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• Ph.D. in Art History & Visual Culture

The Ph.D. Program in Art History & Visual Culture is committed to preparing you for advanced research in the global visual cultures of the past and present. The Department recognizes that visual literacy plays an increasingly important role in contemporary society. Art, architecture, mass media (television, video, film, internet), and urbanism all work through reference to visual and spatial conventions. We strive to provide you with the necessary tools to understand objects and archives and with the skills to interpret visual and material culture for the benefit of the broader community. We invite applications from highly qualified students interested in careers in research, teaching, and criticism.

Requirements for a Ph.D.

• 12 to 15 courses (excluding language courses), of which at least 10 are taken from the Art, Art History & Visual Studies department
• 2 to 4 courses taken from other departments at Duke
• Language proficiency in at least two foreign languages
• Preliminary exam
• Note the former Ph.D. track in Visual & Media Studies has now been replaced by a new Ph.D. program in Computational Media, Arts & Cultures (CMAC)
• Also review Ph.D. Program Guidelines attached below
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The UC San Diego Visual Arts PhD Program grants two PhD degrees: Art History, Theory and Criticism and Art History, Theory and Criticism with a Concentration in Art Practice . The program embodies the department's commitment to innovative research by embracing the close intersection of art, media, and design practice with history, theory, and criticism, and by offering training in the history, theory, and criticism of a range and mix of areas represented in our MFA faculty, including studio art, film, video, photography, computational media, performance art, public art, design, visual culture, and socially engaged art practice. Regional and cultural frameworks of study include European and Latin American art, Chinese art, nineteenth-century French visual culture, Mesoamerican, Native American, and Indigenous art and material culture, Medieval art and culture, queer and feminist art, material culture, science, technology, and art; and ocean, environmental, and land art.

The Art Practice Concentration degree, which must be applied for at the time of application to the PhD program, follows the same course of scholarly training, research, and writing as the Art History, Theory and Criticism degree, with additional requirements in research-based art practice that span all years of coursework, qualifying, and doctoral research. Two students are admitted to this concentration annually.

Information for Current and Prospective Students

Requirement overview, program requirements.

• Coursework, 88 units

Language Requirement

• Qualifying Materials and Exams

Dissertation and Defense

• For VA77 Only- Art Practice Project and Exhibition

Full Time Enrollment

In order to remain eligible for financial support all graduate students must be enrolled   in 12 units of upper-division (100-199) or graduate level (200 and above) courses each quarter during the regular academic year. Graduate students must also maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 to maintain good academic standing. The majority of students will choose to complete the majority of their academic coursework for a letter grade.

Pre-Candidacy

Coursework should be chosen in consultation with the Advisor and should be taken in preparation for the Qualifying phase. During the first three years in the program, students should aim to fulfill the following requirements:

• MA en Route Requirements (if interested and eligible)
• Qualifying Materials and Exams (year 3)

Advancing to candidacy occurs when the student has passed all course, language, and qualifying requirements and is ready to research and write a dissertation. Doctoral candidates, sometimes referred to as “all but dissertation” or ABD, work on their dissertation with Advisor and Committee consultation and feedback for two or more years. During this time, Art Practice candidates additionally produce the required art practice components. Each quarter, most doctoral candidates typically enroll in 8-12 units of VIS 299 and/or 4 units of a 500, in consultation with their Advisor. Candidacy concludes when the candidate completes and successfully defends the dissertation (and, for VA77, the additional Art Practice requirements) and is awarded the doctorate.

Degree Paths

The program consists of two degree paths: Art History, Theory and Criticism (VA76) and Art Practice (VA77), a concentration designed for artists engaged in advanced research who wish to pursue their work in an environment geared to doctoral study, and to produce studio, media, performance or public facing work alongside a written dissertation. See Handbook for further details.

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 origins
• Critical Gender Studies:   providing specialized training in gender and sexuality
• Interdisciplinary Environmental Research : for students interested in environmental solutions

Curriculum: VA76 Art History, Theory and Criticism

VA76- 22 courses, 88 units

GENERAL FIELD EMPHASIS

During the first year of study, students declare a general area of study in consultation with their Advisor and with the approval of the Faculty Director. This general field emphasis will be considered as they choose courses and, toward year three, plan their qualifying materials. See the Handbook for general field options.

CORE REQUIREMENTS (8 courses, 32 units)

Required (4 courses, 16 units):

• VIS 200- Methods and Theories
• VIS 204- Rethinking Art History
• VIS 500 (1 course, 4 units)- Apprentice Teaching
• VIS 502- Graduate Teaching in Visual Arts

Breadth (4 courses, 16 units), choose from 4 different areas with 3 different faculty:

• Medieval, Renaissance or Early Modern Art- VIS 251, VIS 252
• Modern and Contemporary Art- VIS 254, VIS 255
• Media Studies- VIS 256
• Meso-American Art or North American Indigenous Art- VIS 257, VIS 260
• Asian Art- VIS 258
• Latin American Art- VIS 259
• Material Culture- VIS 261
• Design Studies- VIS 262

ELECTIVE REQUIREMENTS (14 courses, 56 units), choose from the following options:

• Art History Seminars (VIS 230-269), a minimum of 6 MUST be taken for the elective area
• Graduate Research (VIS 299), during 1st year with provisional advisor
• Professional Practice Seminar (VIS 220)
• Art Theory/Practice (VIS 206, VIS 210-219), a maximum of 2 may be taken
• Other Department, a maximum of 3 graduate level courses may be taken 
• Reading Courses (approved undergrad courses), a maximum of 4 may be taken 
• Directed Group Study (VIS 298), a maximum of 1 may be taken
• Individual Studies (VIS 295), a maximum of 12 units may be taken with Advisor

Curriculum: VA77 Art History, Theory and Criticism- Art Practice

VA77- 22 courses, 88 units

CORE REQUIREMENTS (12 courses, 48 units)

Required (9 courses, 36 units):

• VIS 206- Seminar in Art Practice Research
• VIS 207 (repeat 3 times for 12 units)- Working Practice for Art Practice
• VIS 210-219, 1 course from Art Theory/Practice 

Breadth (3 courses, 12 units), choose from 3 different areas with 3 different faculty:

ELECTIVE REQUIREMENTS (10 courses, 40 units), choose from the following options:

• Art History Seminars (VIS 230-269), a minimum of 3 MUST be taken for the elective area
• Art Theory/Practice (VIS 210-219), a maximum of 2 may be taken
• Other Department, a maximum of 3 may be taken 
• Reading Courses (approved undergrad courses), a maximum of 2 may be taken 
• Directed Group Study (VIS 298), a maximum of 4 units may be taken

For the VA76 PhD students, competency in reading, understanding, and interpreting texts in two languages other than English is required before advancement to candidacy (Qualifying Exam stage), and competency in at least one language is expected at the time of application to the program. Art Practice Concentration students (VA77) will be required to satisfy competency in one language other than English before advancing to PhD candidacy. The student and their Advisor will jointly determine examination languages. 

The Program’s language requirement may be met in one of three ways: 

• Passing the department’s in-house Language Exam  
• Passing one approved graduate-level language course 
• Passing two approved upper-division undergraduate language courses 
• Passing a two-year sequence of approved undergraduate language courses in a single language  

Required Paperwork

For each language exam or course sequence taken to satisfy a language requirement, a Language Completion form must be completed by the student, the proctor/instructor and submitted to the Student Affiars Manager in order to receive credit for completion of the language requirement. Submitted forms are automatically routed via DocuSign for approval and processing.

In-House Language Exams

In-house Language Exams test ability in reading and comprehension (by translation into English) only, not writing or spoken fluency in the designated language. The exam consists of two short texts, one less difficult to be translated into English without a dictionary, and one more difficult to be translated with a dictionary. The dictionary may be either a printed volume or an on-line resource. One hour is allowed for each section (total test time: 2 hours). The translations may be written on a computer or by hand. Exams are corrected by the faculty member responsible for designing the exam, who also invigilates the test. If adequate reading knowledge is not demonstrated, the student’s Advisor will review with the student and the faculty setting the exam the steps necessary to master the language and a new exam will be scheduled within a reasonable amount of time. 

Students requesting an in-house language examination should consult with faculty responsible for particular languages:

• Chinese and Japanese : Professor Kuiyi Shen 
• French : Professors. Jordan Rose and John Welchman 
• German : Professor Alena Williams 
• Italian : Professor William Tronzo 
• Korean : Professor Kyong Park
• Mayan languages : Professor Elizabeth Newsome 
• Spanish : Professors Elizabeth Newsome and Mariana Wardwell 
• Turkish: Professors Memo Akten and Pinar Yoldas

Individual arrangements for determination of competency will be made for those languages that cannot be tested by department faculty . 

Committee Constitution and Management

About the committee.

This is the group of four faculty who agree to the student’s request for mentorship and evaluation during the qualifying and doctoral years. The Committee is chaired by the Advisor(s). In addition to mentoring and guiding the student’s research, this team serves as the Qualifying Committee and the Doctoral or Dissertation Committee, conducting the Qualifying Exam and the Dissertation Defense. The committee must be formally appointed by Graduate Division in the process outlined below.

Committee Constitution

The Committee Chair is the student’s Faculty Advisor/Co-Advisors and is selected by Year Two through mutual agreement with the student. The rest of the Committee is constituted through request and consent between the student and other faculty, with the guidance and approval of the Advisor(s). 

Makeup of the committee:

• 3 Visual Arts Faculty (including the Chair/Co-Chairs), 1 member may be a non-PhD faculty
• 1 tenured or emeritus faculty from outside the department

For each option, Assistant or Acting-Associate Faculty may serve as a general member or Co-Chair but not as sole Chair. The Graduate Division website has  additional information  about committees and a  Committee Membership Table  which may be helpful in determining what role a faculty member may serve on a committee.

Submitting Your Committee

After faculty have agreed to serve on the Committee, and the Faculty Advisor has approved the list, the student must complete and send the  Committee Constitution form  which will be routed to the Student Affiars Manager for processing.  This form must be approved by the Graduate Division by Week 5 BEFORE the Qualifying Exam .

Changing Your Committee

There are times when committee membership must change after the intial review and approval. All changes to committee membership need to be approved by the Department and then Graduate Division. Committee reconstitution must be completely reviewed and approved by Week 5, the quarter PRIOR to QE/Defense. When changing committee membership:

• Review the Committee Membership requirements 
• Discuss the change in committee membership with the Committee Chair/Co-chairs
• Discuss the change in committee with impacted committee members
• Complete the   Committee Reconstitution form   which will be routed to the Student Affairs Manager for processing.

Committee Management

It is the responsibility of the student, in consultation with their advisor/committee chair, to engage with and request feedback on drafts of written materials and (for VA77) documentation of artwork progress with all committee members during research and writing of their qualifying materials and dissertation. The student also must email final copies of all materials to their Committee prior to their Qualifying Exam and Dissertation Defense. 

Qualifying Exam, Advancement to Candidacy

About the qualifying process.

The Qualifying process occurs throughout Year Three. The student, under the supervision of the Advisor and with the advice of the Committee, prepares two bibliographies (one on the chosen field of emphasis and the second pertaining to the proposed dissertation); writes a qualifying paper and a dissertation prospectus; and takes written and oral examinations pertaining to these documents. The Art Practice PhD additionally requires a practice prospectus and a third bibliography.

Qualifying Exam

The Qualifying Examination has two parts: A Written Examination in which the student writes two essays over five days in response to questions provided by the Committee; and two weeks later,  a 2- or 2.5-hour Oral Examination led by the Committee, during which the student is asked questions and put in dialog about all of the qualifying materials.

Qualifying Timeline

A student must have completed all required course work and passed all language examinations before taking the qualifying examination, which will be held no later than the end of the third year. Upon successful completion of the qualifying examination, the student will be advanced to candidacy.

Qualifying Exam Administrative Checklist  

Qualifying Exam Failure

Should a student fail the examination, the Faculty Committee will clarify the weaknesses in the exam, so that the student can prepare to take it a second time. If a second oral examination is warranted, they will have to re-take and pass the exam prior to the end of the Pre-Candidacy Time Limit (or they need an extension approved to continue). They can always take a leave and return but if the PCTL is expired, they will have to advance before returning or an exception to extend the time would be need to be approved prior to retuning. If the student fails the oral examination a second time, their graduate studies in the department will be terminated.

MA en Route

• Five Art History seminars 
• VIS 200 Methods and Theories
• VIS 204 Re-Thinking Art History 
• One Theory/Practice seminar (chosen from VIS 210-219)
• Four breadth courses, from four different breadth areas

We do not offer an MA with an Art Practice concentration. Therefore, Art Practice concentration students must make a formal change in their degree aim to designate Art History, Theory, and Criticism (VA76). This change must take place at least two quarters prior to the Qualifying Exam. 

Note:   Students who wish to receive an MA as part of the Ph.D. program   must apply for master’s degree candidacy by the end of the second week of the quarter in which they expect to receive the degree.   Please see the Graduate Coordinator regarding this process.

