travel/research grants totaling over $60,000 to graduate students each academic year.

Summer Opportunities

• Summer Abroad program in Todi, Italy The Department of Art History is a co-sponsor of Penn State’s Summer Abroad program in Todi, Italy, in which graduate students may choose to participate.
• Annie Gooding Sykes Internship This internship is a twelve-week internship offered during the summer. Interns work with museum staff on a variety of curatorial projects, with a particular focus on American works on paper. Students who have completed the ARTH 409 “Museum Studies” course are preferred. One internship with a stipend is offered each summer.
• Silver Trout Curatorial Graduate Internship Program This internship program is a twelve-week internship offered during the summer. Interns work with the museum staff on curatorial projects and initiatives. Graduate students in art history or art education are eligible for the Silver Trout Curatorial Graduate Internship Program. Students who have completed the ARTH 409 “Museum Studies” course are preferred. Two internships with a stipend are offered each summer.

Ph.D. Students

Students currently enrolled in the Ph.D. in Art History programs.

Arunima Addy Degree: PhD in Architecture Research Focus: South Asian architectural and urban history Dissertation title: Diaspora of Indian Temple Architecture Academic Adviser: Madhuri Desai [email protected]

Arunima Addy is currently a PhD candidate in Art History with dual title in Asian Studies. She has been a practicing architect in India, before joining the graduate program at Penn State. Arunima has her research interests in the relationship between the politics of religion and the construction of national identity, specifically with the rising sentiments of Hindu nationalism in India. She looks at visual representations in the built environment to understand how through architectural establishments religion is being used as a political tool to frame an image of the nation. For her dissertation, she is investigating the relationship between the politics of religion and nation-building particularly with respect to changing dynamics of Indian temple architecture in the neoliberal perspective where religion is becoming a global commodity.

Han Chen Degree: PhD in Art History and Asian Studies Research Focus: Modern and Contemporary Chinese and East Asian Art, history of collecting and exhibiting Dissertation title: Negotiating the Global Knowledge of China through Art Trade, 1900-1950 Academic Adviser: Chang Tan [email protected] | CV

Han Chen is a PhD student specializing in the history of collecting and exhibiting Chinese and East Asian art in the Euro-American context from the late nineteenth-century to the present day. She received her B.A. in 2016 and M.A. in 2019 from China Academy of Art. In 2021, she received her second M.A. from Penn State where she wrote her thesis entitled, “Selling China: A neglected encounter between Huo Mingzhi and France in the early twentieth century.” She has worked for the Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State and the Freer and Sackler Gallery of Art as a curatorial intern. Her current interest lies in employing machine learning to realize the image inpainting of photographs of Chinese antiques.

Melanie Clark Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: Academic Adviser: Madhuri Desai

Olivia Crawford Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Nineteenth-century European Art and Architecture, Post-colonial Studies, Jewish Studies, Middle Eastern and North African Studies. Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Nancy Locke [email protected]

Olivia Crawford received her B.A. in Art History and French and Francophone Studies from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2016 and her M.A. in Art History from Penn State University in 2018. She is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Art History at Penn State.

Her current research examines representations of colonial and metropolitan Jewish communities in French Orientalist art and architecture. Her dissertation prospectus is forthcoming.

Crawford lives and works in Knoxville, TN.

Noah Dasinger Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Fifteenth-century Italian sculpture Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Daniel M. Zolli [email protected] | LinkedIn

Noah Dasinger is a first-year Ph.D. student studying Italian Renaissance art and architectural history with a focus on fifteenth-century sculpture. Noah is an Alabama native, and in 2020, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, with a Bachelor of Arts. He then obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Georgia, Athens. Upon graduation, he received high honors for his thesis, “Symbolic Epigraphy and the New Rome: Humanist Capital Letters on the Tomb of Leonardo Bruni.”

Noah also has extensive training in archival research and early modern Italian paleography both in the United States and abroad. He was a curatorial intern at the Georgia Museum of Art and a research intern at the Medici Archive Project. His current research examines the development, display, and materials used for fifteenth-century Italian tomb sculpture. Noah’s research also investigates early modern workshop practices, materials, processes, and their relationship to commemorative sculpture.

Arielle Fields Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Elizabeth Mansfield

Katherine Flanagan Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: William Dewey

Laura Freitas Almeida Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Sarah Rich

Emily Hagen Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Seventeenth-century Italian architecture Dissertation title: Pietro da Cortona’s Santi Luca e Martina: Rediscovered Relics and the Spectacle of Reform in Seventeenth-Century Rome Academic Adviser: Robin Thomas [email protected] | CV

Emily Hagen is a Ph.D. candidate in art history studying early-modern Italian architecture with an interest in digital humanities. Her research focuses on churches devoted to martyrs’ relics in seventeenth-century Italy and investigates how architecture amplified the fiction of rediscovery in the context of early-modern Catholic reform.

Katherine Koltiska Banerjee Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Craig Zabel

Kyle Marini Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Pre-Contact and Early Modern Latin America, Andean Textiles Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Amara Solari [email protected] | Instagram | LinkedIn

Kyle is a PhD student in pre-contact and early modern Latin American art history. He specializes in the techniques of production, ritual use, and iconography of Inca textiles. He primarily researches ceremonial objects that have been destroyed to recover a more representative view of Inca visual culture before Spanish occupation of the Andes. This approach is in effort to decolonize modern understandings of the Inca developed from the study of objects that survived arduous extirpation campaigns throughout the Viceroyalty of Peru. By emphasizing objects erased from the archive, he reconstructs a history through the most integral Inca artifacts that ceased to exist precisely because of their visual power. Kyle is also a practicing artist, and he uses remaking as a methodology to envision these lost works and the technical processes used by their creators.

Keri Mongelluzzo Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: History of Photography; Modern Art Dissertation title: Bauhaus/Dream House: The Uncharted Surrealism of New Vision Photography Academic Adviser: Nancy Locke [email protected] | CV | LinkedIn | Academia.edu

Keri Mongelluzzo is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in the history of photography and modern art in Europe. Her dissertation, “Bauhaus/Dream House: The Uncharted Surrealism of New Vision Photography,” examines how French Surrealist sensibilities gained traction with transient artists associated with the Bauhaus, an innovative school of design in interwar Germany. Tracking key Bauhaus figures as they moved throughout Europe and across the Atlantic, “Bauhaus/Dream House” exposes their messy motivations for evoking surrealist themes amidst surges of nationalism and the rise of fascism. To date, Keri’s dissertation research has been supported by the Department of Art History and the Max Kade German-American Research Institute.

Keri’s broader research and curatorial interests in the histories and theories of photography span the medium’s history. She has written steadily on prominent photographers of the twentieth century, like Man Ray and Eugène Atget, presenting papers at the inaugural conference of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism at the Bucknell Humanities Center and the 24th Annual Graduate Student Symposium on the History of Art at the Barnes Foundation. In addition to curating a number of exhibitions of photography at the Palmer Museum of Art, including Myth Meets Modernism: The Manuel Álvarez Bravo Portfolio (2019) and Framing the City (2018), Keri piloted the museum’s first-ever virtual exhibition, Photography = Abstraction , using Google Slides at the onset of the pandemic and presented her work on this and her collaboration on subsequent virtual exhibitions and tours at the College Art Association Annual Conference in February 2021.

