Graduate Programs

History of art and architecture.

Students in the Department of History of Art and Architecture are able to study in a wide array of areas including ancient, medieval, early modern (Renaissance, 17th and 18th centuries), modern, contemporary, East Asian, African and Latin American art and architecture, and history of photography.

The department's faculty consists of historians of the major periods of Western, African and East Asian art and architecture, representing a broad spectrum of the discipline's methodologies and specialties. Courses offered at Harvard and the nearby Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) may be taken for credit free of charge by history of art students with the approval of the department.

Additional Resources

Access to the holdings of the RISD Museum and the library of the Rhode Island School of Design, adjacent to the Brown campus; use of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World for students interested in antiquity; collections of the Bell Gallery, the John Hay Library, and the John Carter Brown Library; an extensive slide library housed in the List Art Center; and electronic visual resources in development.

Application Information

Application requirements, gre subject:.

Not required

GRE General:

Writing sample:, dates/deadlines, application deadline, completion requirements.

Fulfillment of the AM requirement above, general examination (written and oral), dissertation colloquium, and dissertation.

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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.

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Osayimwese, Itohan I Chair of History of Art and Architecture

Faculty Positions

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

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

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

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Bickford, Roberta Professor Emerita of History of Art and Architecture

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Bogues, Barrymore A Professor of History of Art and Architecture

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Bonde, Sheila Christopher Chan and Michelle Ma Professor Emerita of History of Art and Professor Emerita of Archaeology and the Ancient World

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

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Graves, Margaret Adrienne Minassian Associate Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture in honor of Marilyn Jenkins-Madina

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Houston, Stephen D Professor of History of Art and Architecture

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

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Lincoln, Evelyn Professor Emerita of History of Art and Architecture

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Moser, Jeffrey Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture

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Muller, Jeffrey M Professor of History of Art and Architecture

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Neumann, Dietrich Professor of History of Art and Architecture

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

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

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Rodriguez, Gretel Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture

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Shaffer, Holly M Robert Gale Noyes Assistant Professor of Humanities

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

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

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Zerner, Catherine Professor Emerita of History of Art and Architecture

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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in History of Art and Architecture

Brown university, providence, united states, # 151-200 qs subject rankings, 24 months program duration, architecture and built environment main subject area, program overview, main subject.

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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.

5 Lecture Courses, numbered HIAA 0001–HIAA 0999. The courses should engage at least three different geographic regions (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe) and two different periods (Ancient-Medieval, Early Modern, Modern-Contemporary). Individual courses can be used to fulfill either the geographic or temporal breadth requirement, but not both. Courses tagged as “Multiple Regions” and “Multiple Periods” can be used to fulfill one geographic and one temporal breadth requirement, respectively.5
Temporal Periods
The Art of Enlightenment
Arts of Asia: Beginnings to 1300
Art and Architecture of the Roman Empire
The Arts of Religion and Ritual in the Ancient World
Food and Art in the Early Modern World
Giotto to Watteau: Introduction to the Art of Europe from Renaissance to French Revolution
Introduction to American Art: The 19th Century
Introduction to American Art: The Twentieth Century
Introduction to the History of Art: Modern Photography
Revolutions, Illusions, Impressions: A History of Nineteenth-Century Art
Postwar to Postmodernism: Art Since 1945
Contemporary Art
Contemporary Photography
The Other History of Modern Architecture
Art and Technology from Futurism to Hacktivism
Modern Architecture
Contemporary Architecture
City and Cinema
South Asian Art and Architecture
Architecture of the House Through Space and Time
Architecture and Urbanism of Africa
Geographic Regions:
Architecture and Urbanism of Africa
Introduction to American Art: The 19th Century
Introduction to American Art: The Twentieth Century
Contemporary Photography
The Art of Enlightenment
South Asian Art and Architecture
Art and Architecture of the Roman Empire
Introduction to the History of Art: Modern Photography
Revolutions, Illusions, Impressions: A History of Nineteenth-Century Art
Giotto to Watteau: Introduction to the Art of Europe from Renaissance to French Revolution
The Architectures of Islam
Architecture of the House Through Space and Time
Postwar to Postmodernism: Art Since 1945
Contemporary Art
The Other History of Modern Architecture
The Arts of Religion and Ritual in the Ancient World
Art and Technology from Futurism to Hacktivism
Modern Architecture
Contemporary Architecture
3 Seminars, numbered HIAA 1000– 3
Prefabrication and Architecture
Brushwork: Chinese Painting in Time
Mountains and Waters: Art and Ecology in East Asia
The Pictured Text
The Bureaucracy of Hell: Envisioning Death in East Asian Art
Pre-Columbian Art + Architecture
Politics and Spectacle in the Arts of Ancient Rome
Arts of Memory in Ancient Rome
Arts Between Europe and the World: 1500-1700
The Art of Portraiture: Pre-Histories of the Selfie
Eclectic Arts in the Global 19th Century
Contemporary Art and Activism
Possible Futures: Art and the Social Network before the Internet (1950-1979)
Abstraction in Theory and Practice
Dada and Surrealism: Anarchy, Exile, Alterity
Contemporary American Urbanism: City Design and Planning, 1945-2000
Berlin: Architecture, Politics and Memory
Criticality and Modern Art
Exhibition as Medium
Contemporary Art of Africa and the Diaspora
Museum Interpretation Practices
Providence Architecture
The History and Methods of Art Historical Interpretation
Museums, Histories, Critiques
1 Elective: This can include courses taught in the department, cross-listed courses from other departments, or courses in other departments approved by the concentration advisor. 1
1 Capstone course. Capstone projects are required for all concentrators. The Capstone is intended to challenge you with an opportunity to synthesize at a high level of achievement the knowledge and understanding you have gained by concentrating in the History of Art and Architecture. Capstone projects embrace many possibilities. You can perfect a seminar paper in which you have developed a strong interest. You can participate in a graduate seminar to which the instructor has admitted you. You can develop work that you do as a museum or gallery intern. You might work on an archaeological excavation. You can participate in the Honors Program. Beyond these opportunities, the Department is open to other approaches. Capstones are often completed under the auspices of an independent study course. But a capstone may be completed under the umbrella of an existing course. All capstone’s must be discussed with and approved by a faculty sponsor and your concentration advisor.1
Total Credits10