Necessary Documents for the Qualifying Exam

• Report of the Qualifying Exam

Necessary Documents for the MA on the Way

• Application for MA (due week two) 
• Final Report for MA 

Best Practices for Completing the Report of the Qualifying Exam and Final Report via DocuSign:

• Ahead of your exam/defense ask faculty to add [email protected] as a “safe sender” so those emails are less likely to go to junk/spam. Although campus IT has taken steps to identify DocuSign as a safe sender, it is still recommended that individual users do so as well.
• At the end of your Exam/Defense ask your committee members to check their email for the DocuSign email with the link to the form and sign while you're all online together. 
• ask the faculty to check their junk folder, spam quarantine, or other spam folders
• next, ask them to log into their DocuSign account using their @ucsd.edu email address and SSO credentials to access the form/s directly (https://docusign.ucsd.edu) *some people have personal DocuSign accounts so ask them to ensure they are logging into the UCSD DocuSign account
• Get verbal confirmation of who has signed and who has not, then follow-up with the Student Affairs Manager to resolve any issues your committee members have with signing the form.
• Once the appropriate form is submitted to the Graduate Division, the appropriate fee will be charged directly to the student’s financial TritonLink account. 

About the Dissertation

Following successful completion of the qualifying examinations, the candidate will research and write a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of their Advisor and with the input of the Committee. Students in the art practice concentration (VA77) will submit a written dissertation that observes the same regulations and conventions as VA 76, except that the length requirement is slightly shorter and there must be one additional chapter devoted to discussion of the art practice. In addition, Art Practice candidates will additionally produce and exhibit a visual component. See the Handbook for details. 

About the Defense

After the committee has reviewed the finished dissertation (and art practice components, for VA 77), the candidate will orally defend their dissertation (and art practice work and exhibition), responding to questions from the Committee in a meeting that may be public (the student may invite visitors), as per university policy. The Dissertation Defense is the culmination of all of your work within the Ph.D. program. Please read all of the information on the Graduate Division's website about " Preparing to Graduate " and make an appointment to speak with the Student Affairs Manager one year prior to when you plan to defend.

Roles and Responsibilities for the Defense

Student will:

• Schedule the Dissertation Defense with their committee. This is normally scheduled for three hours. (You are responsible for reserving a room or scheduling the zoom meeting). 
• Complete the PhD Dissertation Defense Notification form which will notify the Student Affairs Manager of the date and time of the defense. This form is required so that the Final Report paperwork can be initiated and sent to your committee members on the date of the defense.
• Follow-up with your committee, the Graduate Division, and the Student Affairs Manager about any issues surrounding the completion of your degree.

Faculty Advisor will:

• Ensure the   policy   appropriate participation of all members of the committee at the Dissertation Defense. It is also helpful to remind all committee members to sign the forms by checking their inboxes for the DocuSign request to sign the forms. These sometimes end up in a person's spam folder.

Student Affairs Manager will:

• Fill out the Final Report form via DocuSign and route the form the morning of the exam/defense for signature to all committee members, the department chair, and the Graduate Division.
• Follow-up with committee members regarding signatures on the Final Report and general petition forms (if needed).
• Send out the announcement of the defense to department faculty and graduate students.

Additional Information and Tasks

Preliminary Dissertation Appointments with the Graduate Division: Students will schedule their preliminary and final appointments with Graduate Division Academic Affairs Advisors utilizing the online calendaring system they have in place:   https://gradforms.ucsd.edu/calendar/index.php

Committee Management : If you need to make any changes to your doctoral committee please follow the instructions above in the "Committee Management" drawer. 

Embargo Your Dissertation:   Talk to your faculty advisor about embargoing your dissertation. You may want to embargo your dissertation if you are planning to turn it into a book. The embargo will delay the university's publication of your dissertation and prevent other academics from using your research.   https://grad.ucsd.edu/_files/academics/DissertThesisReleaseTemplate.pdf

Necessary Documents for the Dissertation Defense

• Final Report (routed for signature by the Student Affairs Manager)

Best Practices for Completing the Final Report via DocuSign:

• At the end of your Defense ask your committee members to check their email for the DocuSign email with the link to the form and sign while you're all online together. 
• Get verbal confirmation of who has signed and who has not, then follow up with the Student Affairs Manager to resolve any issues your committee members have with signing the form.

Paying Associated Fees:  For students who will need to pay fees (advancement to candidacy, thesis submission fee, filing fee, re-admit fee), they will be charged on the financial TritonLink account once the form is received by the Graduate Division. There is no need for students to go to the cashier’s office.

Grades and Evaluations

Only courses in which a student received grades of A, B, or S are allowed toward satisfaction of the requirements for the degree. Note that a “C” is generally regarded as unsatisfactory within this department. In satisfaction of all program requirements and electives, A, A-, and B+ are regarded as acceptable grades for seminars and courses. Grades of B, B- indicate weaknesses and are cause for concern. Grades of C+ or below are regarded as unsatisfactory and may lead to academic probation. University policy states that any student with more than 8 units of “U” and/or “F” grades is barred from future registration including the next available quarter. It is not recommended that VIS 295/298/299 are taken for a letter grade.

Grade Point Average

A graduate student must maintain a minimum grade point average of at least 3.0 (B average) to continue in good standing. A student is subject to dismissal if the overall grade point average falls below 3.0 at any time.

Spring Evaluation

Every Spring quarter, Advisors (in the first year Provisional Advisors) will submit an evaluation of their advisee’s progress to Graduate Division. Students are expected to submit a summary of the past academic year to their advisor. These evaluations serve as an important tool for students and advisors in assessing student progress, while also providing suggestions and goals for students’ successful completion of their projects.   

The Graduate Division will review the evaluations when student/departments are making specific requests for exceptions

The duration of the Ph.D. program is five to eight years. University and departmental regulations stipulate that the maximum tenure of graduate study at UC San Diego or Total Registered Time Limit (TRTL) is eight years; while seven years is the limit for receiving any type of university financial support or a student's Support Time Limit (SUTL). For the Department of Visual Arts, the "normative" time to degree is 6 years. Students are expected to pass their qualifying exam and advance to candidacy in year three, but no later than year four which is the university's Pre-candidacy time limit (PCTL).

To learn more about time limits please visit the Graduate Division website.

Time Limits:  https://grad.ucsd.edu/academics/progress-to-degree/time-to-doctorate-policy.html

You can check your time limit by logging into the Graduate Student Portal.

Graduate Student Portal:  https://gradforms.ucsd.edu/portal/student/

PhD Current Students

Phd handbook.

The department website and catalog are great resources for students to learn generally about the PhD program and progress towards their degree. There are detailed instructions and robust program information available in the full PhD Handbook. Each student should refer to this resource throughout their academic career.

2023-24 Academic Year

2022-23 Academic Year  

2021-22 Academic Year

How to Apply

• Join our PhD Art History Program (VA76)
• Join our PhD Art Practice Program (VA77)

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Arts & Humanities

Wide-ranging expertise, key details.

• Full-time or part-time study

School or Centre

• School of Arts & Humanities

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Application deadline

• Applications closed. Please check back soon.

Career opportunities

• PhD study leads to a range of opportunities. You might become a researcher in industry or government or an academic in an international institution It is an opportunity for you to investigate a research question or issue in depth, enabling you to take a more reflective, more innovative role in design.

A dynamic interplay between theory and practice.

The School provides expert supervision across the spectrum of art and writing practice, art and design history and theory, curating and criticism. We welcome proposals for theoretical and practice-led projects, industrial collaborations and technologically focused research.

Our research interests are wide-ranging and reflect the expertise of our staff, focusing on arts, humanities and material practices, their scholarship and dissemination. The School’s distinctive research culture encompasses a broad range of activities from highly individuated scholarly and creative enquiries to projects that concern public policy and evaluation, collections and archival research, material and technical explorations as well as more speculative arts practice-focused projects. It includes the V&A/RCA PhD in History of Design, a degree offered jointly between the RCA and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Beyond your individual supervision, you’ll be able to participate in research groups, where staff and students cluster around an idea or issue.

Research takes place within an environment that is ambitious to generate new methods and insights. We thrive on interaction across the broad areas of fine and applied arts and the humanities, through School-wide lectures, workshops and tutorials delivered by key contemporary artists, writers, curators and thinkers, many of whom form part of our permanent staff base. The broad base of expertise offered by the School means we can support research interests across a large range of disciplines; moving image and sound, painting, performance, photography, printmaking and sculpture as well as jewellery, metal, ceramics, glass, curating, critical and theoretical writing and design history. The School embraces its cross-disciplinary perspective and celebrates the deployment of diverse and original methods of research and production.

Applications for the September 2024 intake are now closed. Applications for 2025 entry will open in September.

Programme details

• PhD: 3–4 years (full time), 6–7 years (part time)
• MPhil: 2–3 years (full time), 4–6 years (part time)

Explore further

Catch the replays from our latest online Open Day.

Object of Research residency, Techne Conflux, School of Arts and Humanities, 2018

School of Arts and Humanities Research: Aslyum Live, 2017

Clair Le Couteur, Despina Zacharopoulou

The Urgency of the Arts, NAFAE Research Student conference, 2018 hosted by RCA School of Arts and Humanities

School of Arts and Humanities Research Presents......Me with Professor Carol Mavor, 2019

School of Arts and Humanities Research Presents......Reenactment with Ali Smith, 2019

Entanglement Research Group

Object of Research residency,Techne Conflux, School of Arts and Humanities (Grizedale visit), 2018

School of Arts and Humanities Research: Flight Mode (Assembly Point), 2018

School of Arts and Humanities Research: Despina Zacharopoulou, Flight Mode (Asylum), 2018

Dr Josephine Berry

Tutor (Research)

Dr Josephine Berry is an art theorist, writer and editor. She supervises thesis only and practice based PhDs in the School of Arts and Humanities.

Professor Rachel Garfield

Senior Tutor (Research) and School Research Lead

Rachel Garfield is an artist and writer whose work is engaged with the role of lived relations in the formation and intersections of subjectivities.

Professor Johnny Golding

Professor of Philosophy & Fine Art

Johnny’s work situates post-Newtonian analytics, new materialisms and the erotics of sense as ‘radical matter’, a practice-led encounter with contemporary philosophy, art and the wild sciences.

Dr Peter Oakley

Reader in Material Culture

Dr Peter Oakley specialises in research on materials, making and manufacturing.

The School of Arts & Humanities is located across our Battersea and Kensington sites.

Shared workspaces are provided for all research students. There are a number of bookable seminar and project spaces across the site available to all Arts & Humanities students.

Daybreak: Asylum Live, Research Student Project, Adjoa Armah

Darkroom facilities (photo: Richard Haughton)

Gorvy Kiln Room (Photographer: Richard Haughton)

Hot Glass Workshop (Photographer: Richard Haughton)

Screenprint Workshop (Photographer: Richard Haughton)

More details on what you'll study.

Find out what you'll cover in this programme.

What you'll cover

What is a research degree.

At the RCA we offer both MPhil and PhD research degrees. Research candidates can study in part-time and full-time modes (subject to approval) and their research can be undertaken by project or thesis modes. The mode of research will be discussed in interview, and should be indicated in the application process.

A postgraduate research degree challenges you to complete a research project that pushes the boundaries of our understanding.

Unlike a taught degree, a research degree emphasises independence of learning and increased specialisation. You will manage your own research project in order to investigate your topic in depth and to produce new ideas, arguments and solutions.

A research degree will give you the subject matter expertise and transferable skills necessary for a wide range of senior roles in research and academia, as well as in business, industry and the cultural and creative sectors.

A PhD is awarded to students who produce a substantial piece of original research that makes a contribution to research in the field. This can take the form of a thesis (60,000-80,000 words) or by project (a body of work and thesis 25,000-40,000 words). If you’re a PhD candidate you’ll normally registered for three years full-time, with submission within four years, or six to seven years part-time. You must remain registered and pay an appropriate fee until submission.

An MPhil is awarded for original research and submission of a thesis. If you’re an MPhil candidate you’ll normally be registered for two years (full-time) or four years (part-time).

Our postgraduate community

We have more than 250 PhD students pursuing cutting-edge research and undertaking advanced training across the College:

• School of Architecture
• School of Communication
• Computer Science Research Centre
• School of Design
• Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design
• Intelligent Mobility Design Centre
• Material Futures Research Centre

The RCA is a world-leading postgraduate university and is ranked the most research-intensive university of art and design in the UK since 2014. Both our students and staff are drawn from countries across the globe. Overseas students play a vital role in ensuring that our College community benefits from a diversity of experience and skills.

Doctoral training programme

At the RCA, research students undertake training both at a cross-College level and within their Schools/Centres, offering rich and robust preparation and learning opportunities for their research degree progression. Many of these also offer opportunities to build a portfolio of experience for future careers.