Amy Orner Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Eighteenth-Century British Architecture and Urbanism Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Robin Thomas [email protected]

Amy is a PhD student specializing in eighteenth-century British architecture and urbanism, with a focus on Empire and its effects on architecture. Her research questions consider the social and political influences on architecture, as well as the influence of Empire on Scottish town planning. She received her B.A. in Museum Studies/Art History from Juniata College in 2017, before working as a School Programs Educator for The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. Amy received her M.A. in Art History from Penn State University in 2022 with her thesis titled, “The Palette, the Patron, and the Hand of the Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi in London.” During her time at Penn State, Amy has worked with the Palmer Museum of Art, the Matson Museum of Anthropology, and as a research fellow in the Center for Virtual/Material Studies.

Annalise Palmer Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Modern and Contemporary art, specifically with movement and performance-based work Academic Adviser: Sarah Rich [email protected] | CV | LinkedIn

Annalise is a first year PhD student whose background in dance heavily influences her research. She hopes to expand upon her previous work and explore the prevalence of choreographic artworks over the past century. Annalise graduated in 2024 with a MA in Art History from Penn State and in 2020 from Centre College with a BA in Art History. During that time, she worked as a Research Assistant within Centre’s Art History Department and as an Intern for Manifest Gallery and the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduation, Annalise returned to the CAC as a Cataloging Intern and collaborated with the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center to catalog the work of local artist and activist, Robert O’Neal. Following this project, she worked as a Teaching and Gallery Assistant with Centre College. Currently, Annalise works as a Teaching Assistant for Penn State.

Clio Rom Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: James Harper

Alicia Skeath Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Dissertation title: On the Other Side: Representations of the Ojibwe from the Early to Mid-Nineteenth Century Academic Adviser: Adam Thomas

Kenta Tokushige Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Sixteenth-century Italian Military Architecture Dissertation title: Being a Military Architect: Building Fortifications in Cosimo I de’ Medici’s Realm Academic Adviser: Robin Thomas [email protected]

Kenta Tokushige is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History at The Pennsylvania State University. His dissertation entitled, Being a ‘Military Architect’: Building Fortifications in Cosimo I de’ Medici’s Realm, studies the geopolitical role of fortification building under Cosimo I de’ Medici in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the latter half of the Cinquecento by looking at the design process of a fortification as a collaborative project by people of various social status and the way it was represented in multiple forms of art upon its completion. His research traces the correspondence between the patrons, local governors, and architects regarding the decision-making process and examines the intentions of each individual. Additionally, he is exploring the representation and the circulation of information after the completion of the fortification in relation to the espionage of military information.

His research has been supported by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and the Susan W. and Thomas A. Schwartz Endowed Fellowship for Dissertation Research.

He completed his B.Arch. and M.A. in Architecture at Waseda University and Master of Architectural History at University of Virginia.

Holli Turner Degree: PhD in Art History Research Focus: Art of Early Modern Southern Europe and Colonial Latin America, the materials and materiality of art, technical art history, theories and practices of conservation, race, and representation in art, decolonial practices in art history Dissertation title: TBD Academic Adviser: Daniel Zolli [email protected]

Holli M. Turner is a doctoral student specializing in early modern art, with a focus on the art of Italy, Spain, and the Americas. Her dissertation will examine the colonial implications of color – broadly understood – in the Venetian artist Titian’s paintings for the Spanish monarchy. This project knits together several core concerns of her work: the materials and materiality of art; the representation of race and ethnicity in art; and the interpretive importance of invisible labor, and laborers, to art’s history. In Summer 2021, Holli is serving as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Research Fellow in Penn State’s Art History department, where she is developing a digital humanities project that tracks Titian’s pigments and their origins.

Holli is a Virginia native that was trained in art history and graphic design before embarking on doctoral study. Her research interests also stem from her own artistry. In her spare time, she paints, illustrates, and creates works through traditional and digital media.

Guides and Resources

• Art History Graduate Handbook

Alumni Success

95 percent of those who earned their Ph.D. since the year 2000 are employed in art history or a related field.

• Of these, 71 percent are teaching at the college level.
• The other 29 percent hold such positions as museum curator or lead historian at a historic center.
• Of those teaching at the college level, 67 percent hold tenure-track or tenured positions.

Legal Statements

• Non-Discrimination
• Equal Opportunity
• Accessibility
• The Pennsylvania State University © 2024

Ph.D. Program

The Ph.D. program in art history and archaeology allows students to delve into advanced research in the discipline, develop expertise in undergraduate teaching and build connections with a broad range of professionals in the field.

Related Links

• M.A. Program
• Fellowships and Awards

Graduate Placement

• Graduate Application

Students should consult the department's Ph.D. requirements, stipulated here, together with those of the Graduate School , outlined in the Graduate Handbook . For further information, contact D ana Persaud .

Program Requirements and Policies

Program requirements.

Requirements for the PhD degree include a minimum of 30 credit hours beyond the MA, divided between 18 hours of course work (6 courses, five of which are art history seminars; for students entering straight to the PhD program, one of these courses will be Methods) and 12 credit hours of dissertation research. Candidates form a committee, take a doctoral examination, draw up a project proposal, defend it, and produce a dissertation, which is defended in an oral examination.

Ph.D. Course Requirements

For students holding an M.A. degree (from the University of Maryland or elsewhere), the Ph.D. requires the successful completion of an additional 30 credit hours. This includes:

• ARTH692: “Methods of Art History” (3 credits)
• Five 600- and 700-level ARTH courses (15 credits)  
• ARTH899: “Dissertation Research” (12 credits)

Students that enter the graduate program without an M.A. will complete the requirements for that degree before advancing to the doctoral level. They will be required to successfully complete a total of 51 credit hours. This includes:

• Fourteen 600- and 700-level ARTH courses (36 credits) * 

For one of these courses at the PhD level (and one at the MA level, if applicable) students may substitute a class outside the department, an independent study (possibly done as an enhanced undergraduate course), an internship course, or a class at member institutions of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area . (A similar arrangement may again be possible at Johns Hopkins University in the future.) Students meet with their advisors every semester to determine course selection.

ARTH696 may be taken for credit but cannot be counted as one of the required seminars at the PhD level.

*Art history is a global and transhistorical field, and graduate education at the University of Maryland is fittingly diverse. All students therefore must fulfill distribution requirements. If a student enters the Ph.D. program after earning an M.A. from another institution and has not already completed coursework reflective of these distributional requirements, he or she must satisfy these requirements at the Ph.D. level.

Effective spring 2024, students may receive course credit for professional paid or unpaid internships related to their degree, at the rate of one credit for each 45 hours worked during the semester (to a maximum of 3 credits). The internship course must be taken simultaneously with the internship, not before or after (no summer internships can be worked for credit). Credits are granted through ARHU786 or a similar ARTH course. Note that no credit will be given for internships worked at the University of Maryland, College Park or for the University of Maryland Museum Fellowship. Such courses are subject to approval by the student’s advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. Note that any such internship course will count as the one non-standard course allowed for each graduate degree.

A minimum grade of "B-" is required for all courses approved for graduate credit. Two grades below "B-" result in dismissal from the program.

Foreign Language Requirements

All doctoral students are required to take examinations in two languages other than English necessary for research in their art-historical field. The student’s languages should be chosen in consultation with their advisor. New students should enter the program with an appropriate level of preparation. Those with native fluency in the necessary languages may petition to waive the exam using this form .

