|
The Graduate Program
The Department trains scholars, critics and museum professionals who engage visual culture and the built environment with a critical eye. To this end, we offer a combined M.A./Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture. With eighteen full-time professors , nine adjuncts and affiliated faculty—each nationally and/or internationally recognized in their respective fields—we offer both broad historical and geographical coverage and an opportunity for highly individualized study. UCSB has particular strengths in the study of , ancient, medieval, early modern, modern/contemporary , African, American , East Asian , Islamic , pre- and post-Columbian and museum studies . Several faculty members have extensive museum experience and others a strong interest in gender and postcolonial theory. While the Department’s students and professors have varied research interests and methods, they share a commitment to the firsthand investigation of works of art and architecture and to critical and multidisciplinary analysis. Graduate students have the opportunity and are, in fact, encouraged to study outside the Department. UCSB is home to nationally-regarded Chicano , Film and Religious Studies programs, among others. In addition, students may opt for a more formal multidiscipline relationship through the “doctoral emphasis” programs in
and Women’s Studies. The study of the history of art and architecture at UCSB is intellectually rigorous but also an unusually cooperative endeavor. Typically there are about 55 graduate students in residence at any given time. The annual incoming cohort of students is small by design, ensuring the development of a close working relationship with faculty at this critical juncture. Incoming students also take a two-quarter long theory and methods Proseminar together. The Department offers some level of funding to most students through teaching and research assistantships, museum internships and Department and University fellowships. Our advanced students have an exceptionally strong record of winning competitive national and international dissertation travel and writing fellowships, including the National Gallery/CASVA, Henry Luce, Fulbright-Hays, Kress, Paul Mellon, the Jane and Morgan Whitney and the Chateaubriand (). Beside the charm of working and living in Santa Barbara, the program is augmented on campus by the Architecture and Design Collection at the University Art Museum, which ranks in size with the largest repositories of architectural records in the United States. As a student in the University of California, you will have full access to one of the outstanding research libraries in the world. Off campus the Santa Barbara Museum of Art offers strong collections in classical antiquities, European prints, Asian and significant programming in modern Latin American. UCSB is also located conveniently enough to take advantage of the rich art resources of greater Southern California, including the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, the , the , the , and the. The department seeks applicants with demonstrated potential for outstanding original research and a concrete sense of intellectual and professional direction. Although a B.A. in art history is not essential for admission, applicants should have serious training in some branch of the humanities or social sciences and in foreign language.
For students entering the program with an M.A. degree, the Degree Ph.D. requires 28 units in departmental graduate courses, including at least 5 seminars and a reading/research course. Normal time for completing course work is 2 years. Following completion of coursework, students prepare for their Major and Minor Exams. As determined by the individual advisor and student, these written examinations cover a portion of one major and one non-contiguous minor field. Candidates are required to have reading proficiency in two foreign languages related to their field of research. A dissertation prospectus is prepared with the advisor and presented at the Oral Examination to a dissertation committee, selected by the candidate. A student enrolled in the Ph.D. doctoral program is expected to complete in four years all requirements for the Ph.D. except the dissertation. Having passed the Ph.D. Oral Examination, the student begins researching and writing the dissertation, during which time the student is not required to be a resident. Students entering without an M.A. degree in art or architectural history are required to complete 32 units of departmental course work, including 4 seminars chosen from 3 of 4 areas: Western Arts before 1750, Western Arts after 1750, Non-Western Art, and Architecture, and two quarters of a theory and methodology Proseminar (ARTHI 200), Before matriculating into the Ph.D. program students must complete their coursework, at least one of the two foreign languages required to complete a Ph.D., and a Master’s thesis. The substantive thesis may be based on a seminar paper, but must demonstrate rigorous thinking and a degree of original research. In rare cases, when students are not considered qualified to matriculate into the Ph.D. program, they are given the option of taking 36 units of course work, and comprehensive examination in lieu of a thesis to complete a Master's degree. Normal time for completing coursework is 1.5 years. Students are not admitted for work on the M.A. as a terminal degree.
Complete degree requirements are available in the Course Catalog.
|