All students are required to attend our Doctoral Training Weeks in September, February and July (pro-rata attendance by negotiation for part-time students). These are opportunities to participate in the broader research community at the RCA, but also to undertake timely training to support research progression. These intensive weeks include a range of professional development seminars, training and advice in writing, getting published, achieving impact, entering the academic job market and more, and opportunities for you to develop and present your research to your peers and staff.

Our Research Biennale, held every alternate February, offers a showcase of research to internal and external partners and public. The events include space for testing and experimenting with public facing aspects of research, extending and challenging frameworks and perceptions of what art and design research can be.

We are committed to ensuring that you are well equipped, not only to complete your studies but also to develop your future careers.

Supervisors

All students are allocated supervisors upon registration; your supervisory team will have both subject specialism and experience of supervising to completion. Our of current staff index includes an overview of their research interests, recent research outputs and areas of expertise. These give an idea of the key areas of research that are covered at the RCA.

We are not able to guarantee allocation to a specific supervisor as we need to balance staff capacities and our research strategy. However, if there is a particular supervisor whose research aligns with your research proposal, please join us at one of our Open Days and we can talk with you about the possibilities.

Each student will have six supervisions per year (3 for PT students); these might be with the full supervisory team or with one supervisor. Students are expected to initiate these meetings, set the agenda and provide supervisors with pre-reading or other materials in an agreed timeframe for review.

Annual progress reviews

All research students have Annual Progress Reviews, which they must pass in order to progress into the next year of study. These are vital points where all candidates receive formal feedback not only from their supervisory team, but also from other members of the faculty.

There is a formal Confirmation Exam that takes place midway through the period of study to ascertain your readiness for PhD submission; if you who do not meet the requirements at this stage then you’ll usually be recommended to submit for MPhil examination.

Our research

In addition to supervision from world-leading artists, academics, historians, theorists, curators and critics, the School’s MPhil/PhD community offers a rich and stimulating range of doctoral training, including the College-wide Doctoral Training Programme, the School-based Research Groups (small groups that include seminars, workshops and crit sessions, open to all Arts & Humanities research students) and opportunities for exhibiting and publishing research in student-led group exhibitions and symposia and in Prova (the School’s SoAH annual research journal). New student-led initiatives are encouraged and facilitated by the School. Public engagement is a vital part of our practice and we are keen to support interdisciplinary studies and dynamic and innovative projects that expand the potential for arts and humanities research both within the academic context and the wider cultural community

Beyond their individual supervision, students are able to participate in Research Groups, where staff and students cluster around an idea or issue. You will select a group based on your own research interests and attend weekly sessions led by senior academics and with input from a wide range of research-active staff. These groups are also closely linked to our 'SoAH Research Presents....' series, public events with guest speakers and performers, devised by the Research Groups. Additionally, you can attend twice termly research events examining the platforms for their research and forms of dissemination, as well as having the opportunity to present your research formally within the School. The year includes an exhibition, conference, event or publication. In 2017 this was Daybreak , a project which included Asylum Live and exhibitions at Safehouses 1&2 and Amp. In 2018 we staged Flight Mode and in 2019 we hosted the NAFAE conference, The Urgency of the Arts , as well as staging an exhibition, There’s Something Lurking In The Shadows That May Be Interesting .

Requirements

What you need to know before you apply

The programme welcomes applications from candidates from across the world and of all ages, including those with academic and professional backgrounds.

Applications are considered in terms of quality of proposal, quality of practice (where appropriate), readiness to undertake a research degree at this level and supervisory capacity.

What's needed from you

Portfolio requirements.

Your portfolio showcases your work as an artist or designer and can be made up of images, videos or writing examples. Your portfolio helps us to understand your application better and allows you to show evidence of your ability and motivation to undertake a given programme.

Generally, we’re looking for you to demonstrate your:

• Creativity, imagination and innovation
• Ability to articulate the intentions of the work
• Intellectual engagement in areas relevant to the work
• Technical skills appropriate to the work
• Potential to benefit from the programme

If you are applying for a research degree by project please submit a single PDF portfolio of between 8–16 images/files that relate to your proposed research project.

In addition to image files, please include a piece of writing (between 2000–5000 words) that demonstrates your approach to articulating ideas. This can be a piece of writing that you have completed within the last three years or a new piece of writing.

Video requirements

We ask that you upload a two-minute video recorded on your phone or laptop, speaking to us directly. High production qualities are not needed. We will review the work in your portfolio, so keep your video simple.

We would like you to create a video where you identify one project demonstrating how research was an important aspect to its completion. Explain the impact this has had on others and yourself and how this motivated you on your journey to the RCA.

English-language requirements

If you are not a national of a majority English-speaking country, MPhil candidates will need the equivalent of an IELTS Academic score of 6.5 with a 6.5 in the Test of Written English (TWE). PhD candidates will need the equivalent of an IELTS Academic score of 7.0 with a 7.0 in the Test of Written English (TWE).

If you need a Student Visa to study at the RCA, you will also need to meet the Home Office’s minimum requirements for entry clearance.

Fees & funding

For this programme, fees for new students.

Fees for September 2024 entry on this programme are outlined below. From 2021 onward, EU students are classified as Overseas for tuition fee purposes.

Home: High residency

Home: low residency, overseas and eu: high residency, overseas and eu: low residency.

New entrants to the College will be required to pay a non-refundable deposit in order to secure their place. This will be offset against the tuition fees for the first year of study.

Overseas and EU

Progression discount.

For alumni and students who have completed an MA, MA/MSc or MRes at the RCA within the past 10 years, a progression discount is available for Doctoral study. This discount is £1,000 per year for thee first three years of full-time study.

Continuation fees

Candidates who have completed the minimum three years of study (FT or 6 years PT) for PhD will be eligible to apply for Continuation Status. This is a period of study, for up to one academic year, during which a candidate will be focused upon revising and editing their thesis/project.

Scholarships

Rca scholarships.

Sir Frank Bowling Fund support is available for both MPhil and PhD students for 2024/25

The Sir Frank Bowling Studentship

For: full-time, three-year PhDs will be applicable (both high and low residency routes)

Eligibility criteria: UK students from Black African and Caribbean diaspora heritage, or from mixed Black African and Caribbean diaspora heritage

Eligible fee status: Home fee status

Value: Tuition fees for a three-year period of full-time study, a stipend of £20,622 per annum, and access to research training support.

The successful applicant must commence their PhD between September 2024 and October 2025.

How to apply: Applications closed on Friday 3 May 2024.

Successfully shortlisted candidates will be called for interview either in person or online.

Any questions? Email [email protected] in the School of Arts & Humanities.

Sir Frank Bowling Scholarships

For: All programmes excluding PhD & short courses

Eligibility criteria: Black or Black British Caribbean, Black or Black British African, Other Black Background, Mixed - White and Black Caribbean, Mixed - White and Black African

Value: Full fees & maintenance

Applying for a scholarship

More information, mphil/phd fee bands.

The RCA is introducing two separate tuition fee bands for MPhil/PhD students with effect from the academic year 2023/24: Low Residency and High Residency. For more information about what the different fee bands entail, and for frequently asked questions on fee bands, visit:

Additional fees

In addition to your programme fees, please be aware that you may incur other additional costs associated with your study during your time at RCA. Additional costs can include purchases and services (without limitation): costs related to the purchase of books, paints, textiles, wood, metal, plastics and/or other materials in connection with your programme, services related to the use of printing and photocopying, lasercutting, 3D printing and CNC. Costs related to attending compulsory field trips, joining student and sport societies, and your Convocation (graduation) ceremony. 

If you wish to find out more about what type of additional costs you may incur while studying on your programme, please contact the Head of your Programme to discuss or ask at an online or in person  Open Day .   

We provide the RCASHOP online, and at our Kensington and Battersea Campuses – this is open to students and staff of the Royal College of Art only to provide paid for materials to support your studies. 

We also provide support to our students who require financial assistance whilst studying, including a dedicated Materials Fund.

External funding

With the Government's introduction of the new Doctoral Loan and the continued support available via the Arts and Humanities Research Council, there are more financial support options than ever before.

Tuition fees are due on the first day of the academic year and students are sent an invoice prior to beginning their studies. Payments can be made in advance, on registration or in two instalments.

Ask a question

Get in touch if you’d like to find out more or have any questions.

More opportunities to study at the RCA

Related programmes, master of research rca.

An interdisciplinary research MRes by practice or thesis across art and design

Contemporary Art Practice

A discursive environment of experimentation, self-reflexivity and critical art practices

Committed to broadening the understanding of painting

Department of Art History

The doctoral program in art history typically involves two years of coursework, the completion of a qualifying paper, preliminary exams in three fields, a dissertation prospectus, and a dissertation. Following their coursework, students also learn to teach by serving as a teaching assistant for faculty-taught undergraduate courses and taking the department’s teaching colloquium. After advancing to ABD status, students research and write their dissertation, usually combining time in Chicago with traveling abroad. The current expectation, in general terms, is that completion of the PhD in Art History requires approximately seven years, but time to degree will vary.

Course Requirements

In general terms, the doctoral program requires two years of full time coursework. Students typically enroll in three courses each quarter during their first two years, and courses are selected with the guidance of the student’s doctoral advisor and in consultation with the Director of Graduate Studies in the department.

All students take the Proseminar and the COSI Objects & Materials seminar in the Autumn and Winter Quarters, respectively, of their first year. Among the other 18 courses required for the doctoral degree are two courses each for distribution requirements and for the student’s minor field. The qualifying paper, completed by the end of Winter Quarter of the second year, is researched and written within the framework of two Qualifying Paper Reading Courses typically supervised by the doctoral advisor and/or another faculty member. Finally, students enroll in a Preliminary Exam Directed Reading Course in the Spring Quarter of their second year.

All students must demonstrate competency in languages determined by their chosen field. Depending on the language and level, up to three language courses may be counted toward the total number of courses required for the degree.

Given the department's strong history of and continuing commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry and intellectual formation, the doctoral program allows for as many as 8 of the total 18 courses required for the PhD to be taken outside the Department of Art History.

In their third year, students are required to take the Teaching Colloquium and Dissertation Proposal Workshop offered yearly by an art history faculty member. These courses do not count toward the 18 courses required for the PhD. Students also prepare for and take their preliminary exams, and typically hold their first teaching assignments in their third year.

Upon successful completion of all coursework requirements, the qualifying paper, the relevant language requirements, and the preliminary exams, each student prepares a dissertation proposal that must be approved by three committee members. Upon that approval and an administrative review of the student's file, the student formally advances to the status of “PhD Candidate” and “ABD” status.

In subsequent years, students research and write the dissertation while further developing their teaching skills (in keeping with the doctoral program’s teaching requirement). Following the submission and successful defense of the dissertation, the doctoral degree is conferred. The current expectation, in general terms, is that completion of the PhD in Art History requires approximately seven years, but time to degree will vary: some students may graduate in less than seven years, others may find they need an additional year.

While all doctoral students must fulfill the requirements sketched above, the different fields of art historical study that are represented in the Department of Art History each have their own particular scholarly requirements. With the aim of providing graduate students with the most rigorous formation in their chosen area of specialization, the department has made various structural provisions to ensure that students can receive the additional training required by their chosen field (including additional language study, training in specialized research skills, and curatorial formation). As these scholarly requirements vary from field to field, so too—within limits set by the Department of Art History and the Division of the Humanities—the pace of each student’s progress through the doctoral program will necessarily be shaped by the requirements of his/her chosen area of study, in consultation with the art history faculty.

Students should refer to the Graduate Student Handbook   for details on all requirements.

Joint and Dual PhDs

Select students may pursue joint PhD degrees with art history and another department or program. Joint PhD programs at the University of Chicago are of two types, "standing" and "ad hoc."

A standing joint degree program has been established between Art History (ARTH) and the Committee on Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS). It allows students to complement their doctoral studies in Art History with a program of study in TAPS that reflects their particular training and interests, encompassing both academic and artistic work. Students apply to this standing program at the time of their application to the University, which is submitted to the art history department.

Students may petition for an ad-hoc joint PhD with another department or program according to guidelines set by the Humanities Division . Generally, admitted students must separately meet the requirements of both programs, but any overlapping requirement need only be met once if each department would otherwise consider it met were that student not in the joint degree program. Recent art history students have completed joint PhDs with Cinema and Media Studies and with Social Thought.

Under a new initiative , some students may simultaneously pursue PhD studies at the University of Chicago and at a degree-granting institution of higher learning in France, leading to two PhD degrees – one from each of the two institutions. Students approved for this initiative pursue a specific course of study depending on their research and professional interests, must satisfy all the requirements of both doctoral programs, and must write and defend a single dissertation that meets the requirements for each degree.

Master of Arts Program in Humanities

Masters-level study in Art History is offered through the  Master of Arts Program in Humanities . Sstudents build their own curriculum with graduate-level courses in any humanities department (including in the Department of Art History) and complete a thesis with a University of Chicago faculty advisor. Typically a one-year program, some students pursue the “Two Year Language Option” or TLO to pursue additional foreign language study. 

Ph.D. in Art, Art History and Visual Studies

General info.