Entering students must take their first foreign language examination in the first semester, customarily scheduled by the department for the second or third week of September. If a student fails the examination, another opportunity to take it will be given toward the end of the second semester, and, if necessary, again in future semesters.

PhD students must take an exam in their second language by the end of the third year in the program (MA/PhD students) or by the end of the second year (PhD-only students). If a student fails the examination, another opportunity to take it will be given in the following semester, and, if necessary, again in future semesters. Students cannot advance to candidacy until the language requirement is fulfilled.

The language exam will consist of a passage of approximately 500 words which the student must translate into good English. The exam period is two hours; the student may use a published translation dictionary but no online resources. The passage will typically come from an exhibition catalogue entry, and the translation will be graded pass/fail for its ability to convey the meanings of the passage in good, fluid English that reflects a good understanding, free of major errors or significant omissions. Students preparing may ask the Coordinator of Graduate Studies for an example of a past exam. In the case of an unsuccessful attempt, the student will receive a brief written rationale for the result and advice for future study and exam attempts.

In languages for which the department cannot offer an exam, or for students who entered the program when coursework was permitted in lieu of the exam (prior to 2024), two years of college-level study or a one-semester translation course (completed with a passing grade) will be accepted in lieu of an exam.

The Graduate Examination Committee

The Examination Committee will comprise three members of the Graduate Faculty, including the student's advisor, who will serve as chair. Generally the examiners will be drawn from Department of Art History and Archaeology, but, if appropriate, one member of the committee may be drawn from another UMD department or from another institution. Composition of the committee will be determined by the advisor and the student and approved by the Director of Graduate Studies.

Students will be examined on a general field plus one or two sub-fields or minors (these may be specialized topics within the major or other topics outside it). The definition and scope of these fields will be determined by the student in consultation with their advisor. In order to promote cohesion in the PhD program, students must submit, no later than three months before the scheduled exam, a one-page rationale explaining the choice of topics to the Coordinator of Graduate Studies, for approval by the Curriculum Committee. (The committee must reply to the petition within two weeks of submission.) The advisor will lead the process of setting a reading list for the major field; generally the other members of the Examination Committee will work with the student to produce further reading lists. Topics will likely include key controversies, major monuments, historiography, primary sources, etc. All committee members must see and approve one another’s topics and lists.

The Doctoral Examination

The Ph.D. examination includes two parts: the written examination, set by the whole committee, and the oral examination. Both parts of the exam are graded  pass/fail. The examination may be taken only during the fall or spring academic terms. Through spring 2024, students may consult their notes and books while answering the question (written exam only). Effective fall 2024, students are not permitted to consult any notes, books, or digital sources during either part of the exam. Students proceed to the oral exam only after passing the written portion. If either part of the examination is failed, the student may attempt it once more; a second failure of that part will require the student to withdraw from the Ph.D. program.

The written examination will consist of a four-hour time period in which the student responds to one or more questions agreed upon by the members of the committee. Committees may also decide to offer the student a choice of several questions. The responses will be sent to all members of the committee for their evaluation.

Upon successful completion of the written examination, the Examination Committee will administer a two-hour oral examination. Each member of the committee will be expected to ask questions for half an hour, followed by general discussion. The student can choose the order in which the examiners ask their questions. Each  examiner will concentrate on the reading list they worked on with the student, although examiners in the sub-fields can always refer to the general list. Questions may be broad or quite specific to particular works of art.

Advancement to Candidacy

Once a student passes the qualifying exams, they may submit the Application for Advancement to Candidacy Form to the Graduate Office. Teaching assistants receive a step promotion and a small raise in stipend once they have advanced to candidacy. Upon advancing to candidacy, the student has four years to complete the dissertation; the Graduate School grants extensions only in extreme circumstances.

The Dissertation Proposal Defense

Within six months of successfully completing doctoral exams, the student will meet with their Dissertation Committee to review and discuss the dissertation proposal, its scope and significance. The membership of this committee may be composed of the same members as the Examination Committee or the membership may be adjusted before this meeting. Nevertheless, the Dissertation Committee at this stage should comprise at least three members, two of whom must be full-time permanent departmental faculty.

Students should be aware that the decision to supervise a dissertation rests with the individual faculty member, and that it is necessary to secure this consent before work on the dissertation proceeds. The proposal will usually be 15-25 pages of text followed by illustrations and should include, at minimum, the following:

• A statement of the problem that will be investigated or the hypothesis that will be argued; an explanation of the value the dissertation would have for the field of art history.
• A chapter-by-chapter breakdown of how the dissertation will be arranged, and what materials and issues will be covered in each chapter.
• A statement of existing scholarship related to the thesis.
• The primary and secondary sources  to be consulted, as well as their location and availability.
• A work plan (an outline of the projected research, including travel) and the methodology to be used.

Before the defense is scheduled, the student’s advisor must read and formally agree to support the proposal as provisionally presented. The defense will consist of constructive criticism of the proposal’s goals and arguments, and advice on how research can best be undertaken.

Satisfactory Progress

A student must make satisfactory progress in meeting program requirements, demonstrate the ability to succeed in his or her course of studies or research and attain performance minima specified by the graduate program in all or in particular courses, otherwise his or her enrollment will be terminated. All graduate students are required to submit an annual report on their progress to degree to the director of graduate studies.

The Doctoral Dissertation

A successful defense of a dissertation is the final requirement for the doctoral degree. The dissertation is prepared under the direction of the student’s advisor, but it is expected that the student will meet at least annually with each member of the Dissertation Committee. Students are also strongly encouraged to ask the Committee to meet with them at least once for a mid-dissertation consultation, after the first chapter or two have met the advisor’s provisional approval.

Dissertation Committee

The Dissertation Committee consists of four faculty members who advise the student on the writing of their dissertation. The membership of this committee may be composed of the same members as the Examination Committee or the membership may be adjusted before the final defense. 

The Ph.D. student should consult with the director of graduate studies and their advising team concerning the selection of the final Dissertation Committee, which must  be approved by the dean of the Graduate School. The advisor must submit to the director of graduate studies a list of all committee members at least four weeks before the final copy of the dissertation is distributed. Should a student wish to include a special member (a scholar with no official affiliation with the university) on the Dissertation Committee, the student must request a nomination from the director of graduate studies no later than four months before the proposed oral defense date.

Dissertation Defense 

When the dissertation is nearing completion and the major advisor has approved moving on to this penultimate step, the Ph.D. candidate 1) submits to the Graduate School, at least six weeks before the defense date, a nomination of Thesis or Dissertation Committee form and 2) schedules the dissertation defense. Consisting of a minimum of five faculty members, this committee normally includes four faculty members in the department as well as a member of the university’s graduate faculty from outside the department who serves as the graduate dean's representative. All members of the Defense Committee appointed by the Graduate School must attend the defense. Should a student wish to include a special member (a scholar with no official affiliation with the university) on the Dissertation Committee, the student must request a nomination from the director of graduate studies no later than four months before the proposed oral defense date.

Students must submit the final draft of their dissertation to their committee at least four weeks before the defense date. 

Students should discuss with their directors the format of the defense. Typically, the defense is a two-hour discussion of the dissertation. The defense usually begins with a statement from the student on the experience of writing the dissertation (key discoveries, important changes in critical perspectives, main contributions, etc.). Four of the five members of the Dissertation Defense Committee must approve the dissertation in order for the student to pass. Students are frequently asked to make revisions to the dissertation before submitting it to the Graduate School. Upon satisfactory completion of the oral defense and the electronic submission of the dissertation to, and its approval by, the Graduate School, the candidate is awarded the Ph.D.

