Program Mission

The graduate program in the History of Art at the University of Michigan is designed to prepare students for academic and curatorial careers as well as other professional positions related to the visual arts. Its mission is to provide a broad intellectual foundation necessary for developing independent critical judgment as well as the specialized training needed to conduct advanced scholarly research. The program is noted for its emphasis on theory grounded in historical practice, its commitment to cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study, and its large and distinguished faculty, representing a broad range of historical and geographical expertise. Graduate students are encouraged to develop several areas of specialization within their field and to investigate the production, reception and function of artworks, artifacts, monuments, buildings and other elements of visual culture.

The Department of the History of Art, part of the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science and the Arts, supports the teaching of a wide range of academic subjects. The graduate program offers a strong grounding in the theoretical concerns informing art historical study, including critical theory and gender studies, while providing instruction in art and architecture from a broad range of cultural formations, including modern and contemporary African, African-American, American, Asian, European, and Russian art; early modern Chinese, European, and Islamic art; western medieval and Byzantine art; and classical, ancient Near Eastern, and ancient Chinese art and archaeology. This broad spectrum allows the student opportunities for advanced study in many areas, providing unusual potential for developing cross-cultural comparisons and post-colonial critiques. A university-wide emphasis on interdisciplinary study further enables students to work with faculty in other departments.

The research and teaching faculty of the Department of the History of Art currently numbers twenty-three, plus adjunct and associated faculty. The Department’s commitment to cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study is demonstrated by the number of joint faculty appointments and affiliations with cognate departments and programs, including the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, the Department of Classical Studies, the Department of Philosophy, the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology, the Center for African and African-American Studies, the School of Art and Design, the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the Women’s Studies Program, and the Residential College. Further, the Department has close ties with the Center for Chinese Studies, the Center for Japanese Studies, the Center for South Asian Studies, the program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies, the Museum Studies Program, and the Institute for the Humanities.

Graduate study and research is supported by the outstanding library collections at the University of Michigan, which include the sixth largest research library in the United States, a dedicated Fine Arts library, and the renowned Asia Library. The Department has an exceptional visual resources collection, including unrivalled holdings in the Asian field. Students have opportunities to work with the outstanding art collections in the University of Michigan Art Museum (European, African, Asian, and Islamic art), the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, and area museums including the Detroit Institute of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Department supports a major program of visiting lectures and academic conferences, which promote intellectual exchange and contribute to the vitality of our graduate program. It sponsors a major colloquium and co-sponsors a number of symposia each year, which bring internationally renowned scholars to Ann Arbor. Topics of recent conferences include Visualizing Africa, Modern Sculpture, Communities and Commodities: Western India and the Indian Ocean, and Rhetorics and Rituals of (Un)Veiling in Early Modern Europe. The excellent quality of the learning environment is demonstrated by the high success rate of our graduate students in competitions for international, national, and university fellowships and grants. Recent graduates have secured tenure-track academic appointments, curatorial positions, and jobs in arts administration at such institutions as the University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; University of New Mexico; University of Colorado, Boulder; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Georgetown University; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; University of Rochester; the Corcoran Gallery; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Asia Society; and the State Department (Cultural Programs).
Structure of the Graduate Program

The University of Michigan offers a Ph.D. in History of Art. The program is designed to be completed in six years, four of which are spent in residence. The first two years are devoted to intensive coursework intended to train students in the principal methods and materials used in the historical study of the visual arts and visual culture. Small seminars focus on developing the skills in critical reading and visual analysis essential to art historical research: students are guided to investigate a range of artistic practices in relation to their specific historical and social circumstances. Year three is devoted to further coursework and to focused independent study for the preliminary examination, which is taken in April. All language exams are normally passed by the end of the third year. Early in the fourth year the student submits a dissertation prospectus for review by the dissertation committee and begins dissertation research. Years five and six are devoted to research and writing of the dissertation; typically students spend substantial time doing on-site research. At the beginning of each academic year, students submit a progress report for formal review by the Graduate Committee. It is expected that students will defend the dissertation by the end of their sixth year.

Professional training is an integral part of the program. The faculty works closely with students to provide them with necessary teaching skills. Beginning in their second year, students have the opportunity to develop their professional capacities through teaching assistantships, research assistantships, and curatorial internships.
Faculty Advisors

The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) oversees graduate advising and serves as the initial academic mentor for incoming graduate students. S/he provides advice on curriculum and can at any time direct students to faculty members working in their area of interest in this and other departments.

The DGS helps entering students choose their first-year courses and assigns them to faculty advisors who have similar fields of interest and who will work closely with the student to shape a rigorous and appropriate program of study. These assignments are non-binding and students may change their faculty advisors through discussion with the DGS; these faculty advisors provide individual advising throughout students’ subsequent years of study. It is expected that first-year students meet with the DGS and their faculty advisors at least once per term.

By the beginning of the third year, with the help of the student’s faculty advisors and the DGS, the student assembles a Preliminary Examination Committee consisting of three faculty members, at least two of which must have appointments in the Department of the History of Art. One of these should be the faculty member who will likely act as the principal dissertation advisor. S/he oversees preparation for the Preliminary Examinations. Often, the faculty advisors who serve on a student’s Preliminary Examination Committee later serve on his or her Dissertation Committee. Faculty advisors may change if the student’s scholarly interests shift significantly during his/her time in the program.

Faculty advisors assist the student in designing a program of study that fulfills minimum distribution guidelines (see below) and provides the best possible intellectual preparation for teaching and research in the student’s field of interest. They also offer advice on resources within and outside the department and mentor students on issues of professional development such as conference preparation, teaching opportunities, and publication possibilities. Finally, faculty advisors aid students in their search for professional and academic positions at the completion of the dissertation.
Requirements for the Ph.D.

The Michigan graduate program in the History of Art admits only those students who are judged to be of Ph.D. caliber and who intend to complete the doctorate. The doctorate is awarded in recognition of significant art historical expertise in a specific area within the discipline, which is demonstrated through coursework, the Preliminary Examination, and submission of a dissertation that makes an original contribution to the literature of the field.

The Ph.D. is awarded on the completion of the following requirements:

1. Sixty-eight Rackham Fee Totals (RFTs) of approved coursework taken at the 400-level or higher, which must be completed with a B average in all graduate coursework. Students must have received a B+ or higher in all graduate History of Art coursework. (Note: For courses at the 400-level, students must verify that each course is offered for graduate as well as undergraduate credit before registering.)

2. Students must demonstrate reading proficiency through departmental examination or approved coursework in at least two relevant, approved research languages.

3. Students must complete a minimum of ten graduate seminars in the History of Art including the First Year Graduate Seminar, HA 615. Students entering with a prior M.A. must complete a minimum of six graduate seminars in the History of Art including the First Year Graduate Seminar, HA 615. Up to two directed readings with HA faculty members may count as part of the graduate seminar requirement in the History of Art.

4. Students must fulfill appropriate distribution requirements. All students are encouraged to take advantage of the global reach of courses offered in the department and to take at least two courses outside their primary field of interest. Normally, prior to admission, a student will be expected (1) to have taken at least one course in four cultural areas out of the following six: African, Chinese, European/American, Japanese, Near/Middle Eastern, and South/Southeast Asian; or (2) to have taken at least one course in at least four chronological areas, which are: Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern.

5. Students must earn a grade of B or higher in two three-credit cognate courses in related disciplines at the graduate level (courses numbered 400 or higher).

6. Students must submit and have approved a Third-Term Review Paper, which is a seminar paper or equivalent graduate research paper that demonstrates the student’s command of the skills in research, writing, and critical thinking necessary for preparation of a doctoral dissertation.

