Program type:

Major
Format:

On Campus
Est. time to complete:

5-6 years
Credit Hours:

150
Get on the fast track to your career in Art History.
Art historians enhance our understanding of art and its place within society through their research. Studying the art, architecture, and material culture produced by diverse world cultures and periods, art historians examine the historical, social, and cultural significance art holds for its creators and users. Graduates critically analyze and apply different theories and methods in their investigation of artworks, images from visual culture, or other related materials.

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Why Earn Combined Art History degrees?

The Art History program offers an accelerated graduate-track pathway that allows selected undergraduate art history majors to begin the M.A. program in the last year of undergraduate study. This program is a great way to jumpstart a career in the gallery or museum world or to move you on your way to a Ph.D. program, as it allows you to complete both the B.A. and M.A. degrees in an expedited manner.

Our commitment to diverse areas of inquiry is reflected in the curriculum, which enables students to experience a range of courses addressing global art history, with a goal to train art historians to have a broad understanding of the historical roots of the visual arts, the contemporary issues addressed by artists and the role of art in a world context. The program seeks to enhance students’ understanding of both contemporary and past visual art forms through innovative uses of technology, research and teaching in the arts, providing continuing opportunities for intellectual development and career growth for students and faculty.

Faculty provide supervision and mentorship in the following areas for graduate study:

  • Visual and material culture of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East and the art and architecture of South Asia
  • Visual and material culture in the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas from the 16th to the 21st Century
  • Historiography, methodology, and theory of art and visual and material culture since 1900

Within these areas, students work with an array of faculty whose interests and expertise intersect on such issues as colonialism, postcolonialism, geography, ritual and spatial analysis, race, gender and sexuality.

Marketable Skills
  • Oral and written communication
  • Research source identification
  • Research material analysis
  • Contextual understanding of art works
  • Visual literacy
  • Advanced scholarly writing
  • Primary and secondary source analysis
  • Critical thinking
  • Research design
  • Research implementation

Art History Combined Degrees Highlights

Faculty-led study abroad courses are regularly available, and students are encouraged to pursue foreign study even when CVAD is not the sponsor.
Students are provided ample opportunity to intern and volunteer at local museums and galleries and are encouraged to do so. These experiences can be used for academic credit.
Under the leadership of faculty, students participate in local conferences that attract global audiences.
UNT is near the African American Museum of Dallas, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Meadows Museum and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
The program offers exposure to distinguished scholars who are invited by faculty to provide guest lectures and/or lead discussions/workshops in their courses. These visits are conducted in a variety of modalities.
Students can contribute to faculty research projects as well as to pursue individual interests through supervised study in Special Problems courses and in the research and writing of their individual M.A. project.

Career Outlook

Most art historians hold graduate degrees. With an advanced degree, you can pursue a career as a(n):

  • Art researcher
  • Gallery worker
  • Museum professional
  • Teacher at the university level
  • Writer or editor for an art publication

Art History Combined Degrees Courses You Could Take

Methodologies in the History of Art and Visual Culture (3 hrs)
Study of major contributions to the development and practice of art history methodologies and visual arts studies (including theory and criticism). Taught as a seminar, with emphasis on research (bibliographies, papers) as well as class discussion based on weekly assigned readings and presentations.
Art of Ancient Greece (3 hrs)
Art of Ancient Greece and the Aegean from circa 3000 BC to the 1st century BC.
Seminar in 20th- and 21st–Century Art (3 hrs)
Selected problems in 20th- and 21st-century art. Seminar topics have included Art and Healing, Disability and Art, Critical Histories of Crafts and Decorative Arts and Contemporary art and its Social Contexts.
History of Graphic Design (3 hrs)
Provides economic, political, social and technological perspectives on the work that has been created and disseminated by designers of visual communications, particularly over the course of the last 125 years, in a manner that makes their endeavors relevant to the design world of today and to contemporary society. Students gain an understanding of the major movements, styles and figures in the world of visual communication design that have emerged around the world since the latter portion of the 19th century.
Seminar in the History of Architecture and Design (3 hrs)
Selected problems in the history of architecture and design.
Dress and Fashion II—Early Modern to Contemporary (3 hrs)
Introduction to dress and fashion spanning the early modern period to contemporary times.

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