The Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies has three distinct parts: Visual Arts, Art History and Visual & Media Studies. But all of our faculty and students – undergraduate and graduate alike – are engaged in international research, interdisciplinary learning, and the study of visual culture across geographic and historical categories, through the perspectives of theory and practice, methodology and criticism, and digital technologies.
The historical study of art, architecture, and visual culture provides the understanding and the language necessary for analyzing images, objects and buildings, and for recognizing and theorizing their social impact.
With our 8 majors and 6 minors, we offer undergraduate students an extensive program that develops their critical-thinking and visual skills, appeals to their passions, and helps prepare them for their eventual careers.
This class teaches aspects of conceptual video production within a study of historical work by artists responding to still-current political concerns, such as anti-Black police violence, the AIDS… read more about Video, Art, Politics »
We currently offer a Ph.D. program in Art History and Visual Culture, and Master program in Digital Art History and Computational Media.
We also participate in an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in Computational Media, Arts & Cultures – co-sponsored by the Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, the Program in Literature, the Franklin Humanities Institute, and the Information Science + Studies certificate program – and many of our faculty are involved in the MFA in Experimental & Documentary Arts (link opens in new window).
