Department of History of Art and Architecture

The University of Pittsburgh’s graduate program in History of Art and Architecture is a small, PhD-based program that features close mentoring from internationally renowned scholars. Application to the graduate program is directly to the PhD program. Students may earn an MA degree in our department before proceeding to the PhD. However, we not offer a terminal MA degree. We fully fund all our graduate students with generous multiyear packages of financial support, including fellowships and teaching and research assistantships. Our students also have an excellent record in competing for prestigious external fellowships such as the Fulbright, and in job placement after graduation.

Our program is based in research Constellations that encourage idea-driven scholarship and interdisciplinary work. These Constellations unite faculty and graduate student around shared intellectual questions and interpretative approaches, which are meant to be flexible and evolving. Past and ongoing Constellation activities include research workshops, collaboratively-produced exhibitions, and digital humanities initiatives.

At the same time, we recognize that in-depth knowledge or particular historical and geographical areas remains the foundation of any serious intellectual inquiry in our discipline. Therefore, we urge all prospective students to contact at least one faculty member whose research interests overlap with their own before applying. We strongly encourage students to explore our website (www.haa.pitt.edu) for more information on faculty members, constellations, graduate program requirements, and the application process.

Contact Information

Linda Hicks
Senior Administrator
104 Frick Fine Arts
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: 412-648-2421
E-mail: lih@pitt.edu

Please consult our department website for further information on our graduate program (http://www.haa.pitt.edu/graduate) or email Linda Hicks at lih@ptt.edu

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 90 on the internet-based test with a minimum score of 22 in each section.

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. Applicants should also demonstrate competence (defined as completion through the intermediate college level with a B+ or better) in one language that is not English. 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 December 15th.

Financial Assistance

The department offers five-year aid packages to all of its graduate 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: http://www.haa.pitt.edu/graduate/financial-aid.

Faculty

http://www.haa.pitt.edu/people/faculty

Programs

Doctoral

Master’s

History of Art and Architecture, MA

Courses

History of Art & Architecture

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