7. Students must pass the Preliminary Examination. At this point, the student becomes a doctoral candidate, provided s/he has earned a minimum of 36 Rackham Fee Totals. For students with a prior M.A., the minimum requirement is 18 Rackham Fee Totals.

8. Students must submit a dissertation prospectus for approval by their Dissertation Committee.

9. Students must complete and orally defend a satisfactory dissertation.
It is expected that the student will do all coursework and pass both language exams and the preliminary examination within three years.
    Satisfactory Progess
    Languages
    A knowledge of relevant research languages is crucial to success in the field of the History of Art. Students are advised to begin language study before entering the program and to continue it early in their career at Michigan. Language needs vary and are determined by faculty advisors and the DGS in consultation with the student, taking into account professional standards and research needs in the student’s chosen field. The number of research languages required will be at least two (other than English).

    Proficiency in required languages will normally be demonstrated by either taking a departmental examination or by successfully completing coursework to a level specified by faculty advisors and the DGS. Each student must file a plan for completing the language requirements with the DGS by the end of the first semester in residence. Departmental language examinations are offered at the beginning of the Fall and end of the Winter terms.

    Students with exceptional language needs (e.g. requiring more than two research languages) may petition the Graduate Committee for the right to slow progress to the degree. They will be given up to one extra year after candidacy to complete their additional language requirements (i.e., until the end of their fourth year, or until the end of their third year for students with a prior M.A.). The Department will make every effort to support additional language study by giving students an extra semester (with funding) in which to complete their dissertation. Students are also encouraged apply for competitive FLAS fellowships to fund additional language study. For those students specializing in the Asian and Near Eastern fields, additional support may be provided for an extra summer’s language study prior to the fourth year in residency. Students will demonstrate reading proficiency through departmental examination or approved coursework in the languages.
    The Third Term Review
    The Graduate Committee reviews the progress and performance of every student in the Third-Term Review. This review is intended to be diagnostic and to help ensure that all students are making satisfactory and timely progress toward the Ph.D.

    Each student submits a Third-Term Review paper at the end of his/her third term of study (December). Students with prior M.A.s submit the Third-Term Review paper at the beginning of their third term of study (September). The Third-Term paper should be a clean, corrected copy of a paper written for a graduate course at Michigan. Two faculty members designated by the student read, approve, and offer comments on the Third-Term Review paper. The Graduate Committee reviews the evaluations of the two readers along with evaluations of coursework solicited from all UM faculty members who have taught the student. The multiple evaluations submitted give the Graduate Committee an overall picture of the student’s progress and enable the Committee and the student’s faculty advisors to give advice on future directions. At the conclusion of the Review process, the DGS meets with each student individually to communicate the committee’s assessment.
    Course Grades and Incompletes

    The Rackham School of Graduate Studies requires that a student maintain at least a B grade average in all graduate courses. The Department further requires that a student earn a B+ grade or higher in all History of Art courses. Satisfactory and timely completion of the program depends to a great extent on managing time effectively and completing coursework on schedule. Students should be aware that under the rules of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the granting of incompletes is not automatic. Indeed, the granting of incompletes is discouraged in all but the most extreme of circumstances. Generally, an Incomplete grade may be assigned to a student only if the unfinished part of the student’s work is small, if the work is unfinished for reasons acceptable to the instructor, and if the student’s grade in the course is likely to be a B or higher. Any student wishing an I grade in a course must first request it from his/her instructor and then arrange a schedule for completing the unfinished work for the course. Under most circumstances the new due date will be soon after the original deadline: students are normally expected to make up late work before the end of the subsequent term. In any case, grades of Incomplete can be changed to letter grades only if the incomplete work is made up by the end of the fourth full term beyond the term for which the grade of I is given; for this purpose, every subsequent term (Fall, Winter, Spring/Summer) is counted whether or not the student is enrolled, during which the grade point average continued to be based on hours of completed work. The I grade remains on the transcript, slashed, with the new letter grade beside it.
    The Preliminary Examination

    The Preliminary Examination, normally taken in April of the third year, forms a bridge between coursework and dissertation research. It is based upon the student’s initial formulation of a dissertation topic. By the close of the second year, students are required to give the DGS a tentative list of three members of the Preliminary Examination Committee. The precise areas of questioning and the bibliography begin to be developed by the student in consultation with members of the Committee at a meeting convened well in advance of the examination, but no later than the beginning of the term prior to the term in which the student intends to take the Preliminary Examination.

    The Preliminary Examination is designed to consolidate and test students’ command over the art and scholarship of their major field of study: students must demonstrate up-to-date knowledge of principal artists, genres and monuments, and familiarity with scholarly literature and art historical problems. The examination is set by the student’s primary advisor (normally the eventual chair of his/her Dissertation Committee) and at least one other faculty member from the History of Art. It is read by the student’s Preliminary Examination Committee, which consists of the two faculty members who set the examination, and a third reader who also takes part in the oral follow-up exam. In fields where only one faculty member may be able to set the exam, it is still read by the two additional faculty on the committee.

    The written Examination, taken on two consecutive days, consists of four areas of questioning: the general field (historically and geographically defined) from which the dissertation is drawn [Part I] and three more focused areas broadly relevant to the proposed dissertation topic [Part II]. Depending on the character of the dissertation and the needs of the student, the areas of questioning in Part II may focus on a particular medium or genre, a critical category or concept, a body of comparative material, or a related minor field. One area of questioning may be devoted to theoretical or methodological issues pertinent to the dissertation or to a topic in a cognate discipline of special importance to the student’s dissertation research. In preparing for Part I of the Exam, a student discusses the general field with his/her primary advisor, who is responsible for seeing that the student covers an appropriate range of material. Examples of general fields include “Islamic Art and Architecture Between the Seventh and the Thirteenth Centuries,” “Islamic and Christian Worlds in the Mediterranean Basin, Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries,” “Modern European Painting and Sculpture, 1848-1945,” “Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Art,” and “Arts of China in the Song Period, 960-1279.” As a general rule of thumb, a student should expect that studying for the general field portion of the preliminary exam will prepare him/her to teach undergraduate survey courses in that area. After discussing the general field with the primary advisor, the student then submits to the Preliminary Examination Committee a paragraph defining and delimiting the general field, prepares a bibliography of key texts, and identifies a corpus of works of art for which s/he will be responsible. In preparing for Part II of the Examination, a student composes a bibliography and proposes three questions for each of the three focus areas; these questions serve as the basis for the exam in each of the three focus areas.
    Timing of the Preliminary Exam

    In order to remain in good standing in the program, the student must pass the Preliminary Examination by the end of the winter term of his/her third year. Students who enter the program with a prior M.A. must pass the Preliminary Examination before the end of the winter term of their second year. The Preliminary Examination is taken during the last week of classes. The oral defense takes place by the end of the following week.
    Examination Format
    The Preliminary Examination consists of three parts. The written portion is taken on two successive days.

    Part I: This section consists of written responses to questions posed in relation to slides, photographs or objects drawn from the general field of the student’s specialization. Students are given two hours to write the answers, either longhand or on a portable computer. Upon completion of the test, the student immediately submits the essays or disk to the Graduate Program Coordinator for distribution to the Committee.

    Part II: The second part consists of three long essays on issues raised by the material in the designated areas. Typically these questions, developed from questions proposed by the student, are thematically oriented and directed toward matters of theory, criticism and interpretation, historiography and bibliography. Students are given two hours to write each of the three essays (selecting one questions from a choice of two in each case), either longhand or on a portable computer. Immediately upon completion of each test, the student submits the essay or disk to the Graduate Program Coordinator for distribution to the Committee.

    Part III: The final component is an oral examination of one and one half hours taken within one week of the written portions of the Examination. The oral is administered by the entire committee of three examiners and serves as an opportunity to discuss issues not addressed, or insufficiently treated in the written Exam. This is also an occasion for beginning to discuss the student’s preparation of the dissertation prospectus.

