Washington University in St. Louis is an exceptional place to pursue graduate studies in art history and archaeology. The Department has a long tradition of training students in areas of classical art and archaeology, Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, Asian art and archaeology, and modern and American art (see below). Through our relations with the new Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, we also have additional strengths in visual art and design, and in the history, theory and practice of architecture. Our program currently has about twenty graduate students in residence, pursuing both the MA and PhD degrees. We welcome students interested in working at either level, and due to our relatively small size, we are able to mentor students closely, and help place them in exciting professional opportunities. Graduates in recent years currently enjoy positions at the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian; the National Gallery of Art; Gettysberg College; the St. Louis Art Museum, the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, and Southern Methodist University, to name but a few.
Resources and support
Our students enjoy the resources of an outstanding research university. These include, but are not limited to, various levels of support for tuition and living expenses. Our PhD students generally receive five years of funding, some in the form of Teaching Assistantships (which currently carry annual stipends of $17,940 plus full tuition for the academic year 2008-09), and some in the form of full fellowship support, particularly in the most advanced stages of the dissertation. Even at the MA level, most students receive some assistance with tuition, and we help students locate part-time jobs in our own Imaging Center (currently the Visual Recource Collection), in the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, in the Art and Architecture Library, or elsewhere on campus. Advanced students may offer courses through University College during the summer school to gain valuable teaching experience. This is an exceptional professional oppurtunity. Please see our policy on graduate students teaching summer courses.
Graduate students at Washington University enjoy a professional environment with many benefits, such as a generous policy for paid new child leave, and currently the Graduate Council is exploring the possibility of paid family leave, and subsidizing childcare for graduate student parents. These are among the most innovative benefits to be found in any graduate program at a research university today.
Curricular opportunities are rich. The Mellon Foundation funds a variety of exciting interdisciplinary seminars, both during the semester and in the summer periods. The Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has offered technology workshops to teach graduate students how to design and compose on-line course lectures. Recent art history participants have received generous summer stipends to create state-of-the-art websites on such topics as French Symbolist prints, the exoticism of Van Gogh and Gauguin, and stereoscopy and urban modernity in the art of Childe Hassam. Summer research grants from the Graduate School and other sources have funded graduate student travel at both the MA and PhD level. Students in recent years have received support for travel not only to research libraries and archives in America, but also to Italy, France, England and Greece, for example. The Graduate School has also offered tuition remission for summer language study at the university, in completion of the second foreign language requirement for the PhD. We are making efforts now to increase summer funding for all students in the program.
During the academic year, our graduate students frequently travel to give papers at professional conferences, supported with endowed funds from the Department of Art History and Archaeology. This fall, for example, our students are presenting at the Nineteenth-Century French Studies meetings in Austin, and at the Comic Arts Symposium at the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Look at the Research Financing section on this website for more details about these kinds of opportunities.
The Department has recently taken one or two field trips a year, to introduce our students to the rich museum collections and temporary exhibitions offered by other art centers across the country. Recent destinations include Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC, and Chicago. The Department typically pays for transportation on these trips, and students join together to make accommodations extremely affordable.
Within individual areas of study, our students enjoy access to important resources across the campus. These include:
Classical art and archaeology
We enjoy a close working relation with the Departments of Classics and Anthropology. Some of our students serve as TAs in the World Archaeology survey. With Professor Symeonoglou, students study the J.M. Wulfing collection of ancient coins, housed at the university. The endowed Mylonas lecture program brings distinguished archaeologists to campus each year.
Asian art
Our students in Asian archaeology and art enjoy excellent relations with the East Asian Studies program, and the Departments of History, Anthropology, and Asian and Near Eastern Languages and Literature. The collections at the St. Louis Art Museum, and our own superb research library in Asian art are other attractions for students in this area. The Visiting East Asian Professionals program at the university has brought Asian artists to campus several times, and the university’s strong ties with Chinese universities suggest future areas of collaboration.
Early modern Europe: Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art
This year we are conducting a national search for a medievalist, and we anticipate developing even closer ties to the active Early Modern Studies program here on campus. Students in medieval art find the rich library at nearby St. Louis University--an extra local bonus--and our current new study abroad program in Florence has brought Italian art even more to the center of our Department’s curriculum. St. Louis offers important public and private collections of Old Master prints.