• Faculty working with students: 20
• Students: 26
• Part time study available: No
• Application Terms: Fall
• Application Deadline: December 12

Richard Powell Director of Graduate Studies Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies Duke University Box 90766 Durham, NC 27708-0764

Phone: (919) 684-2473

Email:  [email protected]

Website:  https://aahvs.duke.edu

Program Description

The program, which is designed for a small group of students, emphasizes the study of art, architecture and visual culture within a theoretical and historical frame. The Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies offers an interdisciplinary program of graduate study leading to the Ph.D. (No M.A. is offered. Please find more information on the Digital Art History/Computational Media M.A. tracks).

We invite applications from dedicated students interested in careers in research, criticism, teaching, and museum work. Admission is highly competitive and limited to an average of four new students per year. The Department makes every effort to offer full funding to all admitted candidates. Students are trained for teaching by serving as graders and teaching assistants.

Duke University is now in the forefront of academic institutions supporting interdisciplinary and theoretical initiatives in the humanities. Art History and Visual Studies have a unique contribution to make to these efforts and all members of the faculty are engaged in innovative teaching or research projects involving faculty from other departments and programs. All members of the graduate faculty team-teach courses or have courses cross-listed in other departments (African and African-American Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Classical Studies, Economics, Literature, Germanic Languages and Literature, Religion) or programs (Documentary Studies, Women's Studies, International Comparative Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies). Students have a minor field outside the department.

The department works cooperatively with the art history program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as well as with the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh.

Program Statistics

• Art, Art History and Visual Studies: PhD Admissions and Enrollment Statistics
• Art, Art History and Visual Studies: PhD Completion Rate Statistics
• Art, Art History and Visual Studies: PhD Time to Degree Statistics
• Art, Art History and Visual Studies: PhD Career Outcomes Statistics

Application Information

Application Terms:  Fall

Application Deadline:  December 12

Graduate School Application Requirements See the  Application Instructions  page for important details about each Graduate School requirement.

• Transcripts: Unofficial transcripts required with application submission; official transcripts required upon admission
• Letters of Recommendation: 3 Required
• Statement of Purpose: Required (see department guidance below)
• Résumé: Required
• GRE Scores: GRE General - Optional
• English Language Exam: TOEFL, IELTS, or Duolingo English Test required* for applicants whose first language is not English * test waiver may apply for some applicants
• GPA: Undergraduate GPA calculated on 4.0 scale required

Department-Specific Application Requirements (submitted through online application)

Writing Sample A 10-page writing sample is required with your application.

We strongly encourage you to review additional department-specific application guidance from the program to which you are applying:  Departmental Application Guidance

List of Graduate School Programs and Degrees

Doctor of Philosophy

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. The program is designed for up to six years of full-time funded study. A total of 18 courses (72 points) are required for the PhD degree. Each student registers for three courses per semester for the first five semesters. One course in the fifth semester is dedicated to developing the dissertation proposal. In the sixth semester students register for 12 points devoted preparing for the oral exam and beginning work on the dissertation. Exceptions to full-time study are made only for urgent financial or medical reasons and must have the approval from the Director of Graduate Studies.

Distribution Requirements

Students must take at least one seminar in four fields outside of their area of specialization. The Proseminar may count as one of these seminars. Students are required to take one course in technical studies of works of art. The minimum total seminars for PhD students is six. Students may take courses in other relevant disciplines in consultation with their advisor, and subject to the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies.

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
• Pre-modern Europe and the Americas
• Post-1750 Global
• Museum and Curatorial Studies
• Technical Studies of Works of Art
• Architectural History

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.

Seminar: 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: 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.

Curatorial Track

This doctoral-level program is offered jointly by the Institute of Fine Arts and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, under the supervision of the Joint Committee on Curatorial Studies composed of faculty, curators, and the Directors of both institutions. The purpose of the program is to prepare students for curatorial careers in specialized fields. Students are required to take two courses in Curatorial Studies, which are taught at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, before being offered an internship at the Museum.

Language Requirement

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.

Qualifying Paper

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 are examined on a major field consisting of two contiguous areas and a third component that can be in a related field providing skills for their dissertation.

Students are encouraged to teach after passing the second year review. Opportunities for teaching at NYU and at other New York area colleges and universities will be coordinated by the Director of Graduate Studies.

PhD students are funded for up to six years, depending on the transfer of previous graduate work. The program is normally divided into three years of course work, exams, and submission of a dissertation proposal and three years for dissertation research and writing. Variations to this pattern might occur according to opportunities for students to develop skills or experience in their specialist fields, as approved by the student’s advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. Students are encouraged to compete for outside fellowships. The award of such fellowships might extend the number of years taken to complete the program. Institute funding will be suspended during the period of outside fellowship support.

Students Entering with a Master’s Degree

To receive the PhD degree, all Institute requirements must have been fulfilled, including a Master’s thesis (of copy of which is submitted with the application), and a distribution of courses within areas of study that correspond to those outlined in Distribution Requirements. No credits will be automatically transferred; credit will be awarded based upon evaluation by the Institute Faculty at the First Year Course Review. In addition, at least one written comprehension exam in a foreign language must have been passed. The student entering with a MA degree must pass an exam in a second language, if not yet attained, by the end of his/her first year of study. Entering students who have been awarded an MA at the Institute will begin as third year PhD students. They are expected to have a distribution of courses that meet the Course Distribution for the PhD and are required to pass a written comprehension exam in a second language.

Degree Requirements

PhD | Masters Degree | Conservation

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PhD Art History

The doctoral program in the History of Art at Stanford is relatively small, affording graduate students the opportunity to work intensively with individual members of the faculty.

Program Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy degree is taken in a particular field, including Film & Media Studies, supported by a strong background in the general history of art. Doctoral candidates also undertake collateral studies in other graduate departments, or in one of the University's interdisciplinary programs. The Department of Art & Art History offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, although the Master of Arts in Art History is only available to doctoral students in Art and Art History, as a step toward fulfilling requirements for the Ph.D. The Department does not admit students who wish to work only toward the M.A. degree. 

Size of the Program

The Department admits approximately 4 to 7 students each year to the Ph.D. program. 

Time to Completion

The Ph.D. student's formal progress to degree is reviewed at the end of the second year (first year for those entering with an M.A.). By the end of the third year, a dissertation topic should be selected and a proposal written. After all course requirements are met and the proposal is approved, the student begins research and writing of the dissertation. The dissertation must be completed within five years from the date of the student's admission to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree.

Financial Aid

Art History Ph.D. students normally receive a financial support package covering five years of graduate study.  Funding sources include departmental fellowships, teaching assistantships and research assistantships. Additional funding covers summer language study as well as summer research.  Students manage an individual research and travel fund provided by the department.  Advanced students are encouraged to apply for outside grants and fellowships as well as for assistantships and other professionally valuable opportunities at Stanford's Cantor Arts Center, Anderson Collection and elsewhere on campus. Information on language study grants, pre-doctoral grants, and funds for special research and travel connected with the writing of the dissertation may be obtained from the Student Services Manager. Additional information about graduate financial aid, including a student budget and tuition calculator, is available at  financialaid.stanford.edu/grad .

More Information

PhD Admission Degree Requirements Knight-Hennessy Scholars

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Art History

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

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• 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.

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Doctor of Philosophy in Visual and Performing Arts

Program description.

The PhD in visual and performing arts program is designed primarily for individuals who wish to conduct advanced research and to teach at the college level, and can lead to a wide variety of non-academic careers as well. It is open to qualified candidates who desire to enhance their knowledge and skills.

The program provides students with a flexible, interdisciplinary context within which to pursue their studies, built on connections among specific courses and areas of interest. Each student plans an individual program of studies in consultation with an assigned advisor.

Visual and performing arts is an interdisciplinary program of study, so students take the majority of their coursework in visual and performing arts courses, but must also take two seminars each in both history of ideas and literature. Students pursuing the PhD in visual and performing arts may submit a creative project as part of their dissertation.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of the program seek positions such as: artists, performers, teachers, researchers, arts administrators, arts entrepreneurs, arts writers/critics, editors, museum staff, consultants, archivists and other positions in research or professional practice. Career settings may include higher education, non-profits, cultural and historical organizations, publishing houses, government agencies, international development organizations, museums and archives, business/corporate entities and independent consulting.

Marketable Skills

Review the marketable skills for this academic program.

Application Requirements

Visit the  Apply Now  webpage to begin the application process.  

Applicants to the Doctoral degree program should have:  

• A baccalaureate degree (BA or MA) or its equivalent from an accredited institution of higher education, normally in an arts and humanities field.  
• Letters of Recommendation: Applicants must submit 3 letters of recommendation from faculty, or other individuals, able to judge the candidate’s potential for success in the program.  
• Admissions Essay: Applicants must submit a 650-word narrative essay, which should be reflective rather than factual. The essay should address the applicant’s academic interests and goals and indicate how the program would enable such pursuits.  
• A writing sample: Submit an academic writing sample (e.g., a seminar paper or a critical essay). 
• International applicants must submit a TOEFL score of at least 80 on the internet-based test.  Scores must be less than two years old. See the  Graduate Catalog  for additional information regarding English proficiency requirements for international applicants.  
• Each application is considered holistically on its individual merits. You must submit all supporting documents before the Graduate Admissions Committee can review your application. 
• The Graduate Record Examination is not required. 

Deadline:  The application deadline is January 15. All applications completed by the deadline will be reviewed for admission. Applications submitted or completed after January 15 may be reviewed for admission only if spaces remain within the upcoming cohort and will be reviewed in order by the date the application file became complete.

Contact Information

Dr. Catherine Parsoneault Clinical Professor and Program Head Phone: 972-883-2140 Email: [email protected]

Graduate Advising Pia K. Jakobsson Phone: 972-883-4706 Email: [email protected]

Graduate Admissions Phone: 972-883-6176 Email: [email protected] Request Bass School Graduate Program Information

Harry W. Bass Jr. School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology The University of Texas at Dallas, JO31 800 W. Campbell Road Richardson, TX 75080-3021

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Slade School of Fine Art

• MPhil/PhD Fine Art

The Slade School of Fine Art is an art school with an international outlook, part of UCL, London's global university. The Slade offers a thought-provoking and creative environment in which to develop research and we welcome researchers from a wide range of backgrounds, here in the UK and internationally. We value the development of research through a wide range of artistic practice and champion its communication through inventive modes of exhibition, documentation and writing. We see the Slade as home to the ‘Artist’s PhD’. Our focus is on subject areas within Fine Art including Sculpture, Painting, Fine Art Media as well as on developments in Art and Technology. We also support and highly encourage interdisciplinary research between the Slade and disciplines offered across UCL.

Key information

• Full-time or Part-time
• Programme starts: September 2025
• Application deadline - 14 October 2024
• Application portal open - 2 September - 14 October 2024

AHRC-Open day split

The Slade is part of the AHRC funded London Arts and Humanities Partnership .

The LAHP annually awards up to 90 studentships for postgraduate research students studying arts and humanities disciplines at eight leading UK research organisations. Please check the  LAHP website for details of the award and to check eligibility.

Please read the information below in conjunction with the main UCL prospectus information: 

Slade Doctoral Research

Intrinsic to Slade doctoral research is a commitment to searching beyond established canons of knowledge-formation, to include voices and methods less recognised within traditional scholarship. Contemporary art-making is attuned to the possibilities this brings. As a practice-led discipline, art emphasises materiality alongside imaginative potential. It allows aural, visual, spatial, temporal and haptic modes of experience to carry and convey knowledge.

Slade doctoral researchers work in the studio, in archives, on site, and through community formations. They make films, writing, paintings, sound works, photography, sculptures, textiles, performance, installations, site-based and socially-engaged art. Our artist researchers are both situated and mobile, responding to and engaging with the complexities of the world around us, as well as imagining new and possible future worlds.

In the pursuit of doctoral research at the Slade, the emphasis will always be on art. Across the possible pathways (see below), we will encourage and support the development of your research through a wide range of artistic practice, and we will champion its communication through inventive modes of exhibition, documentation and writing. We see the Slade as home to the ‘Artist’s PhD’.

The doctoral research community at the Slade is committed to anti-racism, which we understand as predicated on core values of equity, transparency, and reciprocity. Informed by this, the aim in all research exchanges is to create the conditions needed for everyone to respectfully speak their mind; to share work and ideas; to create and co-create meaning. We consider all voices and perspectives necessary for this act of making and continuously evolving a community of practice.

In the Slade, research is focused on subject areas within Fine Art including Sculpture, Painting and Fine Art Media as well as on developments in Art and Technology. We also support and highly encourage interdisciplinary research between the Slade and disciplines offered across UCL. We look for projects that address pressing questions and concerns for ‘now’, acknowledging that today, contemporary art and art research are situated in a period of radical transition. In a post-pandemic and ‘post-truth’ world, global shifts, both macro and micro, are resulting from conflict, migration, the climate emergency, calls for social justice, and technological developments. With its permeable disciplinary boundaries, capacity to readily register, adapt and respond to context, and ability to communicate through and across the sensorium, how can art and art research participate in the contextual thinking and making needed now for transformation and change? How can the radical potential of the artistic imagination usher in possible new futures?

