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The
Department of Art History offers work leading to degrees at both the
master’s and doctoral levels. The Interdepartmental Concentration in Gender and Women's Studies is available to students in this program. The Master of Arts in art history offers
study and research in the general areas of the history of architecture
and art. The PhD in art history is designed to promote intellectual inquiry
and provide professional-level training in the discipline, in a program
that provides both wide coverage and particular depth in two broad areas
of unusual and exceptional faculty strengths. These two areas, which encompass
the entire faculty, are the history of art of the Americas and the history
of architecture, design, and urbanism. Students may also pursue topics that cross both areas of focus or expand beyond them.
Master of Arts in Art History
Admission Requirements
Applicants are considered on an individual basis. In addition to the Graduate
College minimum requirements, applicants must meet the following program requirements:
- Baccalaureate Field: No restrictions.
- Grade Point Average: At least 3.00 (A=4.00) for the final 60 semester
hours (90 quarter hours) of undergraduate study.
- Tests Required: GRE general.
- Minimum English Competency Test Score
- TOEFL 650 (paper-based); 280 (computer based); 95, with subscores of Reading 24, Listening 24, Speaking 24, and Writing 22 (iBT Internet-based), OR
- IELTS 7.0, with subscores of 6.5 for all four subscores
- Letters of Recommendation: Three required from faculty members or others familiar with
the applicant's training, ability, and experience. Please have recommenders download and attach the Graduate College Recommendation Form to their letter.
- Personal Statement: Applicants must submit a short statement of purpose.
- Writing Sample: Applicants must submit a sample of their written work.
- How to Apply: To request an application or apply online, visit the UIC Admissions Website or call (312) 413-2550
- Graduate Application
Checklist.
- Contact Information.
Application Deadlines
Fall Admission: January 1 for applicants who wish to be considered for financial aid from
the department and March 15 for all other applicants.
Spring Admission: October 1 for all applicants.
Degree Requirements
In addition to the Graduate College minimum requirements, students must
meet the following program requirements:
- Minimum Semester Hours Required: 36.
- Course Work: A minimum of 16 hours at the 500-level in art history courses, excluding AH 598—Thesis Hours. All students are required to take courses from at least four different tenured and tenure-track UIC Art History faculty members.
- Required Courses: AH 510 and 511. Teaching assistants are also required to take AH 512. Of the remaining course work selected with an advisor, all students are required to take at least one course in each of the following areas: Ancient/Medieval/Early Modern (before 1800); Modern/Contemporary (after 1800); and Africa/Asia/Indigenous Americas.
- Foreign Language Requirements: Students must present evidence of advanced knowledge of a language other than English as it relates to the student’s chosen area of research. Evidence of the ability to pursue research in additional languages may be necessary, depending on the availability of literature in the field selected, and the selection of those languages must be approved by the student’s advisor.
- Thesis, Project, or Course-work-only Options: Thesis or course work only. No other options available.
- Thesis: Must take at least 5 hours in thesis research (AH 598). No more than 8 hours of AH 598 can be applied to the degree.
- Course Work Only: Students who do not write a thesis must submit two
substantial research papers written in conjunction with graduate courses
taken in the Department of Art History to the departmental Graduate Program
Committee. Students selecting the two paper option may register for 0-4 hours MA paper research (AH 590).
