Program Overview

Art History Combined Degrees

Program Overview

The Art History program offers an accelerated graduate-track pathway that allows selected undergraduate art history majors to begin the M.A. program in the last year of undergraduate study. This program is a great way to jumpstart a career in the gallery or museum world or to move you on your way to a Ph.D. program, as it allows you to complete both the B.A. and M.A. degrees in an expedited manner.

Program Details

• Program Type: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and Master of Arts (M.A.)
• Format: On Campus
• Estimated Time to Complete: 5-6 years
• Credit Hours: 150

Program Description

Art historians enhance our understanding of art and its place within society through their research. Studying the art, architecture, and material culture produced by diverse world cultures and periods, art historians examine the historical, social, and cultural significance art holds for its creators and users. Graduates critically analyze and apply different theories and methods in their investigation of artworks, images from visual culture, or other related materials.

Marketable Skills

• Oral and written communication
• Research source identification
• Research material analysis
• Contextual understanding of art works
• Visual literacy
• Advanced scholarly writing
• Primary and secondary source analysis
• Critical thinking
• Research design
• Research implementation

Career Outlook

Most art historians hold graduate degrees. With an advanced degree, you can pursue a career as a(n):

• Art researcher
• Gallery worker
• Museum professional
• Teacher at the university level
• Writer or editor for an art publication

Courses

• Methodologies in the History of Art and Visual Culture (3 hrs)
• Art of Ancient Greece (3 hrs)
• Seminar in 20th- and 21st–Century Art (3 hrs)
• History of Graphic Design (3 hrs)
• Seminar in the History of Architecture and Design (3 hrs)
• Dress and Fashion II—Early Modern to Contemporary (3 hrs)

Research Areas

Faculty provide supervision and mentorship in the following areas for graduate study:

• Visual and material culture of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and the art and architecture of South Asia
• Visual and material culture in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas from the 16th to the 21st Century
• Historiography, methodology, and theory of art and visual and material culture since 1900

Within these areas, students work with an array of faculty whose interests and expertise intersect on such issues as colonialism, postcolonialism, geography, ritual and spatial analysis, race, gender and sexuality.