Related to this, see: UCL Grand Challenges: Our themes

The aims of doctoral research at the Slade are to:

• advance the highest quality of artistic research that demonstrates ambition, breadth of vision and creativity;
• further such high-quality research through a wide range of artistic practice, and communicate this through inventive modes of exhibition, documentation and writing;
• make original contributions to knowledge through artistic practice, and further the understanding of artistic research itself;
• search beyond established canons of knowledge formation to champion and promote voices and methods less recognised within traditional scholarship;
• encourage a diversity of research outputs through, for example, exhibitions, performances, film and video, art-writing, print-making, new media, collaborations, publications, workshops, site-specific work, interventions;
• affirm the importance of Fine Art research while also exploring the possibilities of interdisciplinary research with other departments and faculties at UCL;
• engage with the radical and transformative potential of the imagination to effect change, working across disciplines, as needed, to do so;
• develop ways of making, thinking, doing and being that contribute to the research culture of the Slade, the UCL community, and wider fields of art and academia;
• encourage the sharing of research with national and international research institutions and wider publics.

Current research

Outlines of current and archived Slade MPhil and PhD research are in the MPhil/PhD pages of our Research section .

MPhil/PhD Slideshow

©the artist

Reece Straw

Shao-Jie Lin

Javier Artero

Credit: all the artists, contributors and Arts Cabinet

MPhil/PhD in Fine Art

Mphil/phd degree pathways.

The Slade offers the following three pathways for undertaking MPhil/PhD research:

• Practice-led Thesis: a thesis of art practice that makes an original contribution to knowledge accompanied by a written component of normally 15,000-30,000 words (with a maximum of 40,000) or 10,000-15,000 words (a maximum of 20,000) for the MPhil.
• Practice-related Thesis: a written thesis of 60,000-80,000 words with art practice that together make an original contribution to knowledge (or 35,000-45,000 words for the MPhil).
• Written Thesis: a written thesis of 80,000-100,000 words that makes an original contribution to knowledge (or 50,000-60,000 words for the MPhil).

Registration and Length of Study

The length of the PhD is normally 3 years full-time or 5 years part-time.

Researchers register initially for an MPhil and are required to upgrade to a PhD between 9 and 18 months (full-time) or between 15 and 30 months (part-time). You must be registered for a minimum period of 3 years (full-time) or five years (part-time) before you are eligible to apply for Completing Research Status (CRS). The CRS period is a further 1 year (full-time) or 2 years (part-time) registration without fees, during which time you must submit the thesis and hold the final viva examination.

What to expect

Supervision.

Doctoral research is independent and driven primarily through the work you do with your supervisors. Throughout the development of your project, you will meet regularly with your supervisors, either in group supervisions or with individual members of your supervisory team. You will be expected to complete and submit work ahead of time for consideration during each supervisory session, and to complete and submit a Supervision Report after each supervisory session. Progress throughout your research journey will be recorded on your UCL Research Log and discussed in yearly Annual Review Panels organised as part of the Slade Doctoral Programme.

Slade Doctoral Programme

As members of the Slade doctoral research community, you will participate in the Slade Doctoral Programme. This means attending and participating in the Slade Art Research Forums and, for those in Year 1 (FT) and Years 1-2 (PT), taking part in the Skills Workshops for Practice Research.

Term 1 4 x Art Research Forums (3 hours each) 2 x Skills Workshops for Practice Research (3 hours each)

Term 2 4 x Art Research Forums (3 hours each) 2 x Skills Workshops for Practice Research (3 hours each)

Term 3 2 x Art Research Forums (3 hours each) Annual Review Panels (1 hour each)

You will be expected to present and exhibit your research in the Slade Art Research Forum three times in total throughout your active registration as a doctoral researcher. This means you will present and exhibit your research 3 x times across three years for full-time and 3 x times across five years for part-time research. One of these presentations will be your formal Upgrade presentation and exhibition, which normally takes place in Year 2 (FT) or Year 3 (PT) of your research.

As well as the Art Research Forum, Skills Workshops for Practice Research (Year 1 FT; Years 1-2 PT) and the Annual Review Panels, you will be encouraged to attend and initiate research activities in the Slade; attend the weekly all-School Contemporary Art Lectures and Staff Talks, and to engage in Slade cross-School events; seek out research events across UCL and LAHP that are relevant to your specific research; be active participants in exhibitions, performances, events, conferences, and publishing both within and beyond UCL.

Skills Training

The Slade will offer some subject-specific training for practice research; however, the majority of your research training will come through UCL’s Doctoral School.

The UCL Doctoral School Skills Development Programme offers a range of courses that address the following: research skills and techniques, management of the student’s research, personal effectiveness, communication skills, networking and team working and career management. This is the first port of call for any training needs and all training needed to complete your MPhil/PhD research can be found in this suite of training courses: UCL Doctoral School Skills Development Programme .

Space and facilities

Slade art research centre.

There is dedicated space for doctoral researchers in the Slade Art Research Centre, which is in the Slade’s Woburn Square Studios – around a 7 minute walk from the main Slade building.

The Slade Art Research Centre space itself is currently divided into:

• Exhibition Space
• Discussion Space / Hot Desk Area
• Meeting Room / Communal Space
• Art Research Studio

This is an open-plan, shared space for making, exhibiting, and discussing art research. The Exhibition Space is used for the Art Research Forums where everyone is expected to exhibit their art as research/research as art. The Discussion Space can be used for the Art Research Forums or for any research-related discussions and activities. When not in use as a Discussion Space, this space functions as a Hot Desk Area. The Meeting Room can be booked out for supervisions or for meetings with colleagues and peers. When not used for this purpose, this room functions as a Communal Space. All the furniture can be moved and stored so that the entire space can be transformed into a public space for hosting symposia, conferences, workshops, etc.

All Slade doctoral researchers can make use of the spaces in the Slade Art Research Centre; however, only those enrolled full-time on the practice-led pathway have allocated space within the shared Art Research Studio. As this is not individualised studio space, the size of this allocated space is variable each year depending on how many people are enrolled as full-time, practice-led researchers and actively using the space.

Postgraduate Research Space in Slade Main Building

There is also dedicated office space for postgraduate researchers in the Slade Main Building that can be used by Slades’ Postgraduate Teaching Assistants as well as by researchers needing a quiet space to write or to have meetings with supervisors, colleagues and peers.

Slade Workshops and Facilities

As well as this the Slade Art Research Centre in Woburn Square Studios and the dedicated research space in the Slade Main Building, all Slade researchers (full-time and part-time; on any pathway) can access any of the Slade’s workshops and facilities in the Slade Main Building and book out equipment for research purposes.

Research environment

Slade research environment.

The Slade School of Fine Art’s practice-led research culture facilitates an ongoing commitment to individual excellence in art research while also supporting research with other artists, curators and researchers, which increasingly addresses pressing societal and cultural challenges.

• Our research aligns to five main areas of expertise:   Materials and Materiality comprises research into materials, in particular pigments and paints supported by the Materials Research Network.
• Histories and Cultures draws together researchers exploring the impact of historical perspectives on contemporary art practice and research.
• Media and Performance research explores analogue and digital Fine Art Media technologies, including moving image, sound, internet and installation researchers.
• Environments and Publics is concerned with research into place and publics, urbanism, sustainability, well-being and ‘the commons’.
• Dark Studies includes the Dark Universe Studies Centre (DUSC) where fugitive thinking and alternative forms of sociality draw on the black radical tradition and experimental practice. Research in this area evokes the dislocated subject of language and representation, channelled through performance, political writings, fictional provocations and processes of documentation.

See Research at Slade .

The Slade MPhil/PhD places great emphasis on interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary connections, and Slade researchers network regularly with doctoral researchers across UCL and the London Arts & Humanities Partnership (LAHP). You will also be encouraged to join research centres and networks relevant to your specific topic within and external to UCL, and to organise research events using funding through UCL Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) and the Global Challenge Scheme.

Wider Research Environment

Doctoral researchers benefit from the Slade's situatedness in UCL as well as its central London location and proximity to other external research institutions, galleries and museums. All Slade doctoral researchers are encouraged to attend research activities in the Slade, UCL and externally, including. Contemporary Art Lectures : Artists, art historians, critics, curators and writers visit the Slade to speak in the Contemporary Art Lectures, which are usually on a Wednesday evening. A comprehensive list of lectures available online can be found on the Contemporary Art Lectures page . 

Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) : The Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) harnesses UCL’s extensive expertise across the humanities and social sciences to investigate received wisdom and to address the most urgent ethical and intellectual challenges of today. It is a research-based community, comprising colleagues and doctoral students from across UCL, as well as visiting fellows and research collaborators from the UK and around the world. Based in the Wilkins Building, the IAS runs a vast and varied range of conferences, talks and seminars throughout the year. Visit the Institute’s website to discover more about upcoming events.

UCL Art History Lectures : The Art History Department scheduled events across the academic year. See: UCL Art History Lectures - Full Programme of Events .

Sarah Parker Remond Centre : For the study of racism and racialisation organises a regular PhD reading group .

Other UCL Faculties : You can find additional details about events going on across the faculties of Arts and Humanities and Social and Historical Sciences by referring to the events feed on each of the faculties’ websites:

Faculty of Arts and Humanities Faculty of Social and Historical Sciences

London Arts and Humanities Partnership (LAHP) : LAHP was created in 2014 as an Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded Doctoral Training Partnership between King’s College London, School of Advanced Study (University of London), and University College London. Queen Mary University of London and the London School of Economics & Political Science joined the partnership as associate members in 2015 and 2016 respectively. LAHP runs a number of training events and research events that are both student-led and staff led. Please see details on the LAHP website under 'Training and Cohort Development'.

Teaching opportunities

The Slade offers doctoral researchers the opportunity to work as postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTA) on the BA Fine Art, BFA Fine Art and the interdisciplinary BASc programme in UCL Arts & Sciences. These Teaching Assistantships are supported by training and mentoring at the Slade and UCL Arena. They are available to apply to on a competitive basis.

Staff and supervisors

https://www.lahp.ac.uk/

Slade Professional Services Staff

Slade Teaching and Learning Office [email protected] Please write to this email address with any initial queries, including those relating to Admissions. If required, a member of the Slade Teaching and Learning Office will forward your email on to relevant parties.

Slade Doctoral Programme Staff

Head of the Slade Doctoral Programme / Departmental Graduate Tutor (Research):  Prof. Kristen Kreider .

Slade Research Tutor / Deputy Departmental Graduate Tutor (Research) / PGR Admissions Tutor:  Professor Dryden Goodwin .

Slade Supervisors

Primary supervisors are members of Slade staff, all of whom are practising artists or scholars in the history and theory of art, with national and international profiles.

Slade Staff Members

You are not expected to approach potential supervisors in advance of making the application to undertake research. However, Slade tutors’ profiles and research interests are listed on our  people pages .

It is strongly advised that applicants read our staff members’ profiles before your application is submitted. If there is a member of staff with whom you would particularly like to work, you may name them on the application form. Supervision by a specific tutor cannot be guaranteed at the application stage.

Secondary Supervisors across UCL

Secondary supervision is also available from renowned scholars and specialists across UCL and partner LAHP institutions.

UCL – Find an Expert

Previous, current and potential second supervisors across UCL include:

Dr Chiara Ambrosio (Philosophy of Science) Prof. Nishat Awan (UCL Urban Laboratory) Prof. Daniel Brett (Engineering) Prof. Robyn Carston (Linguistics) Prof. Penelope Haralambidou (Bartlett) Prof. Rodney Harrison (Archaeology), Prof. Mark Midownik , (Institute of Making, Engineering) Dr James O’Leary (Bartlett School of Architecture) Prof. Sophie Page (History) Dr Aaron Parkhurst (Anthroplogy) Dr Jeff Scheible (Kings College London) Dr Marquard Smith (Institute of Education)

Applications

For further information on admissions and how to apply, see our MPhil/PhD Admissions page.

Fees and funding

For further information, see our fees and funding section for information about tuition fees, funding, scholarships and bursaries.

Visiting research student applications

You can apply to spend a period of 3 to 12 months at UCL undertaking research which is complementary to the Doctorate/PhD project at your home university.

Please see the  UCL Visiting Research Students page  for further details.

• Complete the form on the UCL Visiting Research Students page .
• After you have submitted the formal UCL application in Portico and a UCL Application Number had been generated, please complete and submit the  Visiting Research Student Supplementary Information Form  (Word doc) to [email protected] .

If you have any further questions, please contact  [email protected] .

Visiting Research Affiliates

We are able to host a small number of excellent visiting researchers, international scholars and artists whose research interests align closely with our research themes and priorities, as outlined the Research at the Slade webpage . Please see our Research Affiliates page for further information.