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MA Theses
Qualifying Papers
- Barbara Jaffee: “Reviewing Postmodernism: Paradigm Shifts in
American Art Criticism of the 1980’s,” 1992
- Robert W. Blythe: “Morton Grove, Illinois, and the 1950s Metropolitan
Development,” 1992
- Ilana Vardy: “Isidore Isou and the Letterist Search for Utopia,”
1992
- Sherry M. Richmond: “Hull House and the Chicago Arts and Crafts
Movement,” 1993
- Thomas C. Roth: “The Architecture of Edward Robert Humrich,”
1993
- Robert M. Devendorf: “Female Trouble: Pompadour Rococo and the
Politics of Gender in 18th-Century France,” 1995
- J. Phillip Gruen: “The Festival Ballparks: Baseball and the New
Image of the Center City,” 1995
- Lisa M. Kahn: “The Hairy Who: A Comic Book Communique,”
1995
- Marie-Christine Falkenholm: “Louis IX of France: Patronage and
the Foundations of the Cult of Saint Louis,” 1996
- Elaine Haldeman: “Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art and the
Milieu of the 1970s: The Rise of an Art Community,” 1996
- Anita Skarpathiotis: “Dimitrios Pikionis and the Issue of Greek
Identity,” 1996
- Thomas Skwerski: “Generous and Terrible Both: Dzunukwa, the Wild
Woman of the Forest, and her Representation in Kwaikutl Art,” 1996
- Charissa Terranova: “Space Alienation: an Investigation of Henri
Lefebvre’s Theory of Social Space,” 1996
- Yvette S. Brackman: “Elisabeth Hawes, Vavara Stepanova and Andrea
Zittel: Three Approaches to Clothing Design,” 1997
- Laurel Fredrickson: “A Good-for-Nothing Huguenot: Robert Filliou’s
Upside-down World,” 1997
- Susan Jarosi: “Ouch! Andy, That Looks Like It Hurts (Andy Warhol),”
1997
- Elisabeth Kessler: “Caspar David Friedrich and Fichtean Subjectivity,”
1997
- Margaret Klinkow: “Frank Lloyd Wright’s Art and Craft of the
Machine, 1897–1902”, 1997
- Melissa Rosengard: “Rays of Glory: Religion in American Luminist
Landscape Painting,” 1997
- Courtenay Smith: “Postmodernity and the Collapse of Low and High:
Ripley’s Believe-It-Or-Not! and the Art of Tom Friedman,” 1997
- Lucy A. Sullivan: “Art for the Public: Jacques-Louis David, 1785–1794,”
1997
- Jeanne Hankins: “Strangers in the Public Sphere: The work of Photographer Garry Winogrand,“ 1998
- Thomas Jackman: “The Sacred Mountain and its Transformation,”
1999
- Roberta G. Katz: “Thomas Cole: Paintings from The Last of the
Mohicans,” 1999
- Elizabeth D. Olton: “The Murals from Tulum Structures 5 and 16:
Portrait of late Post-Classic Maya Cosmology,” 1999
- Margaret H. Denny: “Identity and Difference: A Study of Contemporary Photographic Portraiture,” 2000
- Luke G. Erickson:“A New Look at the Old Urbanism: An Analysis of
the Los Angeles Transportation Planning Documents, 1924–1941,” 2000
- Analisa P. Leppanen: “Upside-Down and Inside-Out: The Carnivalesque
in the Works of Francisco Goya,” 2000
- Marcy Stamper: “Contested Public Spaces: A History of Commemorative
Monuments and the Controversies that surround them,” 2000
- Heidi Galles: “The Search for Sacredness: Contemporary Roman
Catholic Church Architecture in the United States,” 2001
- Jennifer L. Gray: “Engineers and Architects,” 2001
- Carmen C. Niekrasz: “T.H. Benton and the American Rhetoric of
Realism,” 2001
- Sarah B. Thomssen: “Odilon Redon: The Severed Head of
Salvation,” 2001
- Elliott Weiss: “Packaging Jewishness: Toward an Iconology of Kosher
Package Labels,” 2001
- Tamsen S. Anderson: “Wrightwood: The Development of a Chicago
Block, 1835–1995,” 2002
- Dasha Dekleva: “Max Neuhaus: Sound Vectors,” Spring 2003
- Colleen Thorne: “Winning Isn't Everything: Fluxus Play, Games, and Gags in the Era of the Spectacle,” 2003
- Andreas Fischer: “Unlikeness as Condition: Painting and the Real,” Spring 2003
- Morgan Mills: “Architecture of Identity: Nationalism in Meiji
Period Japan (1868-1912),” Summer 2004
- Shelly Roman: “Art in Motion: The Philosophy and Paintings
of Robert Henri,” Summer 2004
- Gimo Yi: “Marcel Duchamp: Reconciliation of Art and Logic,”
Summer 2004
- Sarah Jesse: “Ernesto Neto: Engaging the Mind & Body,”
Fall 2004
- Kristina Dziedzic Wright: “Ethnic Identities and Cultural Commoditization in the Jua Kali Art World of Lamu, Kenya,”
Spring 2005
- Kathleen Skolnik: “Nicolas Le Camuse De Mézières and the Architectural Genius of Sir John Soane,”
Spring 2005
- Stefanie Shanebrook: “Bet It All on Red: A Critical Analysis of Native American Casino Design,” 2005
- Mary Gustaitis: “Defying Ben Shahn,” 2006
- Michael Kowski Jr.: “Burbank, IL The Development of a Chicago Suburb,” 2006
- Amy Grossman: “Sterlac and Orlan, Extended Towards Immanence,” 2006
