Program Overview

Admissions

Fields of Research

Program Overview

After a competitive admissions process, students will complete requirements for a particular art and/or architectural historical field in a highly structured doctoral program (please note that there is no separate master's degree program) through the period of qualification to begin doctoral research and into the initial stages of identifying a viable dissertation topic.

The first two years of the program consist of letter-graded courses, language examinations, and non-graded independent tutorials in preparation for the General Examination.

PROGRAM OF STUDY

The doctoral program in History of Art and Architecture, as outlined in this schedule, should require approximately six to seven years to complete and is divided into four stages: course work, Qualifying Paper, General Examination, and dissertation. Ordinarily three to four years are spent in residence in Cambridge prior to beginning work on the dissertation. Dissertation research usually involves a year or more of travel in America or abroad.

MODEL GRADUATE PROGRAM

The Qualifying Paper (should be completed by June 1 of the 4th semester in residence).

The dissertation prospectus should be finalized within three months following the completion of the general examination.

Admissions

General Information

Fields of Research

The Department currently offers instruction in the following broad fields of the history of art and architecture:

• Ancient
• East Asian
• Medieval/Byzantine
• Islamic
• South Asian
• African
• Renaissance and Baroque (fifteenth through eighteenth centuries)
• Modern (nineteenth and twentieth centuries)
• Latin American

The graduate curriculum is designed to ensure breadth across the discipline, both in terms of field distribution and methodology. Students must take one course in at least three fields of art and/or architectural history other than their own. For students in Western art, one of those courses must be in Asian, African, Native American, or Islamic art. For students in Asian, African, or Islamic art, one of the required courses must be in Western art. Non-field-specific courses such as HAA201, "The Study of Architectural History: Issues and Methodology," or HAA206, "Science and the Practice of Art History," may be taken in place of one of the three field requirements. In non-field-specific courses, a topic should be studied which promotes extra diversification methodologically and geographically.

Students may instead wish to develop a minor field in which a cluster of three courses must be taken. In that case, the regular field distribution requirement is waived, but one course outside the double fields is required to ensure breadth. As above, in non-field-specific courses, a topic should be studied which promotes extra diversification methodologically and geographically.

If a course falls between two fields, it is important to specify the field, and to clarify the arrangement with the DGS during the term the course is taken. In such cases the requirement may be considered as fulfilled if the main paper assignment is in the field of the requirement; individual cases are to be presented to the DGS in consultation with the instructor, and when relevant with the adviser. It is the student's responsibility to clarify such special arrangements with the DGS.

On the basis of course work done at their undergraduate institution, students may petition to have one of the three distribution requirements waived. Following discussion with the Graduate Adviser, and only upon her or his recommendation, the student should submit a petition to the faculty documenting the previous course work in the field. Ordinarily this will be two courses at the undergraduate level. Should a distribution requirement be waived, the total number of courses required for the degree is not altered. This is the only context in which undergraduate courses are considered.