MPhil/PhD related

MPhil/PhD research

• Malgorzata Dawidek
• Eloise Fornieles
• Katarzyna Depta-Garapich
• Ellie Doney

MPhil/PhD Admissions

The Slade School of Fine Art has one application round per year for the MPhil/PhD.

MPhil/PhD FAQs

Find out about fees funding, scholarships, prizes and bursaries.

UCL Doctoral School

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Art Education, Ph.D.

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

TODO FIXME : DRAFT : WORK IN PROGRESS

Elevate your scholarship and the art education profession..

The Ph.D. in Art Education prepares students to become innovative researchers, informed educators, and leaders in higher education, schools, communities, and museums. At Penn State, you’ll enjoy all the resources of a large research university within a close-knit, collegial environment of faculty and fellow students committed to making an impact on the field of art education.

Program Application Deadline

The deadline for applications for AY 2023–24 is January 15, 2023.

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 Education at Penn State

Take your experience and research in art education to the next level. Penn State’s Ph.D. in Art Education–including unique dual-title options that incorporate African American and Diaspora Studies or Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies –is ideal if you want to build on your experience in the field through original research projects that make significant contributions to art education theory and practice.

Coursework in art education and related disciplines such as philosophy, curriculum and instruction, sociology, anthropology, and other fields provides necessary theoretical and methodological background for dissertation research. Doctoral students are required to complete 32 credits of graduate coursework (20 of which are to be completed in art education), pass their Qualifying Examination, English Competency Examination, Comprehensive Examination, Final Examination, and submit a dissertation.

Faculty bring a range of teaching, research, and administrative experience from across the country and around the world. The international student body provides students with insight into a range of art teaching practices. You’ll benefit from all the resources of a large research university while studying as part of the collaborative, close-knit community within the Penn State School of Visual Arts.

Applicants apply for admission to the program via the Graduate School application for admission . Requirements listed here are in addition to Graduate Council policies listed under GCAC-300 Admissions Policies .

The language of instruction at Penn State is English. English proficiency test scores (TOEFL/IELTS) may be required for international applicants. See GCAC-305 Admission Requirements for International Students for more information.

Students who seek admission to the graduate program must make formal application to The Graduate School and admissions committee of the Art Education program. To be admitted without deficiencies, the student is expected to have completed either a baccalaureate degree in art education or a program considered by the admissions committee to provide an appropriate background for the application’s degree objectives. Related programs include work in studio art, art history, art education, education, museum education, etc. Deficiencies may be made up by course work that is not counted as credit toward an advanced degree. Students pursuing graduate degrees may simultaneously take course work leading to teaching certification and art supervisory certification. The students who plan to teach art education at the college level should note that some institutions require professors to hold a public school art teaching certificate and to have had public school teaching experience.

Students with a minimum 3.00 junior/senior grade-point average (on a 4.00 scale) and with appropriate course backgrounds will be considered for admission. The most qualified applicants will be accepted up to the number of spaces that are available for new students. Exceptions to the minimum 3.00 average may be made for students with special backgrounds, abilities, and interests. Transcripts should indicate high attainment in appropriate academic and creative work. Letters of recommendation should attest to scholarship and ability to work independently. In addition to the above requirements, there are specific requirements for each degree program:

M.S. and Ph.D. Application Materials

• Completed official Penn State Graduate School Application for Admission .
• professional objectives
• how these objectives would be furthered by graduate study,
• the areas in which research and creative work are planned,
• what the applicant hopes to do with the graduate degree he or she is seeking to attain, and
• evidence that the applicant is prepared to undertake graduate level work.
• Submit an example of scholarly writing.
• Submit three (3) letters of recommendation. Letters of recommendation should attest to the applicant’s scholarship and ability to work independently.
• Submit official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended .
• Submit a Portfolio (optional). Applicants may submit images of their creative works that represent arts-based research or images that illustrate their conception of art.
• Indicate in your Statement of Professional Intent if you would like to be considered for an Assistantship/Fellowship.

M.P.S. Application Materials

• Statement of purpose in pursuing the M.P.S. in Art Education.
• Three letters of recommendation.
• Teaching portfolio to include teaching philosophy and a sample of curricular materials developed by the applicant.
• A critical reflective written response to an article provided in the GRADS application site. The response should outline the key arguments made by the author(s), a critical evaluation of the logic and assumptions in the article, and a connection to the applicant’s own instructional or professional experience.
• Curriculum vitae with evidence of professional leadership and service.
• Official transcripts from all post-secondary institutions attended , including official military transcripts (if applicable). (All college or university transcripts are required regardless of the length of time that has passed, the grades earned, or the accreditation of the institutions attended.)
• International applicants whose first language is not English or who have received a baccalaureate or master’s degree from an institution in which the language of instruction is not English, please refer to GCAC-305 Admission Requirements for International Students .

https://bulletins.psu.edu

Ph.D. in Art Education Handbook

Graduate courses carry numbers from 500 to 699 and 800 to 899. Advanced undergraduate courses numbered between 400 and 499 may be used to meet some graduate degree requirements when taken by graduate students. Courses below the 400 level may not. A graduate student may register for or audit these courses in order to make up deficiencies or to fill in gaps in previous education but not to meet requirements for an advanced degree.

Art Education (AED) Course List

Graduate assistantships available to students in this program and other forms of student aid are described in the Tuition & Funding section of The Graduate School’s website. Students on graduate assistantships must adhere to the course load limits set by The Graduate School.

Current Cohort Bios

Dissertations

Aaron Knochel

• Associate Professor of Art Education

[email protected]

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

The Ph.D. in Art Education is for scholars who want to delve deeper into art education research topics. Students in the program conduct original research with the potential to impact art education theory and practice.

The program fosters collaboration, collegiality, and innovation within a close-knit environment where students also enjoy all the resources of a large research university.

Degree Options

Penn State’s Art Education program offers the opportunity to pursue one of two extraordinary dual-title Ph.D. degree options – Art Education + African American and Diaspora Studies, or Art Education + Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Either of these novel, interdisciplinary options will position you to make a lasting impact on the art education profession.

Dual Ph.D. and Diaspora Studies

This dual-title Ph.D. is for scholars who want to delve deeper into art education research topics with a focus on African American life, art, and visual culture. Students in the program conduct original research with the potential to impact art education theory and practice, as well as the field of African American and diaspora studies.

In addition to art education and African American and diaspora studies, course work covers related disciplines such as philosophy, curriculum and instruction, sociology, anthropology, and other fields, providing the necessary theoretical and methodological background for a dissertation. Students must complete 47 credits.

Faculty bring a range of teaching, research, and administrative experience from across the country and around the world. The international student body provides students with insight into a range of art teaching and research practices.

Graduate Bulletin Links

• African American and Diaspora Studies Bulletin page.
• Graduate Studies information related to the dual-title Ph.D. in Art Education + African American and Diaspora Studies.

Dual Ph.D. and Gender Studies

The dual-title graduate degree in Art Education + Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies is for students who want to focus on feminist and non-binary perspectives and pedagogy in their art education research.

Coursework in art education, gender and sexuality studies, and related disciplines such as philosophy, curriculum and instruction, sociology, anthropology, and other fields provides necessary theoretical and methodological background for thesis and dissertation research.

Faculty for the dual-title degree program bring a range of teaching, research, and administrative experience from across the country and around the world. The international student body provides students with insight into a range of teaching practices.

• Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Bulletin page .
• Graduate Studies information related to the dual-title Ph.D. in Art Education + Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Guides + Resources

• Art Education Ph. D. Handbook
• The Graduate School At Penn State

Considering the Ph.D. in Art Education? Consider this.

You’ll make an impact on the discipline through your research.

• Faculty bring experience from across the country and the world.
• Dual-title Ph.D. options layer diverse, interdisciplinary perspectives with Art Ed scholarship.
• Enjoy SoVA’s close-knit environment, along with all the resources of a major research university.
• Program fosters collaboration, collegiality, and innovation.
• Penn State has sponsored the annual Graduate Research in Art Education (GRAE) conference since 2005.

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

Fully Funded MFA and PhD Programs in Art and Design

Last updated March 9, 2022

As part of my series on  How to Fully Fund Your PhD , I provide a list of universities that offer full funding for a MFA and PhD Programs in Art and Design, which, in addition to preparing you to work as a professional artist in your field, can lead to careers in academia, consulting, and curating for museums, among others. With the average cost of a Master’s and Doctoral degree nearing or exceeding $100,000, gaining admission to a fully funded program is ideal.

“Full funding” is a financial aid package for full-time students that includes full tuition remission and an annual stipend or salary for the three to six-year duration of the student’s doctoral studies. Funding is typically offered in exchange for graduate teaching and research work that is complementary to your studies. Not all universities provide full funding to their doctoral students, which is why I recommend researching the financial aid offerings of all the potential PhD programs in your academic field, including small and lesser-known schools both in the U.S. and abroad.

Would you like to receive the full list of more than 1000+ fully funded programs in 60 disciplines? Download the FREE Directory of Fully Funded Graduate Programs and Full Funding Awards !

1. Duke University, PhD in Art History and Visual Culture

(Durham, NC): The Graduate School provides Ph.D. students with a stipend, payment of tuition, and fee support for their first five years of study, as well as health insurance for the first six years if students are on the Duke student medical insurance plan. After their fifth year, students are responsible for tuition and fees, and most of our students obtain external or departmental funding to cover those costs.

2. Illinois State University, MFA in Art

(Normal, Il, IL): The University provides graduate assistantships as a means of financial support. Monthly wages paid in the form of either a stipend or an hourly wage, waiver for 100% of tuition during a semester of appointment, a waiver for up to 12 credit hours of tuition for the summer term immediately following a fall or spring appointment are included.

3. North Carolina State College of Design, PhD in Design

(Raleigh, NC): The PhD in Design program provides generous support for the students, which includes full tuition, stipend, and health insurance. This level of support is a minimum for the three years or more of the students’ study period.

4. Ohio State University, MFA in Visual Arts

(Columbus, OH): Most students accepted into the MFA Program are funded with a Graduate Associate appointment, which requires working 20 hours a week in exchange for a fee authorization (payment of tuition) and a stipend. These appointments may include teaching introductory courses, assisting in department labs, and working for The Arts Initiative.

5. Stanford University, MFA in Art Practice

(Stanford, CA): Through a combination of fellowship funds and teaching assistantships, each Art Practice graduate student normally receives an aid package that includes tuition and stipend as well as small materials grants.

6. Tulane University, MFA in Studio Art

(New Orleans, LA): All admitted graduate students receive a full tuition waiver and a generous assistantship stipend.

7. University of Arkansas, MFA in Studio Art

(Fayetteville, AR): All students in the M.F.A. Studio Art program are fully supported.  We are able to provide full assistantships to all of our M.F.A.’s. The assistantship includes a full tuition waiver and a stipend that will increase next year to $15,000 annually, plus  a Graduate Fellowship in the amount of $4,000 per year,  for a total package of $19,000 of support per year

8. University of California, Davis, MFA in Art Studio

(Davis, CA): The Art Studio MFA Program offers substantial financial support through paid Teaching Assistant positions each quarter and through Art Studio Program Fellowships, made possible by generous private endowments.

9. University of Connecticut, MFA in Studio Art

(Storrs, CT): Fully funded program providing both tuition remission, stipend, and health insurance.

10. University of Georgia, MFA in in Studio Art

(Athens, GA): All full-time students of the three-year MFA program are fully funded. Applicants will be automatically considered for departmental assistantships. Funding is also available from various sources to offset the cost of materials and travel related to graduate research.

11. University of Michigan, MFA in Art & Design

(Ann Arbor, MI): The Stamps School offers generous financial support to graduate students, in addition to teaching and research assistantships, stipends, and discretionary funds.

12. University of South Florida, MFA in Studio Art

(Tampa, FL): Every current graduate student in the School of Art & Art History receives a full tuition waiver plus either a scholarship OR a graduate assistantship. The USF School of Art & Art History offers two graduate degree programs: Master of Arts in Art History and Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art.

13. University of Oregon, MFA in Art

The Department of Art provides generous funding for MFA Candidates during their three years of study. All students in good standing are given free tuition through a combination of Graduate Employee Fellowship support and tuition remissions.

Choosing the right graduate program is important and involves multiple factors. As a next step, we recommend that you read How To Choose The Right Graduate Program .

© Victoria Johnson 2020, all rights reserved.

Related Posts:

• Fully Funded MA and MFA in Graphic Design
• Fully Funded Master's Programs in Anthropology
• Fully Funded PhD Programs in Mathematics
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Fully Funded PhD Programs

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• Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
• School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies
• Research degrees

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The PhD involves three years (five years if part-time) of independent research under the guidance and expertise of a supervisory team. 

This degree will allow you to explore your areas of interest at the most advanced level and help you to become a specialist in your chosen field.

As well as providing you with a range of transferable skills and high quality training, undertaking a PhD will help you prepare for a range of careers in research, academia and beyond.

We welcome applications that include practice-led research.

What is involved?