- Alice Ireland: “The Arts and Crafts Movement in Chicago: Conservative
Ideology Emancipating Women,” 2006
- Ruth Nelson: “Conflict and Resolution on Gilded Age Grandeur: The
Artistic Program of the Marquette Building Interior,” 2007
- Elizabeth Holland: “Calamitous Photographs of War: Persuading
the American Viewer,” 2007
- Chaz Olajide: "Fashion and Meaning in the Late 19th Century American and
French Portraiture and Fiction,” 2007
- Douglas Sichmeller: “The Ferus Gallery,” 2007
- Robert Sherer: “Dynamic Theory: The Challenge to Architectural
Permanence in the 20th Century,” 2008 - Rebecca Beachy: “Looking at Columbine: Trauma, Affect, and Disaster
Photography,” 2009
- Valerie Rangel: “Archigram: Tailoring the Future,” 2009
- Jonathan Kinkley: “The Postnational Sodalities of Second Life: An
Iconographic Approach,” 2009
- Candice Weber: “The Artifact Piece and the Museum: James Luna’s
Critique of Ethnographic and Cultural Authority,” 2009
- Milagros I. Crespo: “Figuring Change: The Newberry Library Late
Nineteenth-Century Kiowa Ledger Book Drawings,” 2009
- Kate Gustafson:"A Sense of Place: Constructing Pilgrimage Sites in
Medieval Canterbury", 2010
- Heather Lundy: "Knot Just a Twisted Cord: Reconnecting the Cosmic
Umbilicus in the Maya Iconographical Repertoire", 2010
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Master of Arts in Museum and Exhibition Studies
Admission Requirements
Applicants are considered on an individual basis. In addition to the Graduate College minimum requirements,
applicants must meet the following program requirements:
- Baccalaureate Field: No restrictions.
- Grade Point Average: At least 3.00 (A=4.00) for the final 60 semester hours (90 quarter hours) of undergraduate study.
- Tests Required: GRE general.
- Minimum English Competency Test Score
- TOEFL 650 (paper-based); 280 (computer based); 95, with subscores of Reading 24, Listening 24, Speaking 24, and Writing 22 (iBT Internet-based), OR
- IELTS 7.0, with subscores of 6.5 for all four subscores
- Letters of Recommendation: Three required from faculty members or others familiar with the applicant's training, ability, and experience.
Please have recommenders download and attach the Graduate College Recommendation Form to their letter.
- Personal Statement: Applicants must submit a short statement of purpose.
- Writing Sample: Applicants must submit a sample of their written work. An exhibition review is preferred.
- How to Apply: To request an application or apply online, visit the UIC Admissions Website or call (312) 413-2550
- Graduate Application Checklist.
- Contact Information.
Application Deadlines
Fall Admission: March 15.
Degree Requirements
In addition to the Graduate College minimum requirements, students must meet the following program requirements:
- Minimum Semester Hours Required 51
- Required Courses: AH 532, 542, 543, 544, 545, 582 (total of 23 hours)
- Elective Courses: 20 hours, chosen in consultation with a faculty adviser.
- Comprehensive Examination Not required.
- Thesis, Project, or Course-Work-Only Options: students may choose one of the
following:
- Thesis: Must take at least 8 hours in thesis research (AH 598). No more than 8 hours of
AH 598 can be applied toward the degree.
- Project: Must take at least 8 hours of project (AH 597). No more than 8 hours of AH 597
can be applied toward the degree.
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Doctor of Philosophy in Art History
Admission Requirements
Applicants are considered on an individual basis. In addition to the Graduate
College minimum requirements, applicants must meet the following program requirements:
Baccalaureate Field: No restrictions.
Previous Degrees: Completion of a Master of Arts program in art history
or equivalent is required for admission to the PhD program. However, exceptional
students may be admitted directly to the PhD program with a bachelor’s degree,
completing the requisite 96 semester credits of courses and the other requirements
of the degree, without completing an MA. Students originally accepted in the
department for the MA who wish to continue on to the doctorate must satisfy
the department’s Master of Arts degree requirements and be recommended by
the department for further work. Doctoral applicants who have a Master of
Arts degree in a related field may be accepted directly into the doctoral
program with the transfer of up to 32 credits toward the doctorate. Examples
of appropriate related degrees include: MArch, the MFA in art, and the MA
in such humanities areas as history, philosophy, or literature.