    A student must pass all parts of the preliminary examination. S/he will be asked to retake unsatisfactory portions of the Examination. Barring exceptional circumstances, students will not be allowed to resit the Exam more than once.

    Candidacy
    Candidacy signals the completion of all requirements except the dissertation and its defense. At the end of the third year (second year for students with a prior M.A.), upon completion of the Preliminary Examination, all coursework, and two language requirements, students make formal application for a change of status to Ph.D. Candidacy. Through the conferring of Candidacy, the Department officially confirms that a student is qualified to conduct the dissertation project he or she has proposed. It is the responsibility of the student to confirm that all Rackham School of Graduate Studies deadlines for completion of candidacy requirements are met. The Graduate Coordinator can provide the student with important information about requirements, forms, and deadlines. Students needing to complete an additional language requirement will be permitted to do so by the end of the winter semester of their fourth year.
    The Dissertation Committee
    Upon advancing to candidacy, students begin forming their Dissertation Committees. The Department requires that the committee include a minimum of two regular History of Art faculty, one of which must serve as chair or co-chair of the Committee. The Graduate School requires that each Dissertation Committee have a minimum of four members, three of whom must be regular members of the Rackham faculty. Additionally, one of these three Rackham faculty members must hold an appointment in a cognate field outside of the candidate’s department.
    Immediately after the prospectus defense, students must register a committee of at least three faculty members with the DGS. The names of the fully constituted Dissertation Committee must be registered with the Graduate School at least six months prior to the dissertation defense. In special circumstances, changes may be made in the Committee’s membership in consultation with the DGS through an amendment form available from the Graduate Program Coordinator. All changes must be registered with the DGS and the Graduate School.
    The Prospectus
    Soon after passing the Preliminary Examination, the student begins preparing a detailed prospectus in which s/he outlines the proposed dissertation project and presents a working bibliography. It is expected that the prospectus will be submitted to the dissertation committee in or before the first week of the student’s fourth year in the program (third year for students with a prior M.A.). This important document, which should be no more than 2,500 words in length, serves as the intellectual ground plan for subsequent dissertation research and as the basis for future grant writing. In preparation for writing the prospectus, the student should arrange to speak regularly with the individual members of the Dissertation Committee, especially the principal advisor. When the student has completed the prospectus, the Dissertation Committee convenes to review the project with the candidate, a meeting that may last up to two hours. The Prospectus Review provides a crucial opportunity for the committee and the student jointly to address the proposal, to discuss intellectual and methodological aspects of the project, and to formulate research plans and strategies. These discussions have proven particularly valuable in helping students to prepare successful grant applications. This event must occur by the end of the third week of Fall term classes. A copy of the approved prospectus is filed with the Graduate Coordinator within two weeks after the Prospectus Review.
    The Dissertation and its Defense
    The fourth, fifth and sixth years in the program are devoted to dissertation research and writing. It is crucial at this stage for the student to set up a timetable for the completion of the dissertation, to initiate and maintain regular communication with the Dissertation Chair, and to keep the Dissertation Chair apprised of his/her progress. Normally, a student will be expected to present the completed dissertation and defend it at an oral defense conducted by the Dissertation Committee at the end of the sixth year in the program. Generally, it is expected that students will defend their dissertation on or before the fifteenth of October for a Fall defense; or on or before the fifteenth of February in the Winter term. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain information on deadlines and format from the Graduate School well in advance of the defense. Procedures and requirements are outlined in the Dissertation Handbook available through Rackham’s Office of Academic Records and Dissertations.
    Appropriate progress to the Degree
    Students are asked to submit a report on the progress of their dissertation research each September. In this report they should present a timetable for completion and submission. Students’ progress in the program will be reviewed annually by the Graduate Committee based on the reports and submission of chapter drafts to the student’s advisor. Nominations for fellowships and grants are contingent upon appropriate progress, as is eligibility for detached study. If students have not submitted a dissertation by the beginning of their eighth year in the program or by the end of the fifth year after advancement to candidacy, they are deemed to have withdrawn from the program and must formally reapply to the Graduate Committee for permission to reenroll and to defend the dissertation. In order to re-enroll, students must submit a specific plan for finishing the dissertation to the Graduate Committee with an explanation as to why they could not complete their dissertation in a timely manner. Students who have children during their tenure in the program are entitled to one additional year per child to complete the degree (as per Rackham guidelines).
    Sample Dissertation Completion Schedule
    Year 4, Fall Semester - Students pass their prospectus defense, write and submit fellowship applications, and begin research on their dissertations. In addition, some time during the fourth year, students prepare a 5,000-word paper on their dissertation research and deliver it in the departmental dissertation colloquium.

    Year 4, Winter Semester – Students carry out dissertation research either on or off campus.

    Year 4, Spring/Summer Semester – Students carry out dissertation research either on or off campus.

    Year 5, Fall Semester – Students carry out dissertation research off campus.

    Year 5, Winter Semester – Students carry out dissertation research off campus. In addition, they draft the first quarter of their dissertation.

    Year 5, Spring/Summer Semester – Students draft the second quarter of their dissertation.

    Year 6, Fall Semester – Students draft the last half of their dissertation. (The rough draft of the dissertation should be completed by the end of this semester.)

    Year 6, Winter Semester – Students send the rough draft of their dissertation to their committees during the first week of the semester, make revisions, and defend the dissertation. (Barring exceptional circumstances, the committee will return the rough draft with comments within five weeks.)
    Detached Study
    After completing course requirements, students may elect to go on detached study while undertaking dissertation research. Detached study is an enrollment status for active students in the program who plan to continue their work toward the degree while not registered for courses or directed research. While on external fellowships, students normally plan to go on detached study to avoid paying tuition fees. The Department does not guarantee students tuition waivers beyond the fourth year of study (third year for students with a prior M.A.), except in very special cases. To be eligible for detached study, students must be primarily engaged in dissertation research and writing. During this period, the student is funded neither by the department nor by the university, but he/she remains eligible for certain forms of student loans. Each period of detached study can be no longer than twelve months. Detached study must be renewed on a yearly basis until the end of the fifth year after advancement to candidacy. Detached study status will not be approved by the DGS in any year until the student has submitted the annual progress report. While on detached study, students maintain access to university services including library privileges and a computer account.
    Student concerns/grievances
    The student has the right to bring any grievance about the behavior of another student, a staff member, or a faculty member to the DGS or the chair of the department. This includes grievances over grading, candidacy, work assignments, harassment, personal behavior, etc. The student has the right to be at the hearing of his/her grievance, and the right to privacy in the handling of the grievance. If the grievance cannot be solved within the department or the student is not comfortable airing the grievance, the student is encouraged to take applicable grievances to the Rackham Grievance Officer (see Rackham Graduate Student Handbook for guidelines). The student has the responsibility to follow guidelines for personal and academic conduct as described in the Handbook and this booklet. Students are encouraged to speak out about any problems or concerns observed within the department. The student has the responsibility to present the concern clearly to the object of the grievance, and to hear the side of the other party both in private and before the committee if necessary. The student has the responsibility to hold as confidential any information disseminated by the committee in solving his/her grievance.
    Rackham Fee Totals
    The Rackham School of Graduate Studies requires that students acquire a certain number of Fee Totals before advancing to candidacy (36 for students without a relevant M.A. and 18 for students with a relevant M.A.), or receiving the Ph.D. degree (68 for students without a relevant M.A. and 50 for students with a relevant M.A.). Students following the normal progression will acquire the needed Fee Totals; registration for the dissertation defense will always account for eight of these Totals. For more information on Fee Totals, consult the Rackham Graduate Student Handbook. A progression is outlined in the following sample programs.
    Sample Programs of Study
    Students entering without a prior Masters Degree
    Students who have not yet earned an M.A. in History of Art enroll for 68 Fee Totals; most of these credits consist of coursework taken in the early years. The basic plan is for a four-year period of residency, followed by a two-year period of dissertation research and writing.