A PhD involves researching and writing a thesis of up to 100,000 words on a topic of your own choice.

Your thesis should make an original contribution to knowledge and scholarship by, for example, uncovering unknown or neglected information or by interpreting existing information in an important new way.

While undertaking your supervised original research project with us, you will follow a programme of PhD research training (some of which may include the auditing of taught courses).

As a PhD student, you will also participate in the intellectual life of the School through research seminars, conferences and other events.

At the end of your first year, you must pass a rigorous transfer before you can proceed to doctoral level in your second year. This will involve a written submission of approximately 10,000 words and a viva-style oral examination by a panel separate from your supervisory team. You will also give a symposium paper to your peers.

We will monitor your progress with regular reviews, which take place at the end of the first six months, and then at the end of every year following your transfer to full PhD status.

To complete your PhD, you will submit your thesis and will be orally examined by internal and external examiners.

Our PhD programmes can be taken on a full-time (three years standard) or part-time (five years standard) basis.

Fees and funding

View information on University fees for PhD study .

See the funding page .

Practice-led PhD

We offer supervision for practice-led PhD .

PhD by online learning 

We offer a PhD by online learning which is available to UK, EU and international applicants, allowing you gain an advanced degree from anywhere with internet access. You can study at the time and place that best suits you, and our part time options lets you study alongside work and other commitments.

For further information, please contact  Dr Pammi Sinha ,  Head of the Graduate School. 

Finding a PhD supervisor

Before submitting your application, you will need to consider who will supervise your research project.

Our academic staff pursue active research in an unusually broad, though interlinked, range of domains: from the social and critical theories of art and theoretical cultural studies to critical heritage studies, feminist art history, and new approaches to curation and museum studies.

Find a supervisor .

Research areas

We offer a diverse range of research and teaching areas across our School, covering British, Russian, French, African, Far-Eastern and American studies, and ranging from classical Greece, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to the 18th, 19th, 20th centuries and contemporary art, theory and culture.

Our main research themes suitable for PhD study with us include:

• Art markets
• Artists' writings and publications
• Continental cultural theory
• Critical curatorial practices and contemporary art
• Critical heritage
• Critical humanities
• Critiques of capitalism (aesthetics-politics)
• Cultural politics
• Feminist theory, gender and visual studies
• Fine art practice
• Global perspectives of art/history
• Heritage, museums and galleries
• Jewish art and visualities
• Postcolonialities
• Psychoanalysis and aesthetics
• Social histories of art
• Sound, voice and technology

This is not an exhaustive list, so if you have a particular interest or an idea for a proposal, please contact us .

Home to nine faculty members with specialties that range from Classical Antiquity to Contemporary Visual Culture, the Doctor of Philosophy in Art with a concentration in Art History is committed to training doctoral students broadly while developing significant depth in the student’s field of choice. To that end, graduate-level coursework in Art History is divided between small, advanced lecture courses and intimate seminars on highly specialized topics. Taken as a whole, these courses, when coupled with a required course in historiography and methods, aim to develop researchers of the highest caliber, in full command of the specialized skills required by the discipline of art history.

GRADUATE STUDIES INFORMATION SESSIONS

Learn more about our PhD degree in Art History by attending a virtual information session with our graduate studies faculty and staff. See upcoming dates below.

• October 19, 2023 at Noon EST

Art History

Art History Faculty

Current Art History Graduate Students   

Art History  Alumni

Graduate Admissions

Funding and Research Support

Recent MA & PhD Dissertation Topics (Art History)

Association of Graduate Art Students

Handbooks and Forms

Doctoral students benefit from the concentration’s close ties to the Georgia Museum of Art and the nearby resources of the High Museum and the Contemporary in Atlanta. They also take advantage of significant programming on campus, including a student-run lecture series that brings several outstanding art historians to campus each year. In addition, students benefit from a wide variety of activities organized by students and faculty in the School of Art, most notably the Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture Series.

Students graduating with a PhD in Art with a concentration in Art History routinely procure jobs at universities and museums and currently hold tenure track and curatorial positions.

• Lecture Series
• Art Library

All full-time doctoral students in Art with a concentration in Art History are currently funded and doctoral students are encouraged to apply annually for supplemental funding to support participation in conferences and special travel related to thesis research. Sources include the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts, the Graduate School, Dodd Scholarships and Awards, and the Art History Area Support Fund. Find more information on graduate funding and research support  here . 

Contact the Graduate Office

• College of Liberal Arts and Sciences /
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• 2024 News /

Villanova Graduate HRD Program Leads to Leadership Role for Resource Management Professional

With years working in learning and development, talent acquisition and resource management, Ligia Vail ’24 MS was at a crossroads. She was an experienced human resource professional, but felt she needed something more to reach the next level in her career. After first starting down a different path, Vail found that earning a Master of Science in Human Resource Development (HRD) at Villanova University helped her grow her knowledge and fast-tracked her to a leadership role in her organization.

Vail considered pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at another university until a coworker recommended the Villanova HRD online program. She was intrigued. Vail actually attended a Villanova HRD virtual information session on the way home from her MBA orientation and quickly switched plans. It was a decision that changed her career trajectory.

“Not a day would go by during the Villanova HRD program that I didn’t apply the knowledge and skills learned in class from teammates, professors, projects and materials,” Vail said. “Everything I learned was relevant to my goals, career and business needs. It indeed was everything I was looking for in a graduate program.”

Two of Vail’s favorite courses were Employment Law and Foundations of Strategic HR Management, both taught by Villanova professor Keith Black, JD. Black appreciated her initiative and contributions to the class.

“Ligia was a bright light in both courses, always well prepared and willing to share her thoughts and perceptions on whatever subject matter we were discussing. She has a quiet confidence and dignity, and her classmates appreciated that about her and listened when she spoke,” Black said. “Ligia is a perfect example of what a VU HRD student should be. She is hardworking, dedicated, intelligent and motivated. She clearly impacted her classmates and was well liked throughout the program as a whole. She has the emotional intelligence, life experiences and qualities that make it clear to me that she will succeed at a very high level in whatever roles she chooses to pursue in her career.”

Her hard work paid off. Ten months in the HRD program, Vail was promoted to Strategic Workforce Planning Senior Manager at Baker Tilly Advisory Group, LP, an advisory CPA firm. In addition, Vail recently participated in a Resource Management Global Symposium as a session panelist and speaker.

“I didn’t realize that the simple step of working towards a graduate degree showed determination, commitment and leadership, which automatically elevated my brand, opening doors much quicker than I expected,” Vail said.

Vail’s graduate degree journey has been both a fulfilling and challenging experience. Vail lives outside of Atlanta with her husband, Ted, and two daughters, Elena and Isabel. She learned to balance classes, work obligations, family life and volunteer work. The flexibility of Villanova’s online program made her schedule more manageable, and she credits the support of her husband, and extended family, as well as the support of leadership at Baker Tilly and the firm’s tuition reimbursement program. What’s more, Vail is a native of Brazil who is the first person in her family to live abroad and earn an international undergraduate and graduate degree. She was inspired by her grandmother, who earned her GED at 86 years old; her mother, Elena, who is a lifelong learner and earned her bachelor's degree at 45 years old, becoming the only one among eight children to earn a higher-level education; and her father, Jairton, who became an entrepreneur at 16 years old and has owned his business for 47 years.

During her graduate studies, Vail still found time to give back to her community. She has led fundraising campaigns that raised over $20,000 to build homes in Brazil and fund a large holiday “Adopt a Family” event in the US. For the last five years, along with her two daughters and husband, she has been engaged in a back-to-school “Backpack Drives” program hosted by North Fulton Community Charities, an Atlanta-based non-profit organization. With the generosity of family and friends, they have organized the collection of school materials to fill almost 300 elementary school backpacks.

“Ligia is a professional, engaged student who has a passion for learning as well as for improving the lives of not only employees but also of those in her local as well as global communities,” said Sheila McLaughlin, Assistant Director of Student Services for Villanova HRD. “She exemplifies Veritas , Unitas , Caritas .”

For Vail, her graduate experience was worth the competing demands of her time.

“This journey was not without its challenges, but these challenges truly shaped me and prepared me for the next phase of my career,” said Vail. “The Villanova HRD program advanced my career and enabled me to manage the day-to-day challenges of driving change, implementing business processes and improvements, building strong and effective teams, coaching and developing people, and becoming an expert in my field.”

Learn more about Villanova’s graduate programs in Human Resource Development .

About Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Since its founding in 1842, Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has been the heart of the Villanova learning experience, offering foundational courses for undergraduate students in every college of the University. Serving more than 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students, the College is committed to fortifying them with intellectual rigor, multidisciplinary knowledge, moral courage and a global perspective. The College has more than 40 academic departments and programs across the humanities, social sciences, and natural and physical sciences.

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The CLAS Office of Graduate Studies offers personal tours of the beautiful Villanova campus. All tours begin in the Graduate Studies Office, located in Vasey Hall. Schedule your tour !

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Featured RSTC PhD Graduates

Congratulations to our recent and upcoming PhD graduates in  Rhetoric and Scientific & Technical Communication (RSTC) ! The PhD is the highest degree awarded in the Department of Writing Studies, requiring students to demonstrate deep expertise and contribute original scholarship to rhetoric, writing studies, and technical communication. We are incredibly proud of what our students have accomplished. Read below for a brief Q&A with three of our graduating students this summer: Mikayla Davis, Emily Gresbrink, and Jessa Wood. 

Why did you choose RSTC for your graduate studies?

Mikayla : The variety of teaching opportunities.

Emily : I chose RSTC for my graduate certificate and MS degree because of the emphasis towards hands-on, skills-driven learning that would benefit technical communication practice, combined with the flexibility of being able to work online. I then stayed here and pivoted to the PhD program because of the incredible faculty I already knew and trusted, the program's reputation, and because of the opportunities I'd have to grow in this space.

Jessa : Lots of reasons: a specifically Writing Studies (rather than general English) department with expert faculty; opportunities to do writing program administration work while in the program; a strong curriculum that gives grounding in multiple areas of writing studies; support for graduate instructors; FYW and Advanced Writing curricula that align with my values as a teacher; competitive, guaranteed funding for my entire time in the program, with the best teaching load I've seen in any grad program; the accelerated MA/PhD option; and the vibrancy and affordability of the Twin Cities.

Really, though, I think the biggest deciding factor was the strong graduate student community and supportive faculty, which I felt from the first time I met and talked with folks. Graduate students at the time reached out to invite me to attend their summer writing retreat even before I'd officially started in the program! The sense of community and belonging made me feel confident picking UMN for my MA program, and deciding to stay on for the PhD was an obvious choice two years later. In my time here, I've worked to pay it forward and pass on that same welcoming, supportive energy for future students.

What types of research did you pursue with RSTC?

Mikayla : Research on pedagogy, games, play, and neurodivergence.

Emily : I did a lot of work into digital risk & crisis communication, in particular case studies pertaining to graduate student responses to COVID-19 emails sent from university leaders, as well as a design focused study looking at common themes and rhetorical moves in crisis messaging design. I also started diving into generative artificial intelligence applications into structured authoring pedagogy & practice as an argument for a more humanistic technical communication and keeping people first in our writing practice. Finally, I did lots of smaller collaborative projects with peers across the academic community, looking into graduate student mentorship, precarity, and socially just technical communication pedagogy. 

Jessa : I focused on praxis-oriented mixed methods research, meaning research that uses a mix of multiple qualitative and quantitative methods to explore challenging, theoretically-nuanced problems in ways that shed light on both current and possible future practices. Most recently, in my dissertation, I surveyed and interviewed writing program administrators in writing across the curriculum programs (programs that help faculty outside English/writing studies teach with writing) to determine how they thought about the role of race and racial equity/antiracism in their programs, as well as identify what steps they were taking to promote racial equity through their programming. This project responded to widespread calls for antiracist work in writing studies. My dissertation both generated insights for antiracist WAC theory and identified a range of possible interventions that could be utilized by WAC practitioners aiming to pursue antiracist work.

What was your favorite part of RSTC?

Mikayla : My cohort.

Emily : I would have to say the students here, both from a peer standpoint and the folks we teach. The University of Minnesota really does a great job of finding the people who are hungry to learn and do excellent work, and being surrounded by motivation, support, and kindness makes it much easier to succeed. I also had an incredibly smart and supportive cohort of PhD students with me, and that made it really great to move through the last five years. I am lucky to call them peers and friends.

Jessa : I really appreciate the positive, supportive graduate student community and faculty.

What was your favorite class that you took as a student and why?

Mikayla : I really enjoyed my seminar in multimodality and writing instruction (WRIT 8540), but I also loved the hands-on approach of my information design course (WRIT 5112).

Emily : Honestly? Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch's Research Methods course (WRIT 8011). Big nerd answer there, but I really mean that. I liked it because it was extremely useful for me in terms of moving away from more practice-oriented technical communication, and thinking about the theoretical, research/rhetorical ways of doing scholarly work. I needed that space to be successful in the future. It was also the first time I really felt capital-s Smart as a graduate student and was pivotal in my decision to keep going as a PhD student.

