Art History (B.A.)

Art history involves understanding these works of creativity through the ages and across diverse cultures. Such an understanding entails not only developing a basic visual vocabulary of great works of art and architecture past and present, but also the capacity to articulate their appearance, to describe and discuss the cultures they evidence and to explore the ideals and practices of their times. The museum and the library are the studio of the art historian.

Art History Degree

Using a wide variety of methodological approaches, the art history faculty develop in students an awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of the visual environment from all periods of history. Each credit hour of an Art History course represents one hour of class time per week and requires a minimum of two hours of course work outside of class per week.

• Sequence Sheet

Student Art History Symposium

This symposium offers students an opportunity to participate in an important aspect of an art historian’s career, the presentation of scholarly material. Such presentations are, in addition to articles and books, a primary means for sharing research results. These presentations usually occur at conferences and symposia (small conferences) and are accompanied by projected images. The skills gained in the experience offered here will help you also deliver a seminar report (a staple of graduate life), and enhance your chances at job interviews where art historians are often asked to talk about their work.

The symposium takes place in late January every year and the two best papers will be selected to be presented again at the Annual Intercollegiate Art History Symposium where art history majors from nearby universities would gather together to present their research papers.

Three workshops for the symposium take place every fall semester. The topics include calls for papers, how to write an abstract, how to prepare a presentation, and how to present a paper.