Submission of the dissertation

The approved dissertation must be submitted electronically to the Graduate School by the deadlines posted in order for a student to graduate in a given semester.  Information about all aspects of electronic submission of the dissertation is available on the Graduate School's Information for Current Students under Thesis and Dissertation Resources . 

Completing the Ph.D. involves careful attention to deadlines imposed and paperwork required by the Graduate School . 

Students are expected to complete their coursework and meet all foreign language requirements by no later than their fifth semester in the program. Please contact D ana Persaud , to schedule your language exam and confirm the acceptability of equivalences if you wish to forego an exam to meet your language requirement. 

Students are expected to advance to candidacy by successfully passing their qualifying examination by their seventh semester in the program. Please contact D ana Persaud , to schedule your qualifying exam. Submit your form for candidacy advancement to the Graduate Office upon successful completion of your qualifying exam. Upon advancing to candidacy, students are expected to file a dissertation progress form  with the Graduate Office each semester.

Students must file an approved dissertation prospectus with the Graduate Office no later than four months following the qualifying examination. 

Specific deadlines for students intending to graduate will be announced on the ARTH graduate-student reflector and are also available from the Graduate School's Deadlines for Graduates. Most of the necessary paperwork for these deadlines can be found on the Graduate School's General Forms for Graduate Students.

Recent alumni are currently employed at both public and private research universities, as well as smaller liberal arts colleges. Students from the graduate program have also gone on to work at museums and galleries.

Dana Persaud

Coordinator, Art History and Archaeology

4219 Parren J. Mitchell Art - Sociology Building College Park MD, 20742

Joshua Shannon

Professor, Contemporary Art History & Theory, and Director of Graduate Studies, Art History and Archaeology

4204 Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology Building College Park MD, 20742

• Search This Site All UCSD Sites Faculty/Staff Search Term
• Chair's Message
• Department History
• Continuing Lecturers
• Graduate Students
• Postdoctoral Fellow
• Emeriti Faculty
• In Memoriam
• Visiting Artists
• Academic Advising
• Major Requirements
• Minor Requirements
• Annual Schedule
• Academic Opportunities
• Scholarships, Grants & Internships
• Career Paths
• MFA Program
• PhD Program
• Financial Support
• Undergraduate Facilities
• Graduate Facilities
• Speaker Series
• Artist In Residence
• Awards & Honors
• EDI Graduate Student Funding
• Academic Personnel
• Compliance and Required Training
• Financial Services
• Human Resources
• Instructional Resources for Faculty
• Miscellaneous
• Join our PhD Art History Program (VA76)

Ph.D. Art History Program (VA76)

The Department of Visual Arts offers a PhD in art history, theory, and criticism with specializations in cultural areas in which faculty do research (VA76). Offering a distinct alternative to other PhD programs in art history, our program centers on a unique curriculum that treats the study of art past and present—including fine art, media and new media, design and popular culture as part of a broad inquiry into the practices, objects, and discourses that constitute the art world, even as it encourages examination of the larger frameworks—historical, cultural, social, intellectual, and theoretical—within which the category “art” has been contextualized in the most recent developments in the discipline. This program is also distinctive in that it is housed within a department that has been for many years one of the nation’s leading centers of art practice and graduate education in studio, media, and—most recently—digital media. The offering of the PhD and MFA is based on the department’s foundational premise that the production of art and the critical, theoretical, and historical reflection upon it inherently and necessarily participate in a single discursive community. This close integration of art history and art practice is reflected in the inclusion of a concentration in art practice within the PhD in art history, theory, and criticism.

To Apply:   https://connect.grad.ucsd.edu/apply/

Application Opens:  September 4th, 2024 for the Fall 2025 application cycle

Application Deadline:  December 4th, 2024 for the Fall 2025 application cycle

Interdisciplinary Specializations

Students within the PhD program who are interested in the opportunity to undertake specialized research may apply to participate in an interdisciplinary specialization. Students accepted into a specialization program would be expected to complete coursework in addition to those required for their PhD program. The department offers interdisciplinary specializations with the following campus programs.

• Anthropogeny:   for students with an interest in human origin
• Critical Gender Studies:   providing specialized training in gender and sexuality
• Interdisciplinary Environmental Research : for students interested in environmental solutions

Application Requirements

All applicants must satisfy the following to be considered for admissions to our department:

Completion of a four-year Bachelors degree or equivalent: 

• 3.0 GPA minimum or 'B' average
• Submission of unofficial transcripts required 

English Language Proficiency:

• Demonstrated English language proficiency is required of all international applicants whose native language is not English. Non-native English language speakers may either display proficiency by meeting the minimum speaking scores listed below or can be exempt from the test scores requirement if they received a degree from an institution which provides instruction solely in English. Please refer to the following link for more information regarding the degree from an institution exemption: English Language Proficiency .
• TOEFL iBT speaking scores of 26-30
• IELTS speaking scores of 8-9
• PTE speaking scores of 84-90

Letters of Recommendation:

• Minimum of 3 recommendations required
• Letters of recommendation should come from individuals, preferably previous professors, who can best explain why you are prepared and would be successful in rigorous academic studies at the graduate level.

Statement of Purpose:

• 750-1000 word limit, not to exceed 3 pages
• Focus your Statement of Purpose on the reasons you are interested in attending this graduate program. You can include the research you hope to pursue within our program and give the Admissions Committee a sense of who you are and what you hope to accomplish. The statement should be well organized, concise, and completely free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors.
• Writing Sample
• 2000 word Research Statement

Portfolio Requirements

Writing Sample (4000-8000 words):

Examples include: senior honors thesis, MA thesis, or other research or critical paper, preferably in art or media history.

Research Statement (2000 words maximum):

The Research Statement should explain the research that you wish to pursue within our program. There may be some overlap between the Research Statement and Statement of Purpose however these should be viewed as two distinct prompts that will give the Admissions Committee a greater sense of who you are and what you would accomplish at UC San Diego.

File Names for Portfolio Items:

Please name your files, with your Last Name, First Initial underscore and the document type. So if my name was Terry Triton, I would have the following File Names:

Graduate Student Research

Check out our annual Research Colloquium . PhD students who have recently advanced to candidacy present their research to the local community. Please explore the recent work completed within the department, in addition to the Faculty and Graduate Student personal pages. 

2023 Research Colloquium

2022 Research Colloquium

2021 Research Colloquium

2020 Research Colloquium

• Join our MFA Program
• Join our PhD Art Practice Program (VA77)

• Art History
• Opportunities
• Registration
• Masters’ Programs

PhD Program

• Wreck Journal
• Theses Collection
• Major Papers, Exhibitions, and Artworks
• Publications
• Exhibitions
• Job Opportunities

The PhD in Art History offers doctoral supervision to students focused on art history and theory from Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Indigenous cultures. 

In the art history PhD program, you are encouraged to pursue high scholarly achievement, original research, and a firm theoretical grounding. Alumni of the program have made considerable contributions to teaching and research in universities, museums, and galleries worldwide.

The PhD in art history maintains links with geography, history, anthropology, European studies, Asian studies, Latin American studies, First Nations studies; and gender, race, sexuality, and social justice among others.

