A&S—History of Art and Architecture
The Henry Clay Frick Department of History of Art and Architecture is a PhD program offering the MA degree as a required step toward the PhD. Doctoral students specialize in one of three areas: East Asian art and archaeology, modern and contemporary art and visual culture, and the art and architecture of Europe before 1750. Curriculum requirements and teaching assistantships also give students opportunities to study and learn outside their area of specialization. Areas of concentration are History of art and History of Asian Art.
Contact Information
- Department Chair:
Kirk Savage
- Main Office: 104 Frick Fine Arts
- Phone: 412-648-2400
- Fax: 412-648-2792
- E-mail: ksa@pitt.edu
Please consult our department Web site for further information on our graduate program or write to University of Pittsburgh, Department of the History of Art and Architecture, Graduate Admissions, 104 Frick Fine Arts, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260.
Admissions
Applicants for admission must submit: an online application, official transcripts of all college-level work, three letters of recommendation, a statement of purpose outlining the applicant’s intellectual and professional goals, a writing sample that demonstrates the applicant’s scholarly ability, a completed foreign language questionnaire, and GRE scores. International students whose first language is not English must also submit TOEFL scores administered by the Educational Testing Service with a minimum score of 550 (paper-based test) / 213 (computer-based test)/80 (internet-based test).
Strong applicants will have completed an undergraduate major in a discipline in the humanities with at least a minor (12 credits / 4 advanced-level courses) in art history. For students wishing to study Western art, they should also have competence (completion through the intermediate college level with a B+ or better) in one major European language. Students wishing to pursue degree work in East Asian art must have the equivalent of three years of college level instruction in Chinese or Japanese before entering the program.
Applications will be accepted for fall term admission until January 15th.
The department offers multi-year (up to five years) aid packages to virtually all of its PhD students. These packages consist of full tuition scholarships and living expense stipends. Aid is guaranteed for the duration of the package provided the student remains in good academic standing and makes satisfactory progress toward the degree. Aid takes the form of teaching assistantships, gallery assistantships, and visual resources collection assistantships, as well as grading and research assistantships. The department and university also offer a number of fellowships that are free of teaching and other employment duties. For more financial aid information, please consult our website: www.haa.pitt.edu/graduate/financialaid.html
General requirements
Master’s degree students must successfully complete 27 credit hours (9 courses) at the 1000 or 2000 level. 12 of these credits (4 courses) must be seminars in art history, one of which must be the core Graduate Methodology course (HAA 2005). Another 3 credits (1 course) must be completed in art history, and 3 credits (1 course) must be fulfilled in a cognate course outside art history. The remaining 9 elective credits (3 courses) may be used to fulfill breadth requirements and to advance the MA paper and PhD requirements in a combination of independent studies and relevant classes. 6 credits (2 courses) may be transferred from another approved graduate program.
Language requirement
Certified competence in one foreign language relevant to the student’s program of research is required for the awarding of the MA degree. Students must demonstrate such competence by passing a department exam within the first term of residence. (Certified competence in two foreign languages is required for the PhD and must be demonstrated before the student is admitted to candidacy.)
The MA paper
The final requirement for the MA degree is an original research paper, typically 25 to 30 pages in length, produced under the supervision of two faculty readers and deemed satisfactory by a majority vote of the full faculty in residence. The MA paper is usually a substantially revised version of a paper produced in a research seminar. It must be submitted no later than November 1 or January 15 of the term in which the degree is expected.
General requirements
Doctoral students must complete 72 credit hours, of which 27 may be transferred from the MA program at the University of Pittsburgh or 24 from MA programs at other institutions. At the PhD level, 18 credits (6 courses) beyond the MA degree must be completed in art history or in a discipline relevant to the student’s program of research. 12 of these 18 credits (4 courses) must be graduate seminars (2000-level); the remaining 6 credits (2 courses) may be taken at either the 1000- or 2000-level. All other required credits for the PhD may be fulfilled through additional coursework or independent studies directed toward comprehensive exam and prospectus preparation, and dissertation research. The final requirement for the degree is the successful defense of the dissertation.
Core course
The core course in Methodology (HAA 2005) is required of all PhD students. Students matriculating from the MA degree program must take the course at the MA level before applying to the PhD program. Students entering the PhD program from another institution may be required to take the course in their first year of residence.
Language requirement
Certified competence in two foreign languages relevant to the student’s program of research is required for the awarding of the PhD degree. For students matriculating from the MA degree program, such competence must be demonstrated before the student is admitted to candidacy. Competence is demonstrated by passing a departmental language exam. Students entering the PhD program from another institution should be prepared to provide proof of competence in two foreign languages within their first term of residence. Depending on the student’s field of study, more than two foreign languages may be necessary to carry out advanced research. In such cases, additional language study may be required as determined by the student and his or her dissertation committee.
Comprehensive exams
PhD students normally take their comprehensive exams in the fourth year of residence (for students entering the program with an MA from another institution, in the second year of residence) and after they have completed their coursework requirements. The exams cover three areas, which are formulated by the student and his or her doctoral committee working in consultation with one another. The comprehensive exams are designed to ensure that the student has sufficient knowledge of the field to carry out the dissertation and to teach in one or more broadly defined areas.
Prospectus defense
After passing the comprehensive exams, the student must prepare and defend to his or her doctoral committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus is a detailed description of the proposed dissertation topic, its central scholarly problem, its contribution to the field, and how the research for the project will be conducted. The prospectus defense is intended to demonstrate that the student is ready to carry out independent research for the dissertation.
Dissertation defense
The final oral examination in defense of the doctoral dissertation is conducted by the doctoral committee and open to the University community.
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