In 2011, the Art History Department began enrolling students in an innovative Ph.D. program rooted in the fields of art history and visual culture studies. The program builds upon the strengths of a distinguished faculty who bring a renewed emphasis on historical and new media, visual technologies, architecture and the city, race and gender, and performance and ritual. Emphasizing spatial and well as visual culture, the program extends the department’s commitment to the study of technologies of visual communication, while also advancing transnational scholarship in the arts of Latin America and Iberia.
Admission
All students admitted to the program will receive full fellowship support and close mentorship within a small-program setting. Candidates are ensured professional success through a program featuring
- Small seminars and ample options for tutorial studies.
- Fellowships for all doctoral candidates for five full years.
- Medical benefits, tuition waivers and professional travel support for doctoral students.
- Close mentoring from matriculation to graduation and beyond.
To be admitted to the Ph.D. program, an applicant must have obtained a B.A. or M.A. from a four-year accredited college or university.
Degree Requirements
The Ph.D. in art history requires up to 36 hours of coursework, as well as directed readings and dissertation hours. A student must pass a departmentally administered exam to demonstrate proficiency in at least two languages relevant to his or her course of study. Further requirements include oral and written exams and a colloquium in the third year; the fourth and fifth years are devoted to dissertation research and writing.
Students who leave the Ph.D. program after completing 30 hours and who have demonstrated proficiency in one language will be allowed to take an exam in order to receive the M.A. degree. Any student who has demonstrated language proficiency and achieves a GPA of 3.000 in 24 hours of coursework during the first year of study but who does not receive the positive recommendation of the advisory committee to continue on to Ph.D. candidacy will be allowed to fulfill the requirements for the M.A. by completing a thesis within the following 12 months.