Program Overview

Program Structure

The Art History PhD program opens with a required, rigorous, two-term methodology seminar led by two specialists in divergent areas. Additional seminar offerings are broad and diverse. Students are encouraged to take seminar coursework outside the department and pursue their specialization or extend the scope of their studies. 

During the program, a doctoral committee of faculty and their doctoral thesis research supervisor advise students. In addition, the graduate advisory committee is available at all times to assist with course selection and the general direction of studies. Members of this committee meet routinely with every graduate student at the beginning of the academic year. Students are in charge of assembling their committee initially in preparation for the required comprehensive examination. 

The comprehensive examination is intended to test the PhD student's knowledge of the objects and discourse of their field of doctoral research. After completing coursework, the comprehensive examination, and the language requirement, the thesis proposal is established with the student's thesis committee's guidance.

A successful PhD thesis is founded on high academic achievement, original research, and firm theoretical grounding. At the mid-stage of thesis research, PhD candidates share their findings with peers, faculty, and the public through a roundtable presentation to receive critical feedback.

  PhD Requirements

• Full-time residency requirement:  two years
• Foreign language requirement : two foreign languages; note that courses taken to fulfill the language requirement do not count toward the PhD degree's required credits
• Thesis required: yes
• Minimum number of courses:   15 credits
• Number of courses required outside of the major area/hemisphere: there is no requirement for this, but three credits out of 15 allowed outside the department
• Minimum number of art history seminars:  12 credits
• Minor area of concentrations required : no
• Qualifying exams required: yes; comprehensive examination, including written and oral exam
• Additional requirements: dissertation proposal, roundtable presentation, defense

Dissertation

Number of PhD dissertation readers

Three, two of which must be from the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory.

Dissertation process

PhD students advance to candidacy following completion of:

• Five graduate seminars
• Two foreign language exams
• Dissertation proposal

Completion of the degree includes 

• A roundtable presentation of methodology and research in progress 
• An oral defense, a public display of the candidate's dissertation, followed by questions from examiners and audience members

Graduate courses

• ARTH 531 (3/6) Early Medieval Art
• ARTH 533 (3/6) Medieval Art
• ARTH 535 (3/6) Art of the Renaissance
• ARTH 537 (3/6) 17th and 18th-Century Art
• ARTH 539 (3/6) 19th-Century Art
• ARTH 540 (3/6) 20th-Century Art
• ARTH 543 (3/6) Canadian Art
• ARTH 548 (3/6) North American Architecture
• ARTH 550 (3) Art in the Islamic World
• ARTH 551 (3/6) Chinese Art
• ARTH 553 (3/6) Japanese Art
• ARTH 555 (3/6) South & Southeast Asian Art
• ARTH 561 (3/6) Indigenous Arts of the Americas
• ARTH 571 (6) Methodology of Art History
• CCST 500 (3) Seminar in Interdisciplinary Frameworks in Museum and Curatorial Studies
• CCST 501 (3) Seminar in Contemporary Contextual Issues for Museums and Curatorial Practice
• CCST 502 (3) Case Studies in Museum and Gallery Exhibitions

Please note, not all courses are offered every year.

Quick Links

• School Events
• Resources for Current Students
• Job Announcements
• Give a Gift
• Search the website
• Bachelor’s Programs
• Master’s Programs
• Doctoral Programs
• All Our Minors
• Admissions & Funding

Schedule a Visit

• Student Work
• Faculty Work
• Alumni Work
• Labs & Studios
• Meet Our Students
• University Resources
• Alumni Listings
• Alumni News
• Alumni Profiles
• Alumni Tributes to Faculty
• Land Acknowledgment Statement
• Our Mission & Strategic Plan
• Faculty Directory
• Staff Directory
• Resources for Faculty & Staff

PhD in Art History

The PhD Program in Art History is designed to train highly qualified students in the knowledge, skills, and theoretical grounding specific to each student’s planned area of specialization.

PhD Art History

The aim of the PhD Program is to produce effective researchers, thinkers, and writers whose scholarship, curatorial work, and critical writing will contribute to and help shape discussion of the visual arts both inside and beyond academia.

Students accepted into the PhD Program must hold a Master of Arts degree in Art History or a related field and have demonstrated competence in a foreign language. All doctoral degree students are required to pass departmental exams in two languages. Major and minor fields are selected from the following areas:

• European Renaissance
• European Baroque and Rococo (ca. 1600-1750)
• European, ca. 1750-1900
• Photography
• 20th century
• Contemporary
• Latin American (colonial/modern)
• Late Imperial China
• West Africa and Diaspora (precolonial, colonial and contemporary)

Upon competing the required course work, PhD students take written preliminary exams in their major and minor fields. After passing the preliminary exams doctoral students focus on writing the dissertation. The PhD dissertation is an original piece of research that demonstrates the student’s mastery of his or her topic and that makes a significant contribution to the scholarship in this field. Recently completed PhD dissertation topics include Ray Johnson’s mail art, Soviet photography, the role of imagery in constructing the medieval institution of the university, artistic patronage at the court of the English Queen Charlotte, and Etruscan temple terracottas.

Students in the doctoral program can compete for several internal grants that support dissertation research travel and travel to present papers at conferences. In addition, students are encouraged to apply for external grants. In recent years, doctoral students in the Art History Program have won the DAAD (Deutcher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) Fellowship, the Smithsonian American Art Pre-doctoral Fellowship, the Henry Luce Foundation ACLS Fellowship, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Fellowship, Newberry Library Fellowship, Smithsonian Institute Latino Studies Fellowship, Belgian American Educational Foundation, and multiple FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) Fellowships.

Graduate students in art history can take advantage of many supplemental resources on campus. These include:

• The University Library , the largest public university library in the U.S., includes many branch libraries in specific subjects such as History and Philosophy, Modern Languages, Education and Social Sciences.
• The Ricker Library of Architecture and Art  is a branch of the University Library, and its collection includes more than 120,000 books, 33,000 serials, and a wide selection of videos.
• The Rare Book and Manuscript Library , also part of the University Library, includes original illustrated books and rare artists’ editions of books from the fifteenth through twentieth centuries.
• The Krannert Art Museum  has a permanent collection of over 8,000 works of art from all areas of the world and hosts an ongoing schedule of rotating exhibitions.
• The Spurlock Museum  is an ethnographic museum with a diverse array of functional and art objects that represent past and present cultures from around the globe.
• Japan House  is a center for the study of Japanese aesthetics and traditional arts. It offers classes on subjects including Japanese aesthetics, the Way of Tea, and ikebana.

Ask Us a Question

Kristin Romberg  

David O'Brien  

Ellen de Waard  

• University of Pennsylvania
• School of Arts and Sciences
• Penn Calendar

Search form

The doctoral program at the University of Pennsylvania provides students with broad training in the history of art and its critical approaches, yet also focused training in their selected fields.  Students completing the Ph.D. are well prepared for teaching positions at the university and college level and for curatorial positions in museums and galleries.  Faculty work closely with Ph.D. students to outline an appropriate course of study and mentor students while preparing them for assistantships, curatorial internships, and other career orientations.

Admission to the program is by application to the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, which administers full fellowship packages to all admitted students.  (See the "Admissions" page on this site.)  Both B.A. and M.A. students are eligible to apply.  Students normally pursue coursework over their first three years and, once admitted to Ph.D. candidacy (following their area exams), devote their time thereafter to dissertation research and writing.  Students entering the program with an M.A. may chose to accelerate their coursework at Penn to gain candidacy to the Ph.D. more quickly.

