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History of Art and Architecture

The Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University grants undergraduate degrees in the History of Art and Architecture, as well as in Architectural Studies.  Graduate study in this department is geared toward earning a PhD in the History of Art and Architecture, and many areas of visual culture from the ancient world through the present. Work in the department of the History of Art and Architecture at Brown is conceived as an interdisciplinary undertaking, in which students are encouraged to become familiar with the variety of methodologies and practices that have historically been, and continue to be productive in our fields. We also maintain a longstanding commitment to museum studies and the study of objects through a close working relationship with the  Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design .  Interested students in this department have the opportunity to hold internships and (in the case of graduate students) proctorships at the museum.

Affiliations

Faculty administrative positions.

Osayimwese, Itohan I Chair of History of Art and Architecture

Faculty Positions

Barton, Craig Professor of the Practice of History of Art and Architecture

Bass, Laura R Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Bestock, Laurel D Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Bickford, Roberta Professor Emerita of History of Art and Architecture

Bogues, Barrymore A Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Bonde, Sheila Christopher Chan and Michelle Ma Professor of History of Art

Caplan, Lindsay A Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Graves, Margaret Adrienne Minassian Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture

Houston, Stephen D Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Kleinman, Kent Professor of the Practice of History of Art and Architecture

Kriz, Kay Dian Professor Emerita of History of Art and Architecture

Lincoln, Evelyn Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Moser, Jeffrey Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Muller, Jeffrey M Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Neumann, Dietrich Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Nickel, Douglas R Andrea V. Rosenthal Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Osayimwese, Itohan I Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Rodriguez, Gretel Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Shaffer, Holly M Robert Gale Noyes Assistant Professor of Humanities

von der Schulenburg, Julian Assistant Professor of the Practice of History of Art and Architecture

Winkes, Rudolf M Professor Emeritus of History of Art and Architecture

Zerner, Catherine Professor Emerita of History of Art and Architecture

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The concentration in History of Art and Architecture (HIAA) introduces students to the history of art, architecture, and material culture. Students in HIAA explore a wide range of artistic traditions from around the world, and develop the skills necessary to analyze artworks, artifacts, and the built environment dating from the paleolithic to the contemporary. Concentrators are encouraged to develop familiarity with the distinctive periods, regions, sub-fields, and theoretical approaches that collectively inform the discipline, while at the same time developing an individualized program. Concentrators will receive essential training in perceptual, historical, and critical analysis.

History of Art and Architecture Requirements

To complete the concentration, you will be expected to take a minimum of ten courses. Our goal in setting out these requirements is to welcome students into a lively and diverse department that also shares a cohesive and strong commitment to the field. We as a faculty want students to cultivate their special interests and also to venture into areas that may not be so familiar but that will open new and exciting possibilities for them. Ten courses are only the minimum requirement. Beyond that students are encouraged to take courses at RISD, participate in study abroad programs, and take courses in other Brown departments. As we are a truly interdisciplinary department, you will also find that our faculty collaborates with members of other departments to teach courses that bring together the strengths of different disciplines. We encourage both experimentation and concentration.

Since the history of art and architecture addresses issues of practice within specific historical contexts, concentrators are encouraged to take at least one studio art course. Courses in history also train students in methods and approaches that are highly relevant to the history of art and architecture. Study abroad can be a valuable enrichment of the academic work available on campus, in that it offers opportunities for first-hand knowledge of works of art and monuments as well as providing exposure to foreign languages and cultures. Study abroad should be planned in consultation with the concentration advisor in order to make sure that coursework will relate meaningfully to the concentrators program of study.

Summary of Concentration Requirements

Self-assessment.

All concentrators are required to write an essay when they file for the concentration that lays out what they expect to gain from the course of study they propose. All second-semester seniors will be required to write a final essay that takes measure of what they have learned from the concentration, including their capstone and other experiences relating to their study of the history of art and architecture. The self-assessment should be submitted through ASK with a revised list of courses actually taken at least one month prior to graduation.

During the second semester of the junior year all concentrators will be invited to apply for admission to the Honors Program in History of Art and Architecture. The honors program is an opportunity for concentrators to mobilize what they have learned to make an original research contribution to the field.