    Year 1






    		 Students are required to take HA 615 during the first semester and should take at least 5 additional courses at the 400-level or above in the first year. They should also pass their first language examination.
    Funding
    Students on fellowship for both semesters.

    		 Fall semester
    3 courses (9 credits)



    		 Winter semester
    3 courses (9 credits)
    Year 2







    		 In the second year, students normally take four courses at the 400-level or above and serve as a GSI for both semesters. Student progress is evaluated in the Third-Term Review; students submit their Third-Term Review Papers by the end of the Fall semester. In addition, students should pass their second language examination.
    Funding
    Students teach as GSIs both semesters.


    		 Fall semester
    2 courses (6 credits)
    GSI seminar (HA 993, 1 credit)

    		 Winter semester
    2 courses (6 credits)
    Year 3









    		 In the third year, students take two more courses at a 400-level or above, and take 8 credits of Preliminary Exam Study. The Preliminary Examination is taken in April. Two language exams must be passed in order for students to achieve candidacy by the end of the winter semester.
    Funding
    Students on fellowship for one semester and teach as GSIs for the other.


    		 Fall semester
    2 courses (6 credits)





    		 Winter semester
    Preliminary Exam Study (HA 990, up to 8 credits)
    Pass preliminary exam
    Year 4











    		 All students should achieve candidacy by the beginning of Year 4. Students with exceptional language requirements must complete them by the end of the second semester of Year 4. Students write their prospectus and become engaged in dissertation research. The prospectus defense is to occur before the end of the third week of classes. Students apply for external funding for Year 5.
    Funding
    Students on fellowship for one semester and teach as GSIs for the other.


    		 Fall semester
    Candidacy (HA 995, 8 credits)
    Begin dissertation research grant writing.

    		 Winter semester
    Candidacy (8 credits)
    Dissertation research
    Year 5





    		 Funding: Students are supported by external funding. (Students receive one more semester of fellowship funding in year five or six.)

    Students are engaged in fieldwork, dissertation research, and dissertation writing.
    Year 6




    		 Funding: Students are supported by external funding.

    Students complete and defend the dissertation; Rackham requires a simultaneous registration for 8 credits of candidacy.

    Minimum Rackham Fee Totals = 68

    Student's entering with a prior Master's Degree
    The basic plan for a three-year period of residency, and two years of dissertation research and writing is as follows:
    Year 1






    		 Students are required to take HA 615 during the first semester and should take at least 5 additional courses at the 400-level or above in the first year. They should also pass their first language examination.
    Funding
    Students on fellowship for both semesters.

    		 Fall semester
    3 courses (9 credits)



    		 Winter semester
    3 courses (9 credits)
    Year 2







    		 In the second year, students take two courses and teach as a GSI for one semester. Student progress is evaluated in the Third-Term Review; students submit their Third-Term Review Papers by the beginning of the Fall semester. Students should pass their second language examination. Students should also pass their preliminary examination and achieve candidacy.
    Funding
    Students on fellowship for one semester and teach as GSIs for the other.


    		 Fall semester
    2 courses (6 credits)
    GSI seminar (HA 993, 1 credit)



    		 Winter semester
    Preliminary Exam Study (HA 990, up to 11 credits)
    Pass preliminary exam.
    Year 3









    		 Students achieve candidacy, write their prospectus, and become engaged in dissertation research and grant writing. The prospectus defense is to occur before the end of the third week of classes. Students with extra language requirements must complete their final language requirements by the end of the second semester of Year 4.
    Funding
    Students teach as GSIs for both semesters.


    		 Fall semester
    Candidacy (HA 995, 8 credits) - Dissertation research


    		 Winter semester
    Candidacy (8 credits) - Dissertation research
    Year 4





    		 Funding: Students are supported by external funding or teach as GSIs for both semesters. (Students receive one more semester of fellowship funding in Year 4 or 5.)

    Students are engaged in fieldwork, dissertation research, and dissertation writing.
    Year 5
    Funding: Students are supported by external funding.
    Students complete and defend the dissertation; Rackham requires a simultaneous registration for 8 credits of candidacy.

    Minimum Rackham Fee Totals = 50
    Obtaining the Master's Degree
    The M.A. is awarded under two circumstances: 1) as a milestone toward the Ph.D. by means of a formal application to Rackham, which is initiated by the student in consultation with the DGS; or 2) in exceptional cases in consultation with advisors when a student elects to terminate his or her progress toward the Ph.D. In both cases, all of the following requirements must be met:
    1. Students must obtain a minimum of thirty credits of approved coursework taken at the 400-level or above with a B average in all graduate coursework. Students must have received a B or better in all credits in graduate History of Art coursework. (Note: For courses at the 400-level, students must verify that each course is offered for both graduate as well as undergraduate credit before registering.)
    2. Students must demonstrate reading proficiency through departmental examination or approved coursework in at least one relevant, approved research language.
    3. Students must elect a minimum of ten graduate courses at the 400-level or above including the First Year Graduate Seminar (HA 615).
    4. Students must earn a grade of B in two three-credit cognate courses in related disciplines at the graduate level (courses numbered 400 or higher).
    5. Students must gain the approval of a Third-Term Review Paper (i.e. seminar or equivalent graduate research paper) intended to demonstrate the student’s command of the skills in research, writing, and critical thinking necessary for writing a doctoral dissertation.
    6. Students must fulfill the appropriate distribution requirements. (See “Requirements for the Ph.D.” above.)
    It is expected that the student will complete the M.A. degree within two years.
    Financial Support for Graduate Students
    The Department provides financial support for all students in the graduate program. Students who are making satisfactory progress in their studies receive up to nine terms of support, including tuition remission, health insurance and monthly stipends. Departmental support consists of a combination of fellowship and part-time appointments as graduate student instructors, graders, research assistants, or employees in the library or Visual Resources Collections. Departmental research, language study, and travel money is also available to students in their first four years of the program. In addition, it is available on a competitive basis from travel and discretionary funds held by Rackham School of Graduate Studies. There are also numerous sources on- and off- campus for funding to support graduate research projects and professional activities. The Department and the Graduate School provide listings and information on fellowships and awards designated for graduate student support. Students should consult the Graduate Program Coordinator for help in locating these sources.
    The Student Body
    Approximately fifty-five graduate students are currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in the History of Art, of which nearly forty are in residence. Typically six new students enter the program each year. The Tappan Association is the Department’s graduate student organization. It enriches the intellectual life of the Department by promoting interchange among students and by organizing student and faculty colloquia and other activities suggested by the membership. It also selects student representatives to various departmental committees.
    Facilities
    Tappan and Tisch Halls

    In Tappan Hall there are student mailboxes, locker facilities for storing coats and other belongings, graduate student carrels in the Fine Arts Library (see below), and a departmental study area with one PC and one Macintosh computer. Nearby Tisch Hall houses a graduate student office and meeting area, with desks for Graduate Student Instructors. In addition, graduate students have full access to the excellent equipment and resources available at computer clusters elsewhere on campus. Equipment and training are available so that graduate students may produce slides and digitized images needed for seminar papers and other needs.

