Art historians enhance our understanding of art and its place within society through their research.
In the Department of Art Education and Art History, our Master of Arts degree in Art History is a gateway to careers in museums and galleries or future graduate study en route to an academic career. You can choose course work that focuses on:
Within these areas, you'll work with faculty members whose interests and expertise intersect on colonialism, post-colonialism, geography, ritual and spatial analysis, race, gender and sexuality.
Our faculty members have distinguished themselves through quality teaching, research and numerous publications and presentations. They've been Fulbright scholars and received fellowships from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Newberry Library and the Terra Foundation for American Art, among others. Their specializations include:
Faculty members are also affiliated with other areas across UNT, including Women's Studies, the Medieval Renaissance Consortium, Middle Eastern Studies and the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Institute.
In addition to outstanding faculty, the program offers:
The College of Visual Arts and Design is one of the nation's most comprehensive visual arts schools and considered one of the best in the Southwest. We have state-of-the-art facilities that include:
Other educational resources include the Jo Ann (Jody) and Dr. Charles O. Onstead Institute for Education in the Visual Arts and Design, the Print Research Institute of North Texas with more than 100 signed editions and monoprints in its collection, and the Texas Fashion Collection. Many cultural and career options are available in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. UNT is in close proximity to the African American Museum of Dallas, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Meadows Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
You'll need to meet the admission requirements for the Toulouse Graduate School® and submit the following items to the College of Visual Arts and Design:
If you don't have the proper background in the field you intend to study, you can be accepted on a conditional basis. Undergraduate art or art history course work will need to be completed before beginning any graduate-level work.
For graduate school requirements and possible exceptions, visit the graduate school website.
The Art Museum Education certificate provides theoretical grounding and practical experience in the field.
Utilizing the rich museum resources of the Dallas-Fort Worth region, you'll explore and interact with a vibrant and forward-thinking landscape of museum education.
The program consists of 15 credit hours, including a 6-credit hour internship at an art museum. The certificate complements the graduate degree by giving you a strong grasp of the role of education in museums.
Working with other disciplines in the college will help you understand how art history is essential to the way museums communicate with patrons.
We offer teaching assistantships and fellowships and area assistantships on a competitive basis. Approximately 60 teaching assistantships and fellowships and 20 area assistantships are available each fall and spring semester.
Levels of appointment and positions vary from semester to semester.
The Donahue Scholarship supports one new or continuing graduate student each year in art history, and the Arabic Heritage Society Scholarship is awarded each year to a student studying Islamic or Middle Eastern art.
Many other scholarships are offered annually through the college to all graduate art majors. Scholarship information is available at our website. Visit the financial aid website for information about other financial assistance programs.
Denise Baxter, Professor; Ph.D., University of California-Santa Barbara. 18th- and 19th-century art and material culture.
Kelly Donahue-Wallace, Professor; Ph.D., University of New Mexico. Latin American colonial art; history of prints; 17th-century art; art history pedagogy and technology.
Paula Lupkin, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania. History of Modern and American architecture, design, cities and cultural landscapes; spatial humanities.
Lisa Owen, Associate Professor; Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin. Asian art; ancient and medieval India.
Kurt Rahmlow, Senior Lecturer; Ph.D., University of Iowa. 19th- and 20th-century art in Europe and America; symbolism; artists' communities; decorative art.
Nada Shabout, Professor; Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington. Islamic art; Middle Eastern art; 20th- and 21st-century Arab art.
Jennifer Way, Professor; Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin. History, methodology and theory of art and visual culture since 1900.