American and Modern Art
American Art has enjoyed tremendous support in this Department in recent years. We were among the first graduate department to receive funding from the Luce Foundation to foster graduate study in American art. Students in this field may also apply for summer funding through the Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellowship in American Culture Studies, a distinguished interdisciplinary program that sponsors courses and lectures in the American field, and also offers a graduate certificate program. The Department currently has two Harvey Fellows. Graduate students in American art have also recently succeeded in winning research grants from CASVA and from Winterthur.
Students in modern typically also take courses in film and media studies, history, Romance Languages, German, English, comparative literature, etc. Many faculty in these related areas have active interests in art, aesthetics, film, and visual culture. Students in all areas of modern art enjoy access to the superb collections of modern art not only at our own Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum but also at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and the St. Louis Art Museum. The Kemper also has several internship and fellowship opportunities for advanced students with specialties in modern art. A new internship for credit in the St. Louis Arts Community will allow our students in all areas to start doing museum internships under the co-supervision of local curators and a member of the faculty of the Department.
Working across university departments
All of our graduate students pursue some course work outside the Department. Typically, students take one to two courses a year in other fields. These have included such areas as Comparative Literature, Romance Languages, English, German, History and Classics. Extra course work can result in a graduate certificate from such interdisciplinary programs as Women and Gender Studies, or American Culture Studies. The Department is working together with the Kemper Museum of Art and other units to develop an Exhibitions Studies certificate. Moreover, Special Collections at Olin Library has rare materials of great interest to our faculty. Our seminars are enriched by such objects as medieval books of hours, a letter by Michaelangelo, volumes of French and English caricatures, and a fine collection of Karl Bodmer prints. Our students now have opportunities to curate shows of these materials in the beautifully renovated facilities of this central campus library.
LECTURE SERIES
Our students also organize a lecture series every year, bringing in four to five scholars. Typical visits include a lecture, a seminar the next day, a group dinner, and a chance to host the visiting scholar as she or he visits the St. Louis Museum.
SAM FOX SCHOOL OPEN
In July 2006, the university opened the doors to the new Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. During the first year, an ambitious program of public events marked the new spirit of collaboration which will continue into the future, bringing to campus a wide range of architects, designers, artists, historians, and critics working at the forefront of practice and theory in the arts. In the years ahead, we anticipate a vibrant interdisciplinary community in which students and faculty in these related fields will all participate. With the new ideas, new opportunities will surely follow for us all.
BEFORE APPLYING
If you are thinking of applying, please consider getting in touch with the faculty members who teach in the areas you are most interested in (see the faculty pages of this web site, and the list below). They can tell you more about the program, and you in turn can explore if we might be the right place for you. If you call or email the faculty before you apply, your application will probably be more specific, and may have a higher chance of success.
Melia Belli (Postdoctoral Fellow, 2009-2011), Indian Art mbelli@artsci.wustl.edu
Elizabeth Childs, Modern art, esp. 19th-century Europe ecchilds@artsci.wustl.edu
Rebecca DeRoo, Modern art, esp. gender studies and contemporary art rderoo@artsci.wustl.edu
John Klein, Modern and Contemporary art jrklein@artsci.wustl.edu
Angela Miller, American Art and visual culture almiller@artsci.wustl.edu
Susan Rotroff, Classical art and archaeology srotroff@artsci.wustl.edu
Sarantis Symeonoglou, Classical art and archaeology ssymeono@artsci.wustl.edu
William Wallace, Renaissance art wwallace@artsci.wustl.edu
Alicia Walker, Medieval art and architecture, esp. Byzantine and Islamic awwalker@wustl.edu
Please note: We encourage strong preparation in foreign languages, and insist that the first language exam be taken upon arrival. Please be sure to have one research language ready for use upon arrival at the university. If you have questions about which languages are suitable for your program of study, consult with the Director of Graduate Studies.
To contact for more information about the academic program
Prof. John Klein
Director of Graduate Studies
jrklein@artsci.wustl.edu
314-935-4662
For information about the application process, a paper application form, and other queries, please contact:
Nancy Rubin, Administrative Assistant
artarch@artsci.wustl.edu
314-935-5270
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