Students generally take three seminars in each semester; some of that coursework includes also pedagogical instruction when the student serves as a Teaching Assistant. To ensure a broad understanding of art's history, the Department asks students to take three seminars focusing on periods prior to 1750 and three after.

Further details regarding the graduate program may be found in the  Graduate Bulletin .

History of Art and Archaeology (PhD)

Program description, archaeological excavations.

The Institute of Fine Arts is dedicated to graduate teaching and advanced research in the history of art and archeology and in the conservation and technology of works of art. The Institute strives to give its students not only a sound knowledge in the history of art, but also a foundation in research, connoisseurship, and theory as a basis for independent critical judgment and research. The student following the PhD course of study gains a deeper understanding of a subject area, beyond what is normally acquired at the master’s level and develops a capacity for independent scholarship.

The PhD Program at the Institute of Fine Arts is a course of study designed for the person who wants to investigate the role of the visual arts in culture through detailed, object-based examination as well as historical and theoretical interpretation. The degree program provides a focused and rigorous experience supported by interaction with the leading scholars of the Institute, and access to New York area museums, curators, conservators, archaeological sites and NYU’s global network.

At present the Institute conducts five active excavations in cooperation with the Faculty of Arts and Science: at Abydos, Egypt; at Aphrodisias, Turkey; at Sanam, Sudan; at Selinunte, Sicily; and at Samothrace, Greece. Advanced students are invited to participate in these excavations and may be supported financially by the Institute.

All applicants to the Graduate School of Arts and Science (GSAS) are required to submit the  general application requirements , which include:

• Academic Transcripts
• Test Scores  (if required)
• Applicant Statements
• Résumé or Curriculum Vitae
• Letters of Recommendation , and
• A non-refundable  application fee .

See Fine Arts for admission requirements and instructions specific to this program.

Program Requirements 

Language requirement, qualifying paper, dissertation proposal, dissertation defense, departmental approval.

The program is designed for five to six years of full-time study. A total of 18 courses (72 credits) are required for the PhD degree. A minimum of six of these courses must be in seminars, at least four of which lie outside the student’s major field. Distribution requirements are met by choosing courses in the following fields:

• Pre-modern Asia;
• Pre-modern Africa and the Middle East;
• The Ancient Mediterranean and Middle East, including Egypt;
• Pre-modern Europe and the Americas;
• Post-1750 Global;
• Museum and Curatorial Studies;
• Technical Studies of Works of Art;
• Architectural History.

The technical studies of works of art course is chosen from the courses offered through the Conservation Center.

Course Definitions and Requirements

Proseminar:.

The purpose of the Proseminar is to introduce students in the doctoral program to advanced research methods in the history of art. Because it is a dedicated course for the entering PhD student, it will serve to consolidate the cohort. It is taken during the first semester and is taught by a rotation of the Institute faculty, with a different faculty member chosen each year. Emphasis is placed on the specific practices of art-historical analysis in relation to visual and textual interpretation. The contents of the seminar vary each year according to the research interests of the chosen instructor. The class is structured around specific problems in the history of art rather than broad conceptual paradigms, with an emphasis on historical interpretation.

Colloquium:

A colloquium provides an analysis or overview of the state of the literature on a given art historical topic or problem, with extensive reading, discussion, and presentations. There may be a final paper. 

A seminar is a focused advanced course that explores a topic in depth. Seminars are often based on an exhibition in the New York area. Students are expected to produce a substantive paper that demonstrates original research.

Lecture courses explore topics or historical periods, giving overviews of major issues as well as detailed analysis of specific problems and works of art. Students are responsible for assigned and recommended reading, and may produce short papers and/or take an exam.

Additional Program Requirements

PhD students must demonstrate proficiency in reading two modern research languages other than English that are relevant to their studies. Proficiency is demonstrated by passing an examination administered by the Institute of Fine Arts. International students focusing on a field of study in which their native language is relevant may be granted an exemption from the language requirement pending submission of an exemption form signed by their advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. Students may be expected to learn other languages that will equip them for advanced research in their chosen fields. Students whose Bachelor’s or Master’s degree is from a non-English speaking institution may be exempt from one language.

The qualifying paper may be developed from seminar work or might be on a topic devised in consultation with the student’s advisor. Normally, the student will be advised to produce a detailed study on a subject that leads towards the dissertation. It should be no longer than 10,000 words (excluding bibliography and footnotes). Students may submit their M.A. thesis in lieu of the Qualifying Paper.

Following the completion of their coursework, Ph.D. students are examined on a major field consisting of two contiguous areas and on a third minor area, which can be in a related field or provide skills necessary for their dissertation. Students should consult their advisor in selecting the two additional examiners and the fields for examination. It is the responsibility of the advisor to invite examiners and to inform any outside examiners about Institute procedures. Students should work closely with each of their examiners to determine appropriate bibliographies.

The purposes of the major examination are to ensure that students develop a comprehensive understanding of their chosen field of study in both breadth and depth, that they can draw independent conclusions based on the study of objects and on written scholarship, and that they are able to effectively communicate these conclusions to an academic audience. The major examination is separate and distinct from the presentation of the dissertation prospectus. Students should allow at least one semester (15 weeks) of preparation for the oral examination. The committee will submit three essay questions to the Academic Office immediately following the oral examination. Within 30 days of the oral examination, the student must pick up the written component, the "Two Week paper." For the "Two Week Paper," the student chooses one topic out of the three given by the examiners. The paper must be submitted two weeks after picking up the prompts from the Academic Office.

In order for the candidate to continue to the dissertation, the advisor and the two other examiners must pass both the oral and written components of the examination. If the candidate does not pass either part of the exam, the candidate is allowed one more attempt. Failure to pass both parts of the second major examination will result in termination from the program.

The proposal must be presented to a dissertation committee no later than six months after passing the major examinations. Students will discuss potential dissertation topics with their supervisor, who will form a dissertation committee of three faculty members (the supervisor and two others). The proposal will be distributed to the committee members in advance of a proposal presentation.

The proposal presentation provides a forum for the committee and the student to discuss intellectual and methodological aspects of the dissertation and to formulate research plans. Immediately following the presentation, the committee will determine if the proposal has passed or if it is in need of revision. The final, approved proposal will be distributed at the next full faculty meeting for further comment. The written proposal consists of:

 A narrative exposition of the dissertation subject detailing the state of current scholarship as well as the student’s own research aims. The proposal should demonstrate the viability of the project and should clearly set forth the research questions to be addressed with direct reference to sources and contexts. The narrative should not exceed 2500 words (approximately 8-10 pages). Arguments should be properly footnoted;

A chapter outline that is no more than one page;

 A bibliography of principle references, divided as appropriate into separate archival and primary source sections;

Up to five images

The dissertation may contain no more than 250 pages of text. Permission to exceed this limit can be granted only through petition to the faculty by way of the Director of Graduate Studies. Each doctoral candidate submits to a final oral defense of the dissertation before a committee of five scholars.

All Graduate School of Arts & Science doctoral candidates must be approved for graduation by their department for the degree to be awarded.