Students wishing to write an honors thesis should have produced consistently excellent work and maintained a high level of achievement (i.e. a majority of “A” or “S with distinction” grades) in all concentration courses. It is advisable for them to have taken at least one seminar in the department and written a research paper before choosing to undertake a thesis.  Acceptance into the Honors program depends on the persuasiveness of the thesis topic and the availability of relevant faculty to advise the thesis. No honors student may take more than four courses either semester of their senior year—with the honors seminar being considered one of the four courses. Students interested in honors who are expecting to graduate in the middle of the year should contact the concentration advisor no later than the beginning of their junior year.

During both fall and spring semesters you will participate in the monthly meetings of the Honors cohort, in which honors students in both HIAA concentrations share their work-in-progress with each other and with the faculty member who supervises the seminar. These monthly meetings, usually three per semester, are mandatory. Students must enroll in HIAA 1990 (Honors Thesis) in both semesters. Students are also expected to meet separately and regularly with their own thesis advisor.

Finished drafts of the thesis, which will generally be no more than 30–35 pages in length (exceptions to be determined in consultation with the instructor), not counting bibliography and visual materials, will be due to the advisor and second reader by March 1 of the Spring semester or by November 1 of the Fall semester if you plan on graduating in December. Comments will be returned to the students for final corrections at that point. There will be a public presentation of Honors work at the end of the Spring semester.

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History of Art and Architecture

Graduate Programs

The Ph.D. program offers courses to help students advance their critical reading, research and writing skills as they increase familiarity with different approaches to the past, build comparative understanding of major historical developments and gain competence in the literature and sources of their fields of specialization.

Students are encouraged to adopt a thematic approach to research backed by theoretically sophisticated comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Teaching is an indispensable part of graduate training, and each of our graduate students works as a teaching assistant for a minimum of four semesters. Brown University's summer school offers advanced students an opportunity to develop and teach their own courses.

The department tries to admit students with diverse backgrounds and academic interests who can work harmoniously together. The department's low graduate student-faculty ratio combines with the relatively small size of each cohort to create a vibrant academic environment for students and faculty.

Additional Resources

Exchange program with the University of Florence (Italy), John Hay Library (rare books and manuscript collections), John Carter Brown Library (materials relating to pre–1800 Europe and Western Hemisphere), Rockefeller Library (microfilm collections, textbooks, monographs and periodicals).

Application Information

Application requirements, gre subject:.

Not required

GRE General:

Writing sample:.

Strongly Recommended

Dates/Deadlines

Application deadline, completion requirements.

Two years of course work; foreign language proficiency in specific fields; preliminary field examination; satisfactory performance as a teaching assistant; dissertation, and oral defense.

Alumni Careers

Contact and Location

Department of history, mailing address.

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Department of History

History at brown.

The Brown History Department is a community of scholars and students committed to the rigorous study of humanity’s vast and diverse past.

The department’s research, public outreach, and teaching is global and integrative, and its award-winning faculty members are acclaimed scholars who excel in the classroom.

Undergraduate

Our history courses teach undergraduate students how societies and cultures across the world change over time. Concentrators learn to write and think critically, and to understand issues from a variety of perspectives.

The Department of History at Brown trains graduate students in a wide range of fields, methodologies, and regions of the globe.

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Business history conference holds annual meeting in providence, choices program produces new disability guide with support from ph.d. candidate max chervin bridge, for this brown university scholar, grey parrot trade offers a peek into both human and environmental history, upcoming events, contact information, mailing address:.

Department of History Brown University Box N 79 Brown Street Providence, RI

401-863-2131

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• Events Calendar

Art & Art History News - April 1, 2024

Upcoming events.

Angélica J. Afanador-Pujol, Visiting Art History Scholar

Tuesday, April 2 at 5:30pm Visual Arts Complex, Auditorium - 1B20

Painting and Planting Counter-Narratives in the Landscape of the Conquest of Mexico

Angélica J. Afanador-Pujol is an associate professor at Arizona State University, where she teaches the history of ancient and early colonial Latin American art. Her current research deals with representations of food and consumption among Indigenous groups in sixteenth-century Mexico. She has published essays in leading art journals, and the University of Texas Press published her book,  The  Relación de Michoacán (1539-1541)  and the Politics of Representation in Colonial Mexico . The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) published her co-authored book  Don Antonio Huitzimengari: An indigenous noble in sixteenth-century Mexico .  She is the recipient of several awards including two fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibitions

CU Art Museum, Visual Arts Complex

April 6–18 [Round 1] Opening reception: Fri. April 5 from 4–6 PM (This Friday!) Artists featured: Brianna Autin, Erin Hyunhee Kang, Dani Wasserman, Elisa Wolcott

April 27–May 11 [Round 2]  Opening reception: Fri. April 26 from 4–6 PM Artists featured: Natalie Thedford, Noa Fodrie, Aunna Moriarty, Cody Norton 

Stephanie Hanes, Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Monday, April 8 at 4:00 PM Visual Arts Complex, Auditorium 1B20

Stephanie is a figurative sculptor whose personal work deals with feminist theory in relation to visual culture and questioning ideas of embodiment, subjectivity, and identity. They explore ideas of the sacred and the profane, dualities of power and its relationships to violence, beauty and grotesqueness. 