    Libraries

    The Fine Arts Library in Tappan Hall is the major art history library on campus. It contains over 65,000 volumes, covering most areas of Western, Near Eastern, African and Asian art history; it is especially rich in scholarly periodicals. Other major library collections are housed in the Graduate Library (the central University research library), the Undergraduate Library, the Media Union (with strong collections in architectural history and modern art), the Clements Library (Americana), the Bentley Historical Library (Michigan history), and the Anthropology Library. There are also helpful specialized collections at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and the Museum of Art. Special mention should also be made of the Asia Library and the Rare Book Room in the Graduate Library, which house an extremely rich collection of manuscripts, incunabula, seal impressions, and important illustrated books, facsimiles, and reference catalogues. The Papyrology Department of the Graduate Library is unparalleled in the western hemisphere.
    A computer-based cataloguing system, MIRLYN (Michigan Independent Research Library Network), allows access to all the University library collections through on-line searches, which also can include bibliographic materials, recent periodical literature, and selected arts and humanities indices.

    The Eleanor S. Collins Visual Resources Collections

    The Department’s collection is one of the largest in the country, containing over 795,000 images. These include 325,000 35-mm slides, 30,000 lantern slides, 250,000 study photographs and reproductions, and over 190,000 archival research images. The collection is used mainly to support teaching, with selected slides, photographs, and reproductions available as study material. Available for special research and reference within the collection are several photographic archives: Italian art from the I Tatti Photographic Archives; the Sinai Archive of materials from archaeological programs at the monastery of Saint Catherine; the Romanesque Photographic Archive; the Courtauld Institute Illustration Archive; and the Asian Art Archives. The Asian Art Archives, containing over 200,000 photographs and slides of Far Eastern, South Asian, and Southeast Asian art, is an especially valuable tool for graduate students pursuing work in the Asian field. In addition, the Department is adapting to the new technology of digital imaging. To date, the collection has approximately 12,000 images and 60,000 text records in its electronic database.

    Campus Museums

    The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. This museum houses collections of ancient Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern art, and material culture from prehistory through medieval times. A large portion of these collections derives from important excavations undertaken by the University in the early twentieth century. Additionally, the museum is home to excavation records and to an important archive of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photographs. The curators at the Kelsey are all regular faculty members of History of Art, Classical Studies, or Near Eastern Studies. The active exhibitions program provides students with opportunities for collaboration with students in all phases. Similarly, the collections, excavations, and other funded research projects of the curators are a constant site of student engagement and professional training. For more information, please see http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey .

    The University of Michigan Museum of Art. The Museum of Art is one of the major university museums in America and one of the principal research facilities available to the graduate student. It houses an excellent teaching collection, containing over 15,000 works in all media with special strengths in works on paper. Its holdings in western art span the centuries from the Middle Ages to the present. It has representative and wide-ranging collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian art, with growing collections of African art and Islamic art. Its active exhibition program presents ca. 15 exhibitions each year, many of them organized by UMMA with faculty and student involvement, and combines special exhibitions with displays exploring aspects of the collections. UMMA also maintains an active publications program, including typically 2-3 major exhibition catalogues each year and the Bulletin of the Museums of Art & Archaeology, an important vehicle for graduate student and faculty publication. UMMA staff work closely with our faculty to provide course support and opportunities for special research for both graduate and undergraduate students.

    The Anthropology Museum obtained its earliest acquisitions came from the Wilkes Expedition to the Pacific in 1838–42. Many significant collections were acquired by Joseph Beele Steere in the 1870s through the 1890s during his many famous trips to the Amazon, the Andes, the south Pacific and Southeast Asia. His Philippine expeditions began a long and continuing tradition of research in that area. In later years collections were acquired from many sources by museum staff and through the generous donations of private citizens. The Museum of Anthropology is organized into seven research divisions also known as ranges. The divisions are: Great Lakes Archaeology, North American Archaeology, Asian Archaeology, Ethnology, Physical Anthropology, New World High Civilizations, and Old World High Civilizations. There are also four research laboratories for: Ethnobotany, Pollen Analysis, Zooarchaeology, and Geology.

    Other Museums in the Area

    Several major museums are located within an hour’s drive of Ann Arbor. The Detroit Institute of Arts contains important collections in almost every area of Western and Asian art as well as the arts of Africa and early America. Its library, conservation department, permanent and temporary exhibitions, and ample schedule of films and lectures make it an important facility for students in the History of Art. The Toledo Museum of Art is one of the richest municipal museums in the country, housing major collections of ancient, Renaissance, Baroque, and modern art as well as an encyclopedic collection of ancient through contemporary glass. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn houses one of the country’s largest collections of the arts and crafts of America. The Cranbrook Academy and Museum in Bloomfield Hills is an important regional locus for art exhibitions and thematic programming.

    Further afield from Ann Arbor are the outstanding collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
    Health & Well Being
    Rackham maintains an extensive Health and Well-Being Resources web page that lists over 50 resources in the following categories: Addictions and Recovery, AIDS/HIV, Dental Health, Domestic Violence, Eating Disorders, Health and Dental Insurance, Legal Assistance, Mental Health, Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, and Student Grievances. Please see http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/ for a complete current listing.
    Health Insurance
    As part of the collective bargaining agreement between the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) and the University, Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) with appointments of 25% or more are eligible for medical insurance benefits paid by the University. Graduate Student Research Assistants (GSRAs) and Graduate Student Staff Assistants (GSSAs) are also eligible for University medical benefits. Note that students must enroll in medical benefits after becoming a GSRAs, GSIs, or GSSAs: students are not automatically enrolled in the health insurance program when appointed, but must call the Staff Benefits office once GSRA or GSI paperwork is completed.

    Currently, students who are not covered by an insurance plan through GSI, RA, SA or fellowships may purchase health care for themselves and their dependents through the program.

    As always when choosing an insurance plan, it is important to consider the scope of coverage and the deductibles when making your decision. Be aware that the university has a health service unit that offers many services free to all registered students. Please see http://www.uhs.umich.edu/ for more information.

    NOTE: International students must have some form of health insurance.
    Department Administration
    The Chair of the Department of the History of Art is responsible for the overall administration of the department. The Chair is always a member of the Graduate Committee.

    The Director of Graduate Studies supervises the graduate program, chairs the Graduate Committee, and oversees the system of graduate advising. In conjunction with the student’s faculty advisors, the DGS also assists graduate students in their search for internal and external grants and fellowships.

    The Graduate Committee makes admissions decisions, allocates internal and external sources of student support, helps formulate policies and procedures, oversees the Third-Term Review, reads annual dissertation progress reports, and generally assists the Director of Graduate Studies in administering the graduate program.

    The staff in the Departmental Office (110 Tappan Hall) provides much of the support services for both the faculty and the student body. The Key Administrator maintains the departmental budget and oversees personnel matters. The Graduate Program Coordinator manages the admissions process, maintains the integrity of graduate student records, counsels students on fulfilling departmental and University requirements and achieving academic milestones, coordinates graduate student financial support programs, and coordinates the process of hiring GSIs for departmental courses, as well as other graduate student positions. The Program Coordinator also assists students in registering for courses, securing library privileges, and acts as a liaison between the students and the Graduate School. Other members of the office are a Departmental Secretary, a Chair’s Secretary, and an Undergraduate Program Coordinator. Normal office hours are weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (4:30 p.m. during the summer).
    Communications within The Department
    All graduate students have their own mailboxes, which are located next to the faculty mailboxes on the first floor of Tappan Hall. The Department of the History of Art supports two main e-mail groups, tappan.association@umich.edu, which is the general graduate student e-mail address, and hartfac@umich.edu, which is the general faculty e-mail address. The Department’s web page provides lists of current and future course offerings, faculty contact information, online study galleries, an electronic version of the graduate student handbook, and links to a wide variety of art historical resources. It also contains general information about life and activities in Ann Arbor.
    Resources
    The Department recycles both paper and plastic. Recycling containers are located on all floors in Tappan Hall. For further information on recycling, see http://www.recycle.umich.edu/. The GSI office in Tisch Hall is provided with local telephone service, computers, and a photocopying machine. There is a scanning station in the basement of Tappan Hall and a copy stand room in the Fine Arts Library, both of which are available to graduate students. The Departmental Secretary provides office and building keys, grants students access to certain supplies and equipment, and oversees extra-curricular room scheduling and use.
    Departmental Resources for GSIs
    GSIs are taught to become educators by observing lectures taught by HA faculty and by running their own discussion sections. They generally meet with the faculty member for whom they are teaching at least once a week for discussion on how their sections are going and advice on grading, etc. In addition, GSIs are required to take a 1-credit GSI-training course (HA 993) during the first semester they serve as GSIs (this is generally the first semester of their second year in the program). This seminar, which is taught by an advanced graduate student, introduces students to a wide variety of strategies and resources on campus to help them in their teaching. Teaching materials—overheads, computer disks, general supplies, etc.—are provided by the Departmental Secretary. All GSIs are assigned a desk in the GSI office in Tisch Hall where they can meet with their students.