Sample Plan of Study

Following completion of the required coursework for the PhD, students are expected to maintain active status at New York University by enrolling in a research/writing course or a Maintain Matriculation ( MAINT-GA 4747 ) course.  All non-course requirements must be fulfilled prior to degree conferral, although the specific timing of completion may vary from student-to-student.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, graduates will have the skills and abilities to:

• Critically investigate the role of the visual arts in culture through object-based examination as well as historical and theoretical interpretation.
• Effectively communicate original, independent research and interpretations of secondary material through written and oral presentation.  
• Demonstrate an advanced understanding of critical issues in the field of art history or archaeology through written and oral examinations in a defined field. 
• Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding and interpretation of one topic in art history through substantial original research presented in the form of a dissertation.

NYU Policies

Graduate school of arts and science policies.

University-wide policies can be found on the New York University Policy pages .

Academic Policies for the Graduate School of Arts and Science can be found on the Academic Policies page . 

Print Options

Send Page to Printer

Print this page.

Download Page (PDF)

The PDF will include all information unique to this page.

• The Archive

Department of the History of Art

You are here, dissertations, completed dissertations.

1942-Present

DISSERTATIONS IN PROGRESS

As of July 2024

Bartunkova, Barbora , “Sites of Resistance: Antifascism and the Czechoslovak Avant-garde” (C. Armstrong)

Betik, Blair Katherine , “Altars on the Roman Frontiers: Ritual Objects in Real Space.” (M. Gaifman)

Burke, Harry , “The Islands Between: Art, Animism, and Anticolonial Worldmaking in Archipelagic Southeast Asia” (P. Lee)

Boyd, Nicole , “Science, Craft, Art, Theater: Four ‘Perspectives’ on the Painted Architecture of Angelo Michele Colonna and Agostino Mitelli” (N Suthor). 

Chau, Tung , “Strange New Worlds: Interfaces in the Work of Cao Fei” (P. Lee)

Cox, Emily , “Perverse Modernism, 1884-1900” (C. Armstrong, T. Barringer)

Datta, Yagnaseni , “Materialising Illusions: Visual Translation in the Mughal Jug Basisht, c. 1602.” (K. Rizvi)

de Luca, Theo , “Nicolas Poussin’s Chronotopes” (N. Suthor)

Del Bonis-O’Donnell, Asia , “Trees and the Visualization of  kosmos  in Archaic and Classical Athenian Art” (Yale University, M. Gaifman)

Demby, Nicole , “The Diplomatic Image: Framing Art and Internationalism, 1945-1960” (K. Mercer)

Donnelly, Michelle . “Spatialized Impressions: American Printmaking Outside the Workshop, 1935–1975” (J. Raab)

Epifano, Angie , “Building the Samorian State: Material Culture, Architecture, and Cities across West Africa” (E. Cooke, Jr.)

Fialho, Alex , “Apertures onto AIDS: African American Photography and the Art History of the Storage Unit” (P. Lee, T Nyong’o)

Foo, Adela , “Crafting the Aq Qoyuniu Court (1475-1490) (E. Cooke, Jr.)

Franciosi, Caterina , “Latent Light: Energy and Nineteenth-Century British Art” (T. Barringer)

Frier, Sara , “Unbearable Witness: The Disfigured Body in the Northern European Brief (1500-1620)” (N. Suthor)

Galdone, Isabella , “Interwoven: Women Makers at the Intersection of Needlework and Painting in Victoria Britain” (T. Barringer, E. Cooke, Jr.)

Gaudet, Manon , “ Property and the Contested Ground of North American Visual Culture, 1900-1945” (E. Cooke, Jr.)  

Haffner, Michaela , “Nature Cure: ”White Wellness” and the Visual Culture of Natural Health, 1870-1930” (J. Raab)

Herrmann, Mitchell , “The Art of the Living: Biological Life and Aesthetic Experience in the 21st Century” (P. Lee)

Higgins, Lily , “Reading into Things: Articulate Objects in Colonial North America, 1650-1783” (E. Cooke, Jr.)

Hodson, Josie , “Something in Common: Black Art under Austerity in New York City, 1975-1990” (P. Lee)

Hong, Kevin , “Plasticity, Fungibility, Toxicity: Photography’s Ecological Entanglements in the Mid-Twentieth-Century United States” (C. Armstrong, J Raab)

Horwitz, Vu , “Palm Wine Cups from the Kuba Cultural Region” (Edward Cooke, Jr.)

Kim, Adela , “Beyond Institutional Critique: Tearing Up in the Work of Andrea Fraser” (P. Lee)

Kitlinski, Sophia , “The Bureaucracy of Ritual: Spanish Administrative Iconography and Afro-Cuban Sacred Drawing in Nineteenth-Century Cuba” (J. Raab)

Keto, Elizabeth , “Reconstruction’s Objects: Art in the United States South, 1861-1900.” (J. Raab)

Koposova, Ekaterina , “Triumph and Terror in the Arts of the Franco-Dutch War” (M Bass)

Levy Haskell, Gavriella , “The Imaginative Painter”: Visual Narrative and the Interactive Painting in Britain, 1851-1914” (T. Barringer, E. Cooke Jr)

Marquardt, Savannah , “Chthon: Material Eschatologies of Burial in Colonial Southern Italy (5th-4th c BCE)” (M. Gaifman)

Miraval, Nathalie , “Sacred Subversions: Martha, Monsters, and Domestic Devotion in the Early Modern Afro-Iberian Atlantic” (C. Fromont)

Mizbani, Sharon , “Mediated Waters: Architectures of Thirst and Nourishment in Late-Ottoman Istanbul” (K. Rizvi)

Molarsky-Beck, Marina . “Seeing the Unseen: Queer Artistic Subjectivity in Interwar Photography” (C. Armstrong)

Nagy, Renata , “Remaking Natural History in Seventeenth-Century Northern Europe” (M. Bass)

Olfat, Faraz , “Eclecticism in Architecture and the Politics of Nation Building, 1870-1920” (C. Buckley, E. Cooke, Jr.)

Petrilli-Jones, Sara , “Drafting the Canon: Legal Histories of Art in Florence and Rome, 1600-1800” (N. Suthor)

Phillips, Kate , “American Ephemera” (J. Raab)

Potuckova, Kristina , “The Arts of Women’s Monastic Liturgy, Holy Roman Empire, 1000-1200” (J. Jung)

Rapoport, Sarah , “James Jacques-Joseph Tissot in the Interstices of Modernity” (T. Barringer, C. Armstrong)

Robbins, Isabella , “Relationality and Being: Indigeneity, Space and Transit in Global Contemporary Art” (P. Lee, N. Blackhawk)

Sellati, Lillian , “When is Herakles Not Himself? Mediating Cultural Plurality in Greater Central Asia, 330 BCE – 365 CE” (M. Gaifman)

Valladares, Carlos , “Jacques Demy” (P. Lee)

Wang, Xueli , “Performing Disappearance: Maggie Cheung and the Off-Screen” (Q. Ngan)

Werwie, Katherine , “Visions Across the Gates: Materiality, Symbolism, and Communication in the Historiated Wooden Doors of Medieval European Churches” (J. Jung)

Wisowaty, Stephanie , “Painted Processional Crosses in Central Italy, 1250-1400: Movement, Mediation and Multisensory Effects” (J. Jung)

Webley, John , “Ink, Paint, and Blood: India and the Great Game in Russian Culture” (T. Barringer, M. Brunson)

Young, Colin , “Desert Places: The Visual Culture of the Prairies and the Pampas across the Nineteenth Century” (J. Raab)

Zhou, Joyce Yusi , “The Art and Material Culture of Women in Early Modern Batavia” (M. Bass, E. Cooke, Jr.)