- Grade Point Average: At least 3.00 (A=4.00) in an appropriate MA from
another institution; if applying with a BA, the applicant must have a
3.20 overall and a 3.50 in the major, or approval by the Graduate Program
Committee.
- Tests Required: GRE general.
- Minimum English Competency Test Score
- TOEFL 650 (paper-based); 280 (computer based); 95, with subscores of Reading 24, Listening 24, Speaking 24, and Writing 22 (iBT Internet-based), OR
- IELTS 7.0, with subscores of 6.5 for all four subscores
- Letters of Recommendation: Three required, preferably from professors
and others who are familiar with the applicant’s potential for serious
academic work. Please have recommenders download and attach the Graduate College Recommendation Form to their letter.
- Personal Statement: Applicants must submit a short statement of purpose
that should address the reasons for wishing to do doctoral work
and the relationship of this work to their professional and career
objectives.
- Writing Sample: Applicants must submit a sample of their written work.
- How to Apply: To request an application or apply online, visit the UIC Admissions Website or call (312) 413-2550
- Graduate Application
Checklist.
- Contact Information.
Application Deadlines
Fall Admission: January 1 for applicants who wish to be considered for financial aid from
the department and March 15 for all other applicants.
Spring Admission: October 1 for all applicants.
Degree Requirements
In addition to the Graduate College minimum requirements, students must
meet the following program requirements:
- Minimum Semester Hours Required: 96 semester hours beyond the baccakaureate degree.
- Foreign Language Requirements: Students must present evidence of advanced knowledge of a language other than English as it relates to the student’s chosen area of research. Evidence of the ability to pursue research in additional languages may be necessary, depending on the availability of literature in the field selected, and the selection of those languages must be approved by the student’s advisor.
- Course Work: Candidates must complete at least 64 semester hours of
course work beyond the master’s degree. Of this amount, 32 semester hours
must be in graduate seminars, of which 18 semester hours must be taken
in the department. At least 32 semester hours of credit beyond the MA
degree must be at the 500 level. Of the 64 semester hours required beyond
the master’s degree, a maximum of 24 semester hours of dissertation research
is allowed.
- Required Core Courses: AH 510 and 511; AH 513.
Areas of Focus
The PhD program has two major areas of focus:
- Art of the Americas
- Architecture, Design, and Urbanism
Students may also pursue topics that cross both areas of focus or expand beyond them. Each student will select 16 hours from seminars AH 441, 460, 463, 464, 465, 470, 471, 513, 522, 530, 540, 550, 560, 561, 562, 563, 570, and directed readings courses in the area of focus, as approved by the director of graduate studies.
Students who have taken equivalent course work as part of an MA degree
may petition the director of graduate studies for a waiver of specific
requirements; no course credit is given for a waived course.
Preliminary Examination
Required; written and oral, to be taken upon completion of the course work
and satisfaction of the language requirement. The written examination will
cover the student's area of focus; the oral examination will be based on the
written sections.
Dissertation
Required; the dissertation will make a contribution to knowledge in art
history and will be publicly defended before the scholarly community.
Grade Point Average Requirement
Students must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.00. No credit
will be given for a course taken as part of the doctoral program in which
the grade earned was less than a B.
Interdepartmental Concentration in Gender and Women's Studies
Students earning a graduate degree in this department may complement their courses by enrolling for a concentration in Gender and Women’s Studies after consulting with their graduate advisor. See Gender and Women’s Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences section for more information.
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Dissertations
- Catherine Burdick: “Text and Image in Classical Maya Sculpture: A.D.
600-900,” Summer 2010
-
Margaret Denny: “From Commerce to Art: American Women Photographers
1850-1900,” Summer 2010
- Vincent Michael: “Preserving the Future: Historic Districts in New York
City and Chicago in the Late 20th Century,” 2007
- Roberta Katz: “The Literary Paintings of Thomas Cole: Image and Text,”
2009
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Contact Information
UIC Department of Art History
(M/C 201)
935 W. Harrison
Chicago, IL 60607
General Information
Susanne Uslenghi,
Program Services Aide
(312) 996-3303 |  susl@uic.edu
Director of Graduate Studies
Professor Hannah Higgins
(312) 413-2089 | ahdgs@uic.edu
Museum and Exhibition Studies
Lorelei Stewart, Director, Gallery 400 and Interim Director Museum and Exhibition Studies
(312) 355-4850 | lorelei@uic.edu
If you are applying, we recommend that you download the Graduate Application
Checklist.
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