Art History and Archaeology (ARTH)

Abstract

The Department of Art History and Archaeology offers graduate study leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Art History. The Program is committed to the advanced study and scholarly interpretation of works of art from the prehistoric era to the present and is grounded in the concept of art as a humanistic experience. The faculty offers expertise in all phases of the history of Western art as well as the arts of Africa, the Americas, and East Asia.

Admissions Information

For admission to the Master's program, students should have an undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university, or its equivalent. Although the applicant must demonstrate a general knowledge of art history, an undergraduate major in art history is not required. Students are required to submit the Graduate Record Examination scores for admission.

Application Deadlines

Type of Applicant Fall Spring

Domestic Applicants; US Citizens and Permanent Residents with foreign credentials; International Applicants seeking admissions under A, E, G, H, I and L visas and immigrants
Deadline: December 12
Preferred: December 12

International Applicants seeking admission under F (student) or J (exchange visitor) visas
Deadline: December 12
Preferred: December 12

Application Requirements

GRE General
Transcripts
3 Letters of Recommendation
Statement of Goals & Research
Writing Sample
Hard copy mailed Deborah Down

Type of Applicant	Fall	Spring
Domestic Applicants; US Citizens and Permanent Residents with foreign credentials; International Applicants seeking admissions under A, E, G, H, I and L visas and immigrants	Deadline: December 12 Preferred: December 12
International Applicants seeking admission under F (student) or J (exchange visitor) visas	Deadline: December 12 Preferred: December 12

Degree Requirements

Master of Arts (M.A.)
For the Master's degree, the student will: complete 30 credit hours at the 600 and 700 levels (at least 9 of these credits must be 700 level seminars; 6 are for thesis research; and one course must be ARTH 692, Methods of Art History); maintain a grade of B or better in coursework; pass the departmental language examination in French or German, or in a language appropriate to the area studied (such as Japanese); complete a thesis that demonstrates competency in research and in original investigation; and successfully defend the thesis. Please contact the Graduate Secretary for information regarding course distributional requirements.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
A total of thirty-three credit hours, after the M.A. degree, is required for the Ph.D. program. This involves seven courses (21 credit hours), including Methods of Research (ARTH 692) if not previously taken; the final twelve credit hours will be Dissertation Research (ARTH 899). For the direct Ph.D.--in which the M.A. degree is bypassed--the student must complete a total of fifty-seven credit hours, including Methods of Research (ARTH 692) and fourteen other courses, in at least five of the eleven areas specified above in the description of the Master's program; the final twelve credit hours will be Dissertation Research (ARTH 899).

Facilities and Special Resources

The Art Library houses approximately 92,000 volumes as well as a vast body of auxiliary material, including about 70,000 sheets of microfiche. The Department's Visual Resources Center contains approximately 300,000 slides and digitized images. The University Art Gallery, also located in the Art/Sociology Building, maintains a lively and varied exhibition schedule and has a permanent collection of twentieth-century American prints, drawings and paintings, collections of Japanese prints, and African objects. The Department maintains its own Lloyd and Jeanne Raport study collection of some 130 objects from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Ancient Americas.

The Michelle Smith Collaboratory for Visual Culture, part of the Art History Department, is designed to foster innovation in teaching and research by combining cutting-edge visual technology with an environment that encourages collaboration among faculty, students, and external scholars. The Collaboratory combines space for work and for meetings with advanced technology and helpful staff to provide a venue in which teachers and students can gather to work, share ideas, and find the resources necessary to explore new technologies and pursue intellectual interests.

The University of Maryland is located in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and is 30 minutes from the National Gallery of Art and the National Gallery's Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, the Corcoran Gallery, the Phillips Collection, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of African Art, the Freer and Arthur M. Sackler Galleries, which are devoted to the art of East Asia, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and many other major art museums. The campus is a 40-minute drive from such Baltimore institutions as the Walters Art Gallery and the Baltimore Museum of Art. In addition to the University's library resources, graduate students have access to the Library of Congress, the Archives of American Art, the libraries of Dumbarton Oaks, and other research facilities. In order to enhance the student's curricular choices, the Department maintains an arrangement for course exchange with the Art History department of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. To similar effect, the Department is a member of the Washington Area Art History Consortium, which unites the graduate art history departments of the greater Washington area.

The Department organizes a variety of liaison activities with leading cultural institutions in the Washington-Baltimore area. The Middle Atlantic Symposium in the History of Art is sponsored jointly by the Department and the National Gallery of Art; this annual event provides the opportunity for advanced graduate students from universities in the Middle Atlantic region to present their research at a professional forum. Special seminars are frequently given by curators of such local collections as the National Gallery of Art, the Freer Gallery, or the Department of Prints and Photographs at the Library of Congress. A program has been initiated whereby CASVA Fellows will meet with our students for informal colloquia. The department also co-sponsors international symposia such as Van Dyck 350 with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts and other local institutions.

Financial Assistance

Fellowships are awarded on the basis of merit by the College of Arts and Humanities and by the Graduate School. Several graduate assistantships are awarded by the Department. Also, four Museum Fellowships are awarded each semester by the Department of Art History for research at major museums in the Washington-Baltimore area. Approximately thirty graduate students are fully supported with stipends and tuition each semester. The Department's Frank Di Federico Fellowship, in memory of the late Professor Di Federico, is for work on the doctoral dissertation. In honor of its former chairman, the Department has established the George Levitine Art History Endowment, in support of research activities of graduate students as well as faculty. The Jenny Rhee Fellowship supports research, travel, and other educational expenses. The Department has recently received a generous gift from the Robert H. Smith family which includes three graduate fellowships. Graduate students in arts of the United States may apply for Department-administered Luce American Art Dissertation Research Awards.

Contact Information

For more information on Departmental requirements and any other information, please view the Department's web-site, or contact the Graduate Secretary.

Deborah Down, Graduate Secretary
1211B Art/Sociology Building
College Park, MD 20742
Telephone: (301) 405-1487
Fax: (301) 314-9652
ddown@umd.edu

http://www.arthistory-archaeology.umd.edu