Jessa : I can't choose just one! Some favorites include Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch's Methods and Pedagogy classes (WRIT 8011 and 5531) and Pat Bruch's seminar on Post-Truth Rhetoric and Composition (WRIT 8560). We also get to take courses outside our department, which is both useful and fun--a favorite there was Martin Van Boekel's Psychology of Student Learning course (EPSY 5114).

What class(es) did you enjoy teaching and why?

Mikayla : I enjoyed teaching Business Writing. It felt like students were really invested because it was easy to see the connection to their lives outside academia. 

Emily : 3562 (Technical and Professional Communication). I know a lot of students come into this thinking it's required, it won't be fun, it won't be useful ... but that's the beauty of technical and professional communication. It is such a broad area of study that there is application and theory that can go just about anywhere. I love meeting students where they are in their area of study and growth (be it architecture, economics, engineering, or English) and helping them draw connections to tech comm work and see its applicability. Those teaching moments are magical to me. 

Jessa : I have been fortunate to teach a range of classes (WRIT 1301/First Year Writing, WRIT 3562/Technical and Professional Writing, and WRIT 3029/Business and Professional Writing). I also TA'ed a graduate policy class where I supported students with disciplinary writing.

Of all of these, my favorite to teach is WRIT 1301, our first-year writing class. Students often come to college with a really tense relationship with writing, believing themselves to be inherently “bad writers.” I work to expand their conceptions of what makes good writing and develop more  rhetorically-informed, reflective writing practices. Students' projects in this class explore the range of ways writing shows up in disciplines, professions, and other communities that matter to them, and it's fun to learn from their work and witness their exploration. I also enjoy building a classroom community that provides students a point of connection on a large campus and supports their academic transition to college.

What are your plans for the future?

Mikayla : Currently I am teaching adult education classes in Nebraska. I hope to one day buy a house. 

Emily : I am starting a position as an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication in Minnesota State University’s Mankato’s Integrated Engineering program in Fall 2024, based in the Twin Cities metro area. I’m grateful to be working with future engineers and leaders while continuing to teach and research.

Jessa : In the coming year, I will be moving into an Associate Faculty role in UMN Writing Studies, primarily teaching first-year writing. I will also be continuing to support the department's work around faculty professional development and assessment across our undergraduate programs. 

What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a graduate degree in rhetoric, writing studies and technical communication?

Mikayla : Make sure you know what you want to do by the end of your degree and structure your time to meet those goals. 

Emily : There is no right or wrong way to do this work, and your ideas and approaches are valid. I started out in the certificate program, and inched my way to a PhD through the MS. It took a while, but I am glad I went the way I did. Also, I am a big advocate for self-care and boundaries in graduate work, so be really good with those when you come in. Protect your time and space—PhD work is an ultramarathon, not a 100-yard dash. And of course, find joy in what you do. This is a once in a lifetime experience; find your people, find your spark, keep tending to it.

Jessa : First, make sure that you feel a good fit with the program and at least a few faculty and that you have competitive, guaranteed funding for the duration of your degree--see "why I chose UMN" above. You may end up studying exactly what you thought you would when you started grad school--great! You may completely change your interests, project, advisor--also great! Be open to exploring and learning more about your interests through both classes and informal office conversations. UMN Writing Studies faculty are wonderful about allowing you to shape seminar projects to explore your interests as they connect to the class theme; take these opportunities to explore.

Come into your program’s building and talk to people as much as you can. I learned as much from informal conversations before class as I did in seminars. Everyone in a grad program is smart, passionate, and knowledgeable; take advantage of that opportunity.

Related News

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Friday, Jul 26, 2024

Ph.D. Candidate Joanna Evans

PS Ph.D. candidate,  Joanna Ruth , whose research on improvisational performance led them to interview Seth Sibanda and Fana Kekana Seth, two of the creators of Workshop71's  Survival.  Joanna interviewed Seth and Fana about devising this play in Johannesburg in 1976.  Survival  draws on their experiences of incarceration in apartheid South Africa, toured the country during the upheaval of the '76 student uprising, and was invited to California in 1977, leading the cast into exile in the US. It was performed in radically different environments, from prisons to off-Broadway theaters, and the play was constantly adapting to duck censorship, incorporate new events in the performers' lives, or respond to changing contexts (including the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 - which was announced in the middle of a revival run of the show).While there's a surviving script, there's almost no footage, no record of all the changes in the piece, as well as no recordings of the original songs. The other two creators, Salaelo Maredi and Themba Ntinga, are no longer living. This piece was a forerunner in the South African workshop theater tradition, but is sorely under-studied. To address this, Joanna had the idea of re-staging  Survival   as a public reading, with Seth and Fana playing the roles they had created almost 50 years ago. Amazingly, they agreed, and David Glover and Namisa Mdlalose took up the other two roles, as well as jazz singer Vuyo Sotashe who is bringing the original songs back to life, and Keenan Oliphant who is co-directing alongside Joanna. Joanna says, "It's an amazing opportunity as a scholar to learn about this piece from the inside, and to gather up the contextual details and stories that could only emerge in the rehearsal room. Something about preparing it for performance unlocks Seth and Fana's memories in a different way, and brings the very wacky, experimental form of  Survival  to life." 

"Survival" Originally Devised & Performed by Workshop '71 Directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant & Joanna Ruth Evans

Mintai Kim appointed as associate dean of graduate studies for the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design

Krista Timney

29 Jul 2024

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Mintai Kim , professor of landscape architecture, has been named associate dean of graduate studies for Virginia Tech’s College of Architecture, Arts, and Design . His five-year appointment began on June 25.

In his new role, Kim will provide leadership and support in all areas related to graduate programs and students within the college, encompassing programs and activities in Blacksburg as well as those taking place at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center in Alexandria.

Immediate priorities for the position are increasing enrollments in the college’s current master’s, doctoral, and graduate certificate programs, which span across four top-ranked schools, and building a sense of community among graduate students and the college faculty and staff who are involved with and invested in the success of these students.

Kim also hopes to maintain a strong presence on campus, serving as an advocate and champion for graduate students. In addition, he will lead efforts to investigate options for developing additional degree programs in the college.

“I am particularly excited about expanding the college’s graduate offerings,” said Kim. “Additionally, I look forward to building strong, supportive communities. As an international student, I greatly appreciated the support from the graduate studies community at my previous institution. My goal is to foster a similar environment at Virginia Tech.”

Kim is a professor in the Landscape Architecture Program in the  School of Design , having joined the university in 2007. Since 2022, he has served as co-coordinator of the Ph.D. program in architecture and design research.

“Mintai Kim is a longtime member of the college faculty and has been very successful in his prior leadership roles, including chair of his school’s curriculum committee and co-coordinator of the Ph.D. program,” said  Dean Lu Liu . “He has many years of experience supporting and creating productive research collaborations with graduate students, and we are looking forward to his work in enhancing our community and elevating and growing the college’s advanced degree offerings.”

As a researcher, Kim has focused on helping communities deal with disturbances such as climate change and sea level rise, as well as on projects related to controlling light pollution and other factors to improve nightscapes. He started the Climate and Community Resilience Laboratory at Virginia Tech and uses Geodesign, a collaborative framework, to solve complex design and planning problems related to climate change. He has built and sustained strong collaborative relationships with stakeholders in Virginia's coastal region, providing alternative design and planning solutions.

Kim received the Virginia Tech Alumni Award for Outreach Excellence in 2023. He has been recognized with the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture’s Excellence in Research and/or Creative Works Award at the senior level and the Best Scientific Paper at the 18th International Conference on Information Technology in Landscape Architecture.

Kim earned his bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Seoul, Korea, and both a Master of Landscape Architecture and Ph.D. in environmental planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

The position of associate dean of graduate studies in the college has been held by Paul Emmons, the Patrick and Nancy Lathrop Professor of Architecture, since 2018. Based at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, Emmons is a registered architect and co-coordinates the doctoral program in architecture and design research.

“We sincerely appreciate Paul’s service and accomplishments, and his work to maintain the high quality of the college’s graduate programs and promote the success of individual students,” said Liu. “He has played a major role in helping us prepare for what will be the next chapter in the college of expanding both our enrollments and degree programs. Paul was a very valuable colleague during my first year as dean of the college, and I remain grateful for his shared strategic insights and acumen.”    

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Spartan Alert

Uncg psychology student studies profanity in humor.

Posted on July 18, 2024

During her first year at UNC Greensboro, Meriel Burnett recruited more than 800 of her fellow students to tell jokes.

She set up different premises – for example, reacting to someone’s bad cooking. The students had to craft a joke about the experience. She got more than 2,000 jokes. 

They ranged from clean…

“It was so bad they gave it a reality show.”  

“It made Lady Gaga’s meat suit look [expletive] scrumptious.”  

The point of Burnett’s research, supported by Dr. Paul Silvia, professor of social psychology , was to make sense of who uses profanity in creative ways. 

“You can learn a lot about a person by the sorts of thing they find funny,” says Burnett. 

Her study of swearing in humor caught the attention of scientists in the American Psychological Association (APA)’s Division 10 , its charter division dedicated to cognition, creativity, motivation, personality, and the relationship between pathology and the arts. Her presentation earned first place in the student showcase of the division’s 2024 conference. 

Profanity’s Place in Creative Thinking  

Having already earned a bachelor’s in psychology, Burnett came from Canberra, Australia to UNCG to get her master’s . She chose to focus on the psychology of creativity. “Psychology of intelligence is generally tested by the things you know. Psychology of creativity is broader than that,” she explains.

Creativity comes into play when we tell a joke, formulate a theory, or when we embellish our retelling of an event. It’s critical for problem-solving and abstract thinking. 

Silvia was an appropriate mentor for Burnett. He has spent years working on ways to measure creativity and artistic expression, publishing five books through the American Psychological Association about speaking, writing, and day-to-day life assessment. Other UNCG students have worked with him to research perseverance and daydreaming . 

Burnett centered her work on the psychology of language and how people’s choice of words may relate to individual differences like personality. “We use something called a joke stems task,” she says. “We gave people three setups for a joke, and they created the ending.” 

Burnett says text data is exciting to work with because of the variety of parameters she can apply to it. “There’s obviously how funny a joke is. But there are so many other linguistic qualities: What kind of joke do they make? Is it abstract? Is it concrete? Is it really long? Really short? Did they use sarcasm or a double entendre?” 

What Language Tells Us About People  

Researching profanity may sound tongue in cheek, but it has practical applications for understanding social interactions. Swearing can be used in jest – Burnett told her participants to imagine telling their joke to their friends – but it can also hurt or degrade someone. It’s used to measure the appropriateness of a response – cursing about bad food will be taken differently from cursing during a life-or-death scenario. 

Furthermore, some people may laugh at a crude joke but never make one themselves. Out of the responses from UNCG participants, only seven percent used swearing. 

The participants also had to rate how funny they thought their own joke was and fill out personality surveys. Burnett computed personality scores based on the five categories of the NEO Five-Factor Personality Inventory : neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. She and Silvia then entered all that data into a machine learning model along with the subjects’ ages and gender. 

Burnett’s findings suggested that the category of “agreeableness” may predict a person’s use of profanity in a joke. “Someone with high agreeableness generally wants smooth social relationships, while low agreeableness is more of a troublemaker,” she explains.

The disparity was most notable in men. She says, “Men high in agreeableness never used profanity. Women might use a little bit of it, but men with low agreeableness who thought they were funny ended up being the big swearers.” 

Cultural Differences

As an Australian studying in the United States, Burnett understood countries and cultures have different norms for swearing – including its overall acceptability and the degree of offensiveness tied to each word. To make sure she did not miss any profane words, she utilized an online database typically used by websites to filter out swearing in comments. 

There is an enormous collection of words considered to be profane in some way, and they range from quite mild to extremely severe,” says Burnett. “We were able to sidestep the issue of cultural differences by taking this massive profanity dictionary and then manually correcting if it flagged a word in error.”

Award-Winning Findings  

As Burnett’s award demonstrates, professionals take profanity seriously. 

Silvia felt that Burnett’s work was relevant to the APA’s Division 10, one of 19 charter divisions that includes research about creativity and personality. He encouraged Burnett to share her research at the APA Division 10: Society for Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts Conference, held in March just outside Dallas, Texas.

The student showcase was open to any student in higher education. Each presenter had to give a three-minute talk with one PowerPoint slide. “It was a very friendly conference. Everyone was so nice,” says Burnett. “But the other speeches were so excellent that I didn’t think I had much of a chance of winning.” 

She was pleasantly surprised to take first place, especially after swearing like a sailor in front of the judges. 

“I was firing off swear words like nobody’s business,” she laughs. “I censored them on my slide so it would not be too shocking to look at them. I do try to be polite and adjust to the culture, but I was saying an F-word here and there. It’s all for science.” 

Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications   Photography courtesy of Meriel Burnett, College of Arts and Sciences, and Adobe Stock

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