Stephanie E. Hanes was born in Alberta, Canada in 1985. In 2009 they received a BFA from The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, Canada. Hanes is an MFA Graduate of Ceramics at the Rhode Island School Of Design in 2017 and received the prestigious Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship for a graduate student with exceptional promise.  Stephanie was one of the artists awarded the 2020 NCECA Emerging Artist Prize. In addition, they have exhibited Internationally with a solo show at C.R.E.T.A Rome Gallery in Italy and several group shows at Secci Gallery in Florence, Italy and at Lefebvre et Fils Gallery in Paris, France. Their ceramic sculptures have been exhibited throughout the USA and Canada in New York City, Providence, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and Toronto. Hanes is an Assistant Professor in Ceramic Art at New York College Of Ceramics at Alfred University, where they teach ceramic sculpture. 

King Awards Ceremony & Exhibition

Awards Ceremony & Reception: Friday, April 12, 2024, 4:00-6:00PM Exhibition in the Visual Arts Complex: Wednesday, April 10 - April 19, 2024 

Undergraduate Finalists: Lisa An, Annabelle Ferris, Sarah Mak, Alice Neild, Brooke Schuh

Graduate Finalists: Dati Alsaedi, Ana Gonzalez Barrigan, Cody Norton, Silvia Alejandra Saldivar Romero, Natalie Thedford

View online exhibition

Image: Lisa An,  Untitled, October 2023, photographic print on matte paper, 20in x 30in with borders

Spring 2024 Art History Graduate Student Symposium

Visual Arts Complex, Rm 303 Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 9:00-10:45 AM

9:00 AM — Welcome, introductions, Albert Alhadeff, Director of Graduate Studies, Art History 9:15-9:30 — Brittany Ashley, Collections as Medium 9:30-9:45 — Kat Bertram, Manga Introduction to Nichiren: Unveiling Nichiren Buddhism through Manga Study Aids 9:45-10:00 — Natalie Ginez, Hybridity and Indigeneity in Colonial Ecuador BREAK 10:15-10:30 — Sam Hensley, Gathering for Tea: Modernity, Material Culture, and Tea Ceremony in Japan and Abroad 10:30-10:45 — Taite Shomo, Theatre of the Horrible: Self-Immolation, Violence, and Representation 10:45-11:00 — Bella Malherbe, Bhekisisa, Sakouli Beach, Mayotte: The Black Queer Figure as an Apoptotic Agent of the Anthropocene

Department Announcements

Art & Environments Field School

Registration is now open!

Art & Environments Field School Summer 2024 — June 10-28 ARTS 4444 6 Credits, 3 weeks in the field & 3 weeks asynchronous online

Field Instructor: Aaron Treher Artist and Exhibitions Developer, CU Museum of Natural History Visiting Artist: Nina Elder, Interdisciplinary Artist and Researcher Field Technician: Delaney Gardner-Sweeney, Installation Artist and Researcher Program Director I Online: Richard Saxton,  lnterdiscipinary Artist and Researcher 

Please email [email protected] or [email protected]

Link to Enroll Today!

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PhD candidate Dareen Hussein attends the 2024 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference in Boston

Wu Tsang, Of Whales  (2024) ,  film and installation at ICA Boston

Installation view. Renée Green, Space Poem #1  (2007), ICA Boston

In March 2024, PhD candidate Dareen Hussein traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend the 2024 Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference. She presented her paper “Resurrecting the ‘Songs of Oblivion’: Assia Djebar’s Theory of Counter-Cinema” as part of the panel entitled “Transnational Francophone Cinema: Hybridity, Code-switching, and interculturality”. Dareen was able to attend several other panels during the conference, and in her free time, she made a quick trip to the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), to see the collection of works currently on view. Her trip was generously supported by the Sara Jane Pyne Memorial Scholarship Award through the department of History of Art. 

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