    GSIs should be aware of the following university training resources:

    The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT): (http://www.crlt.umich.edu/)
    CRLT’s Guidebook for UM Graduate Student Instructors: (http://www.crlt.umich.edu/gsibook/gsibook.html)
    The Center has much to offer, including workshops, publications, getting midterm feedback from students, videotaping classes (and discussing the ‘show’ with instructors).

    Sweetland Writing Center: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/swc/
    The SWC helps students with writing and can be particularly useful with students who need extra help with grammar. Peer tutors hold drop-in office hours in the Computing Center. The center also conducts GSI training for ULWR classes.

    English Language Institute: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eli/
    The primary resource for students for whom English is a second language.

    Counseling and Psychological Services: http://www.umich.edu/~caps/
    Offer individual counseling sessions, as well as group workshops about study habits, etc.

    Services for Students with Disabilities: http://www.umich.edu/~sswd/ssd/
    A resource for students with either physical or learning disabilities. They have a list of common symptoms of learning disorders, useful for instructors wishing to help students. They offer transportation for students with even temporary disabilities.

    Academic Standards: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/saa/standards/index.html
    Rules for withdrawals, incompletes, etc.; also information about plagiarism.


    Departmental Seminars and Events
    Information about graduate student seminars is provided on the Department’s web page and on the courses and seminars bulletin board on the first floor of Tappan Hall. At the beginning of each semester, the Graduate Coordinator also circulates a list of departmental lectures, colloquia, and events. Attendance at these lectures, colloquia, and events is considered to be part of a student’s formal training.

    GSI Hiring Policy
    In assigning Graduate Student Instructorships, the DGS will give preference to qualified History of Art graduate students. Students are hired for the fall and winter semesters.

    There is no separate application process for graduate students in the program, although students are allowed to state their teaching preferences for the following year in writing to the DGS at the beginning of the winter semester.

    Selection criteria for GSIs include qualifications, need, seniority, student’s progress in their academic programs, and relevance of a particular position to a student’s graduate training. While all effort is made to match students to GSI positions in relevant areas of specialization, the department reserves the right to assign students to GSI positions as needed.
    Spring/Summer Teaching Hiring Policy
    Graduate students who have achieved candidacy may submit proposals to teach courses of their own devising in spring/summer terms – a valuable professional experience. Applications are solicited at the beginning of the winter semester. The Graduate Committee reviews the proposals and notifies the graduate students in February.
    Career Placement
    While the job market for art historians remains tight, University of Michigan graduates have for many years succeeded at rates well above the national average. Primary responsibility for finding a position after graduate school rests with students, helped by their principal advisors, who are well informed about both the job seeker’s own qualities and the job possibilities in the particular field.

    Students rarely find jobs unless their dissertation is finished or very close to completion. In cases when a student begins a teaching job with considerable dissertation work ahead, submission of the completed dissertation is often delayed, and it becomes difficult to compile the strong scholarly record needed to obtain tenure. Consequently, students are advised not to seek a position until after they have completed their research and have written a very substantial portion of their dissertation.

    In the Fall of the year in which they begin their job search, students are advised to consult CAA Careers (available in the Fine Arts Library) and the Chronicle of Higher Education (their web site is particularly useful), as well as the bulletin board in Tappan 50. The DGS and faculty members will also share any information that they receive about open positions with appropriate graduate students.

    It is essential that students stay in close and frequent communication with their advisors throughout the job search. Although the success of any candidate always rests on the individual’s qualifications and abilities, not on the personal intervention of an advisor, there are many ways in which faculty members can help. Their experiences and insights constitute the best form of placement aid the Department can offer: take advantage of this resource. In addition, students have found the University Career Planning & Placement Office (http://www.cpp.umich.edu/) to be a helpful resource. The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (http://www.crlt.umich.edu) and Rackham (http://www.rackham.umich.edu/) also have classes and workshops that are useful for career placement activities.
    The Faculty
    The Department of the History of Art has twenty-three research and teaching faculty, many of which hold joint positions, plus adjunct and associated faculty. Additionally, we are fortunate to enjoy the ongoing presence in our intellectual community of emeriti professors. Our course offerings are also frequently enhanced by short-term visitors who teach as sabbatical replacements.

    Chair

    Alex Potts, Ph.D. (University of London). Max Loehr Collegiate Professor of History of Art and Departmental Chair. Scholarly interests include modern and contemporary sculpture, theory and installation; artistic culture in the Enlightenment and early nineteenth century; modern reinterpretations of the classical ideal; European and American art and critical theories of art in the mid and later twentieth century. Publications include The Sculptural Imagination. Figurative, Modernist, Minimalist (2000); and Flesh and the Ideal. Winckelmann and the Origins of Art History (2000, 1994).

    Director of Graduate Studies

    Susan Siegfried, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Professor, History of Art. Scholarly interests include eighteenth and nineteenth century European art, the thematisation of gender, social spaces for viewing art, and the emergence of new imaginative paradigms in artistic practice and responses to art in the early nineteenth century. Publications include Fingering Ingres (co-author, 2001); The Art of Louis-Léopold Boilly: Modern Life in Napoleonic France (1995); and “Engaging the Audience: Sexual Economies of Vision in Joseph Wright” (1999).

    Regular Faculty

    Sussan Babaie, Ph.D. (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU). Assistant Professor, History of Art. Scholarly interests include Islamic arts, especially social and cultural history of the Persianate world, enunciations of kingship, slavery and its representations, image/text issues, modernity in the visual culture of the Islamic world, and cross-cultural contact zones. Publications include “The Sound of the Image/The Image of the Sound” (2001); Slaves of the Shah (co-author, forthcoming 2003); and Feasting in the City of Paradise: Isfahan and its Palaces (manuscript in preparation).

    Matthew Biro, Ph.D. (State University of New York at Stony Brook). Associate Professor, History of Art and Residential College. Scholarly interests include critical theory, twentieth-century art, and film. Publications include “Representation and Event: Anselm Kiefer, Joseph Beuys, and the Memory of the Holocaust” (2003); “History at a Standstill: Walter Benjamin, Otto Dix, and the Question of Stratigraphy” (2001); “Allegorical Modernism: Carl Einstein on Otto Dix” (2000); Anselm Keifer and the Philosophy of Martin Heidegger (1998; 2000); “The New Man as Cyborg: Figures of Technology in Weimar Visual Culture” (1994); and “Art Criticism and Deconstruction: Rosalind Krauss and Jacques Derrida” (1990).

