Course Requirements
Courses are offered in the following fields: African art and archaeology; American and African-American art and architecture; ancient art and archaeology; Chinese art and architecture; Japanese art and architecture; Latin American art and archaeology; eastern and western medieval art and architecture; Renaissance art and architecture; seventeenth and eighteenth-century art and architecture in the Western world; nineteenth, twentieth-century and contemporary art and architecture in the Western world; other fields of study approved by the Graduate Faculty.
Successful completion of thirty credit hours is required for the MA degree. Course work must include:
1) Methods of Research (ARTH 692; 3 credit hours);
2) Distributional requirements for the MA (and for the PhD if student enters from another institution and has not already satisfactorily completed the equivalent of UM distributional requirements).
Required Courses for MA must include two from Column A and two from Column B:
Column A Column B
Africa Colonial Americas
African Diaspora Ancient Mediterranean
(other than USA ) Medieval and Byzantine Europe
China Renaissance and Baroque Europe
Japan 18th and 19th century Europe or Americas
Ancient Americas Modern and Contemporary Europe or Americas
Islam
3) Thesis Research (ARTH 799, 6 credit hours).
No more than one chronological period may be taken with any single professor. Distributional Requirements must be filled through courses in the department. Directed Studies are not applicable to these requirements.
Graduate courses in other departments of the University, or courses equivalent to our 600/700 level art history courses in the Washington Area Consortium, Johns Hopkins University, and the Folger Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library, may be taken with the approval of the advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies (see the regulations in the Graduate Catalogue). No more than two courses needed for the MA program may be taken outside of the Department of Art History and Archaeology.
Directed Studies courses (ARTH 798) provide students at the MA and PhD levels with the opportunity to work closely with individual faculty members within the Department on projects not normally included in the graduate curriculum. With the support of the supervising faculty member, the student should submit a one-page proposal to the Director of Graduate Studies. The proposal should describe the subject and objective of the project. The Director of Graduate Studies will present the proposal to the Graduate Faculty for its approval at the Graduate Review held at the end of each semester. Directed Studies courses do not satisfy required distribution courses at the MA level and are not counted as 700-level seminars.
Requirements for the Master's degree must be completed within a five-year period. Provisions for continuous registration must be made during this time (see the Graduate Catalogue). It is expected, however, that a normal program of study, as suggested above, will not exceed two years. A minimum grade of "B" is required for all courses approved for graduate credit. Two grades below "B" result in automatic dismissal from the program. An "Incomplete" grade will be given only in exceptional circumstances.
Thesis
Students proposing a thesis topic in the MA program should follow the format for a PhD dissertation proposal as explained in the description of the PhD program (see below). Students should be aware that the decision to supervise a thesis rests with the individual faculty member. Upon agreement of a professor to direct the thesis, that professor becomes the student's advisor if he/she is not the same as the original advisor.
The thesis should demonstrate the candidate's competence in research and in original investigation. The Master's thesis should be equivalent in scope and quality of research to an article in one of the professional art historical periodicals. No less than six weeks before the thesis is due in the Graduate Office, the student, with the approval of the advisor, will submit three clear copies of the thesis and illustrations (xerox copies are usually acceptable) to the Graduate Secretary in the Department. Captions must accompany the illustrations on the same page; content of the captions may vary slightly according to the subject. If deemed advisable, it may be requested that the student also provide a set of photographs. The three copies of the thesis will represent the work in its final form, except for minor corrections, and they will be used by the Exam Committee of three or four faculty members. The Exam Committee, which will have the student's advisor as chairperson, will be allowed a minimum of four weeks in which to read the thesis and conduct the oral examination.
Thesis Defense
The Exam Committee, with the student's advisor chairing the committee, will administer the oral examination. The primary focus of the exam will be the Master's thesis. The student will then have approximately two weeks in which to make the changes requested by the Exam Committee before the two final copies of the thesis are due at the Graduate School. Please note: the student is responsible for meeting all deadlines published by the Graduate School.
If you have any questions, please contact Professor Meredith Gill, Director of Graduate Studies, or Deborah Down, Graduate Program Coordinator.