• Utility Menu

0b914002f2182447cd9e906092e539f3

Dissertation,   the dissertation.

After the successful completion of the general examination, a topic and adviser for the dissertation should be chosen. Students should discuss potential topics with several faculty members before beginning. The final prospectus should be approved not later than 3 months (within the academic calendar -- September through May) of passing the general examinations in order to be considered to be making satisfactory progress toward the degree. This is the time when the Thesis Reader and Dissertation Proposal form should be completed and submitted to the department office or DGS. Three signatures are now required on the thesis acceptance certificate. Two of the three signatories must be GSAS faculty. The primary adviser must be in the department of History of Art and Architecture; the secondary adviser need not be. In addition to the primary and secondary advisers the student may have one or more other readers. Two readers must be in the department.

Thesis Defense

The Department of History of Art and Architecture requires that all Ph.D. dissertations (of students entering in September 1997 and beyond) be defended. At the defense, the student has the opportunity to present and formally discuss the dissertation with respect to its sources, findings, interpretations, and conclusions, before a Defense Committee knowledgeable in the student's field of research. The Director of the thesis is a member of the Defense committee. A committee is permitted to convene in the absence of the thesis Director only in cases of emergency or other extreme circumstances. The Defense Committee may consist of up to five members, but no fewer than three. The suggested make-up of the members of the committee should be brought to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval. Two members of this committee should be from the Department of History of Art and Architecture. One member can be outside the Department (either from another Harvard department or outside the University). The Defense will be open to department members only (faculty and graduate students), but others may be invited at the discretion of the candidate. Travel for an outside committee member is not possible at this time; exceptions are made rarely.  We encourage the use of Skype or conference calling for those committee members outside of Cambridge and have accommodation for either.  A modest honorarium will be given for the reading of the thesis for one member of the jury outside the University. A minimum of one month prior to scheduling the defense, a final draft of the dissertation should be submitted to two readers (normally the primary and secondary advisors). Once the two readers have informed the director of graduate studies that the dissertation is “approved for defense,” the candidate may schedule the date, room, and time for the defense in consultation with the department and the appointed committee. This date should be no less than six weeks after the time the director of graduate studies has been informed that the dissertation was approved for defense. It should be noted that preliminary approval of the thesis for defense does not guarantee that the thesis will be passed. The defense normally lasts two hours. The candidate is asked to begin by summarizing the pertinent background and findings. The summary should be kept within 20 minutes. The Chair of the Defense Committee cannot be the main thesis advisor. The Chair is responsible for allotting time, normally allowing each member of the committee 20 to 30 minutes in which to make remarks on the thesis and elicit responses from the candidate. When each committee member has finished the questioning, the committee will convene in camera for the decision. The possible decisions are: Approved; Approved with Minor Changes; Approved Subject to Major Revision (within six months); Rejected. The majority vote determines the outcome. --Approved with minor changes: The dissertation is deemed acceptable subject to minor revisions. The dissertation is corrected by the candidate, taking into account the comments made by the committee. The revisions will be supervised by the primary adviser. Upon completion of the required revision, the candidate is recommended for the degree. --Approved subject to major revision within six months: The dissertation is deemed acceptable subject to major revisions. All revisions must be completed within six months from the date of the dissertation defense. Upon completion of the required revisions, the defense is considered to be successful. The revisions will be supervised by the primary adviser. --Rejected: The dissertation is deemed unacceptable and the candidate is not recommended for the degree. A candidate may be re-examined only once upon recommendation of two readers. Rejection is expected to be very exceptional. A written assessment of the thesis defense will be given to the candidate and filed in the Department by the Chair of the Defense Committee. Candidates should keep in mind the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences deadlines for submission of the thesis and degree application when scheduling the defense.

Submitting the Dissertation

Students ordinarily devote three years to research and writing the dissertation, and complete it prior to seeking full-time employment. The dissertation will be judged according to the highest standards of scholarship, and should be an original contribution to knowledge and understanding of art. The final manuscript must conform to University requirements described in the Supplement The Form of the Doctoral Thesis distributed by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Graduate students should negotiate with their readers the timing of submission of drafts prior to final revisions. However, the complete manuscript of the dissertation must be submitted to the thesis readers not later than August 1 for a November degree, November 1 for a March degree, and April 1 for a May degree (this in order to provide both the committee with time to read and the candidate to revise, if necessary). The thesis readers may have other expectations regarding dates for submission which should be discussed and handled on an individual basis. The student is still responsible for distribution of the thesis to the committee for reading. In cases where a thesis defense is scheduled, the thesis must be submitted to the primary adviser at least one month prior to the defense. The thesis defense must be scheduled at least two weeks prior to the university deadline for thesis submission.

A written assessment by dissertation readers must be included with the final approval of each thesis including suggestions, as appropriate, on how the dissertation might be adapted for later publication.

The Dissertation is submitted online.   The Dissertation Acceptance Certificate (original) must be on Harvard watermark paper and is submitted directly to the registrar’s office once it is signed.

Degree Application and Deadlines

Commencement

• Remember me Not recommended on shared computers

Forgot your password?

Art History

Thegradcafe's Art History forum covers many different topics. See others admission results, art PhD programs questions or share your advice with other students!

1,090 topics in this forum

• Recently Updated
• Most Viewed
• Most Replies

2024 Well Funded Art History Master's

• Thursday at 08:24 PM

Pitt's Hot Metal Bridge Post-bac

Tagged with:

• art history

Hunter v. NYU

Avoid CWRU art history department

• art history ma
• art history phd
• medieval art
• medieval studies

No faculty members at any department are experts in my area of interest!

• groovysquirrel

Application Thread Fall 2024 1 2 3 4 10

• 230 replies
• 81.2k views
• vaneyckstan

Hunter College Funding

• Olympiascat

BFA fine art to Art histroy MA or PHD

Anyone heard from univ of virginia, again, psa…, in your opinion, what are the specialties/stereotypes of various art history departments in the us, surviving toxic () academic environment, what's the deal with interviews for art history informal 'chats' beforehand, japanese language summer immersion programs.

• language requirements
• japanese language
• beginner language learner
• language exam
• killerwhales
• October 18, 2023

MA Classics or MA Art history to do a PhD in ancient Greek art?

• September 26, 2023

Survival guide while doing the MA? (UT vs NYU)

• September 25, 2023

PhD application thread Fall 2023 1 2 3 4 5

• 123 replies
• April 16, 2023

MA Application Thread - Fall 2023 1 2

• March 31, 2023

Top M.A. programs to lead to curatorial careers?

• March 12, 2023

Bard Graduate Center

• bard graduate center
• history of art
• anonymous_crazy_cat-lady
• March 7, 2023

harvard results

• February 3, 2023

PhD Applications? 1 2 3 4 6

• 135 replies
• 54.6k views
• January 31, 2023

Courtauld F23 MA

• raptorblasto
• January 28, 2023

To the Brown interview poster

• January 21, 2023

Best schools for MA/PhD concentration in East Asian Art? :)

• January 19, 2023
• Existing user? Sign In
• Online Users
• All Activity
• My Activity Streams
• Unread Content
• Content I Started
• Results Search
• Post Results
• Leaderboard
• Create New...

Important Information

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. See our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use