    R. Ward Bissell, Ph.D.(University of Michigan). Professor, History of Art. Scholarly interests include Baroque painting and sculpture of Italy and Spain, with special focus upon the Caravaggesque tradition. Publications include Orazio Gentileschi and the Poetic Tradition in Caravaggesque Painting (1981); Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art (1999); and Catalogue of the Italian Baroque Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts (forthcoming).

    Celeste Brusati, Ph.D. (University of California at Berkeley). Professor, History of Art and Program in Women’s Studies. Scholarly interests include Netherlandish pictorial art and theory of the 16th and 17th centuries, technologies of vision, Dutch art and overseas trade in the seventeenth century, and the imagery and ideologies of the pictorial arts in the Netherlands. Publications include “Natural Artifice and Material Values in Dutch Still Life Painting” (1997); Artifice and Illusion: The Art and Writing of Samuel van Hoogstraten (1995); Johannes Vermeer (1993); and “Stilled Lives: Self-Portraiture and Self-Reflection in Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Still-Life Painting” (1990-91).

    Jacqueline Francis, Ph.D. (Emory University). Assistant Professor, History of Art and the Center for African and African-American Studies. Scholarly interests include African-American art and American art, 1781 to the present; early twentieth-century modernist painting in the U.S., especially production between the world wars. Publications include a book-length consideration of “racial art” discourse in the 1920s and 1930s, and an essay on the artist Romare Bearden’s writing for the National Gallery of Art (forthcoming).

    Elaine K. Gazda, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Professor, History of Art and Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology; Curator, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Scholarly interests include Roman sculpture painting, the art of late antiquity, architecture, and building technology, Etruscan art, and the impact of the classical tradition in the west. Publications include “The Ancient Art of Emulation: Studies in Artistic Originality and Tradition from the Present to Classical Antiquity” (2002); “The Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii: Ancient Ritual, Modern Muse” (2000); and Roman Art in the Private Sphere (1991).

    Daniel Herwitz, Ph.D. (University of Chicago). Director, Institute for the Humanities. Mary Fair Croushore Professor of Humanities. Professor, History of Art, Philosophy, School of Art and Design. Scholarly interests include philosophical aesthetics (especially pertinent to film, plastic art and architecture), theory of justice, globalization and new democracies, post-structuralism and continental philosophy. Publications include “Race and Reconciliation: Essays from the New South Africa” (2003); “Comedies of Mastery and Reconciliation: South Africa's Taxi, America's Rib” (2002); and “The Idea of an Art Historical Shape: Between India and South Africa” (2001).

    Megan Holmes, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Assistant Professor, History of Art. Scholarly interests include Italian Renaissance social and cultural history, monasticism and the arts, sacred images in the Renaissance. Publications include Fra Filippo Lippi the Carmelite Painter (1999); “Neri di Bicci and the Commodification of Artistic Values in Florentine Painting 1450-1500” (2003); and “Copying Practices and Marketing Strategies in a Fifteenth-Century Florentine Painter's Workshop” (2003). Current research projects include a book on Florentine cult images and religious sanctuaries c.1300-1550.

    Howard Lay, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Assistant Professor, History of Art. Scholarly interests include modern French painting and graphics, as well as critical approaches to popular, bohemian, and avant-garde cultural forms. Publications include “Réflecs d'un Gniaff: On Emile Pouget and Le Père Peinard” (1999); “Pictorial Acrobatics” (2001); and “Beau geste: On the Readability of Terrorism” (2002). A book on painting and oppositionality in fin-de-siècle Montmartre, Codes of Misconduct, is forthcoming.

    Lisa Nevett, Ph.D. (University of Cambridge). Assistant Professor, History of Art and Classics. Scholarly interests include what the organization and representation of architectural space tells us about
    social relations in the ancient world and a collaborative field project at Halieis (Argolid, Greece) exploring the formation of the Classical household and the domestic economy. Publications include House and Society in the Ancient Greek World (1999); Domestic Space and Social Organisation in the Ancient World; and Ancient Greek Households: geographical and social diversity (coedited with Bradley Ault; forthcoming).

    Ning Qiang, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Scholarly interests include Chinese religious art and the issues of politics and gender in Chinese art and society, including a research focus on Chinese Buddhist art, Dunhuang studies, and the art along the Silk Road. Publications include Art, Religion and Politics in Medieval China: The Dunhuang Cave of the Zhai Family (2003); and Dunhuang Buddhist Art: An Art Historical Approach (1992).

    Martin Powers, Ph.D. (University of Chicago). Sally Michelson Davidson Professor, History of Art; Director of the Center for Chinese Studies. Scholarly interests include the role of the arts in the history of human relations in China, with an emphasis on issues of political expression, personhood, and social justice. Publications include: Pattern and Person: Ornament and Social Thought in Classical China (forthcoming); “When is a Landscape like a Body? Landscape, Culture, and Power” (1998); “Art and History: Exploring the Counterchange Condition” (1996); and Art and Political Expression in Early China (1991).

    Margaret Cool Root, Ph.D. (Bryn Mawr College). Professor, History of Art and the Interdepartmental Program in Classical art and Archaeology. Curator of Near Eastern and Greek Antiquities, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Scholarly interests include historiography, semiotics, iconography, visual and spatial constructions of imperial ideologies, issues of identity and gender, and transcultural mappings of visual experience. Publications include “Replicating, Inscribing, Giving: Ernst Herzfeld and Artaxerxes' Silver Phiale in the Freer Gallery of Art” (with A.C. Gunter, 1998); and Seals on the Persepolis Fortification Tablets. Volume I. Images of Heroic Encounter (with M.B. Garrison, 2001); and Medes and Persians: Reflections of/on Elusive Empires (2002 in press). Her current exhibition project for the Kelsey Museum is Signs & Symbols: The Early Art of Iran (2004).

    Elizabeth Sears, Ph.D.(Yale University). Professor, History of Art. Scholarly interests include European representational arts of the high and later Middle Ages with a special focus on manuscript illumination, religious and secular imagery, and historiography. Publications include: Reading Medieval Images: The Art Historian and the Object (coedited with T. K. Thomas, 2002); an edition of writings by Edgar Wind, The Religious Symbolism of Michelangelo: The Sistine Ceiling (2000); “Ivory and Ivory Workers in Medieval Paris” (1997); and “Sensory Perception and its Metaphors in the Time of Richard of Fournival” (1993).


    Raymond Silverman    , Ph.D. (University of Washington). Professor, History of Art and Center for Afroamerican and African Studies; Director, Museum Studies Program. Scholarly interests include the interaction between West Africa and the cultures of the Middle East, the evolution of metalworking technologies in West Africa and Ethiopia, commodification of visual culture in Ethiopia and Ghana, and the history of museums in Africa. Publications include: “Ethiopian Traditions of Creativity: ‘Art’ or ‘Handicraft’” (2003); “An Aesthetic of Accumulation and Display in Akan Tano Shrines” (2002); “Ethiopia: Traditions of Creativity” (1999); and “Seeking a History for a Masquerade: Do Performances of the Bondoukou Region” (1996).

    Patricia Simons, Ph.D. (University of Melbourne). Associate Professor, History of Art and Program in Women’s Studies. Scholarly interests include Renaissance Italy with a special focus on the representation of gender and sexuality, and interdisciplinary research on the construction of authority and on medicalized bodies. Publications include “Anatomical Secrets: Pudenda and the Pudica Gesture” (2002); “Lesbian (In)Visibility in Italian Renaissance Culture: Diana and other cases of donna con donna” (1994); and “Women in Frames: The Gaze, the Eye, the Profile in Renaissance Portraiture” (1992).

