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 architectural history, 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

European Medieval 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 (see recent awards).

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 J. Paul Getty Museums and Research Institute ,

the Los Angeles County Museum of Art ,

the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art ,

and the Fowler Museum of Cultural History .

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.

Summary of Requirements

Complete degree requirements are available in the UCSB Course Catalog.