    Thelma K. Thomas, Ph.D. (New York University/Institute of Fine Arts). Associate Professor, History of Art; Associate Curator, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Scholarly interests include art and architecture of the late Roman and Byzantine empires and other Christian cultures of the Medieval Middle East, with a special focus on textiles and funerary arts. Publications include Reading Medieval Images: The Art Historian and the Object, (co-edited with Elizabeth Sears, 2002); Textiles from Karanis, Egypt, in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology: Artifacts of Everyday Life (2001); and Late Antique Egyptian Funerary Sculpture: Images for this World and the Next (2000).

    Thomas Willette, Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University). Lecturer III, History of Art. Scholarly interests include early modern Europe (c. 1450-1800), particularly Italy and the larger sphere of Italian influence and exchange. Research interests include the rhetorical and affective strategies of visual art, the impact of humanism and the classical tradition, and the development of art-historical literature, including Lives of artists, national histories of art, and treatises on the theory and practice of art. Publications include Massimo Stanzione (1992); and Art History in the Age of Bellori: Scholarship and Cultural Politics in 17th-Century Rome (2002).

    Rebecca Zurier, Ph.D. (Yale University). Associate Professor, History of Art. Scholarly interests include American art, particularly of the 19th-20th centuries, with a special focus on architectural history and material culture, realism and representation, popular and mass culture, and urban culture. Publications include Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York (1995) (also served as guest curator for the exhibition of that name at the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution); “Visionary in Boston: The Apartment as Housing in a Nationalist Utopia” (1993); Art for the Masses (1911-1917): A Radical Magazine and its Graphics (1988); and “Classy Comics” (1991).

    Affiliated Faculty
    Susan E. Alcock, Ph.D. (University of Cambridge). Professor, Classical Studies and
    Interdepartmental Program in Art and Archaeology; Curator, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Hellenistic and Roman East, landscape archaeology, archaeological survey, and archaeology of imperialism.

    John Cherry, Ph.D. (University of Southampton). Professor, Classical Studies; Director, Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology; Curator, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology Aegean and Mediterranean prehistory, regional field survey, and archaeological theory.

    Beth Genne, Ph.D. (University of Michigan). Adjunct Associate Professor, History of Art; Associate Professor, School of Music. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and American art. Interdisciplinary research focuses on artistic collaborations in dance, cinema, music and scenic art production.

    Sharon Herbert, Ph.D. (Stanford University). Professor, Classical Studies and Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology; Director, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Archaeology of Greece and the Hellenistic Near East, with special interest in pottery traditions. Recent excavations in Israel and Egypt.

    Anatole Senkevitch, Ph.D. (Cornell University). Associate Professor, History of Art; Associate Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning. History and theory of Modern architecture and the avant-garde, with special interest in Russian architecture.

    Lydia M. Soo, Ph.D. (Princeton University). Associate Professor, History of Art; Associate Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

    James Steward, Ph.D. (Oxford University). Assistant Professor, History of Art; Director, University of Michigan Museum of Art. Eighteenth-century European Art.
    Emeritus Faculty
    Rudolf Arnheim, Ph.D. (University of Berlin). Psychology of the arts.

    Richard Edwards, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Chinese art.

    Marvin Eisenberg, Ph.D. (Princeton University). Medieval and Renaissance art.

    Ilene H. Forsyth, Ph.D. (Columbia University). Early medieval art with a special focus on the liturgical arts, such as Ars Sacra, and on ideological programs in monumental art, such as narrative cycles in monastic painting and sculpture of the Romanesque period.

    Joel Isaacson, Ph.D. (University of California at Berkeley). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century European art.

    Diane Kirkpatrick, Ph.D. (University of Michigan). Twentieth-century art with a special focus on the histories of photography and cinema, particularly the creative processes that utilize the newer media techniques to form works of art.

    Victor Miesel, Ph.D. (University of Michigan). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century art.

    Charles Sawyer, L.H.D. (Amherst College, Clark University). Modern art.

    Walter Spink, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Indian art with a special focus on early Buddhist and Hindu architecture, sculpture, and painting with extensive work on cave temples, with particular emphasis on those at Ajanta, Ellora, and Elephanta.

    Nathan Whitman, Ph.D. (Harvard University). Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture.

    Admissions (Application Deadline is December 15)
    Application forms may be obtained by contacting the Graduate Program Coordinator:
    By telephone By regular mail By e-mail
    734/764-5401





    		 Department of the History of Art
    50A Tappan Hall
    519 S. State Street
    Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1357



    		 histartadmiss@umich.edu

    Detailed information on the rules and regulations governing the entire graduate program is provided in the Student Handbook of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies. Copies of this booklet are available on the Rackham website (http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/Publications/GSH/html/contents.html) or may be requested from the Mail Office, Graduate School, 118 Rackham Building, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1070.
    Applications for admission to the Graduate Program in the History of Art are reviewed by the departmental Graduate Admissions Committee. The committee makes admission decisions for domestic students and recommendations to the Graduate School for international students. Admission decision letters are sent directly by the Department to applicants from late February through the month of March. For more information , please see the Rackham Graduate Handbook at http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/Publications/GSH/html/contents.html.
    The number of admissions that may be offered each year is limited by the Department’s facilities and to some extent by the University’s resources. In recent years the percentage of applicants accepted has ranged from 10% to 20%. Competition for places in the program is thus keen, and many well-qualified applicants cannot be offered admission.
    The selection process aims to find students who not only have excellent qualifications and are likely to succeed in the doctoral program, but who also have interests and goals well-matched to the strengths of the faculty and resources of the program. Toward this end the Graduate Admissions Committee reviews applications with attention to a variety of considerations. Criteria that weigh heavily in the committee’s deliberations include the applicant’s statement of purpose, the overall quality of the applicant’s academic record, GRE scores (the Graduate School currently recommends a minimum combined score of 1200 on the verbal and quantitative portions of the GRE), language preparation, and letters of recommendation. Applicants who wish to submit a writing sample are encouraged to do so.
    Not all successful applicants to the program have an undergraduate degree in art history. If some of the applicant’s training in art history has occurred outside the classroom, the statement of purpose should give an account of that training. The department does not require that students complete a certain undergraduate curriculum prior to successful application. Instead, each applicant’s background is individually evaluated based on the professional goals and intellectual interests shown in the statement of purpose. Normally, prior to admission, a student will be expected to have taken at least one course in some combination of at least four cultural areas (African, Chinese, European/American, Near/Middle Eastern, Japanese, South/Southeast Asian) and/or chronological areas (Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, Modern). Otherwise strong applicants who lack such breadth may be offered admission, but they will be expected to meet the distribution requirements outlined above during their first four terms in the program.
    It is the Department of the History of Art’s policy not to comment on specific admissions decisions. The factors that affect decisions to admit or reject students are GPAs, GREs, the writing sample(s), letters of recommendation, the nature of the proposed project (as articulated in the statement of purpose) and its fit with the work of relevant faculty members, and language preparation. Financial need is not a consideration, as we admit only full-time students who are funded by the department.

    Applications to the Ph.D. program in the History of Art may be submitted in three ways:
    1. Via the World Wide Web (application fee must be paid by credit card): http://www.rackham.umich.edu/Admis/
    2. A paper application downloaded from the Rackham Graduate School website (Adobe PDF format): http://www.rackham.umich.edu/Admis/
    3. A CD-Rom application, from which a paper application is printed, provided by request to the department at histartadmiss@umich.edu

    To apply to the Ph.D. program in the History of Art, you should send application materials to the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies and the Department of the History of Art as follows:

    Send to Rackham:
    Rackham’s copy of the Application for Graduate Studies at Michigan
    Official Transcript(s) if your degree is form a non-US institution
    Certification of Finances if you are an international applicant
    Application fee

    Send to History of Art:
    Department’s copy of the Application for Graduate Studies at Michigan
    Official transcript(s)
    Statement of Purpose
    Three letters of recommendation
    GRE general test scores
    Academic writing sample (optional)