A maximum of four credits may be allowed for courses taken at other universities (transfer credits or from study abroad) or courses on art historical subjects taken in other departments. No concentration credit will be granted for AP/IB/A-level scores. 

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

History of art and architecture concentration.

The History of Art and Architecture concentration trains students in the techniques of close-looking, visual description and interpretation, and critical analysis that are necessary to locate the work of art in history.

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Those students interested in the diversity of artistic production throughout history and across the world will want to choose a concentration in the History of Art and Architecture. Students can explore a particular time period, a single branch of the field, or a methodology, and have the freedom to create their own program of study.

Every course sensitizes students to the wide array of social, intellectual, material, and technical forces that both inform, and are transformed through, the making of art and the built environment, and examines the ways in which shifting contexts of reception change the meaning and function of works across time and space.

In addition to broad overviews that introduce major world traditions of art and architecture, students have the opportunity to pursue in-depth studies of particular areas or issues in limited-enrollment, writing-intensive seminars. By interrogating diverse histories of art-making practices, concentrators develop the skills to think critically about the embodied labor of artists and builders, the materials they used, the experiences of historical audiences, and their own sensory perceptions, which, in tension and dialogue, continually shape the meanings of art and architecture.

Doug Nickel in front of a wooden background

Douglas Nickel

Introduction to the concentration.

The Department's introductory course (HIAA0010: Global History of Art and Architecture) provides an excellent foundation for the concentration. It is not a prerequisite for taking other lecture courses but students can count it as  one of the courses required for the concentration .

Interdepartmental Studio

Since the history of art and architecture addresses issues of practice within specific historical contexts, concentrators are encouraged to take at least 1  studio art  course. Courses in  history ,  literature  or  urban studies  also train students in relevant methods and approaches. We also strongly encourage students to learn foreign languages pertinent to their research interests. This will be critical for students applying to graduate school in art history.

Study Abroad

Study abroad  can enrich the academic work that students complete on campus, in that it offers opportunities for first-hand knowledge of works of art and monuments and provides exposure to foreign languages and cultures. Study abroad should be planned in consultation with the concentration advisor in order to make sure that foreign coursework will relate meaningfully to the concentrator's program of study.

Declaration

During the declaration process, students are partnered with a concentration advisor to help them plan their course of study. Brown students must choose and declare their concentrations before pre-registration in the second semester of the Sophomore year. 

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History of Art and Architecture

The department's faculty consists of historians of the major periods of Western, African and East Asian art and architecture, representing a broad spectrum of the discipline's methodologies and specialties. We offer a History of Art and Architecture degree at the Brown University. 

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Features 

  • Students in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University are able to study in a wide array of areas including ancient, medieval, early modern (Renaissance, 17th and 18th centuries), modern, contemporary, East Asian, African and Latin American art and architecture, and history of photography.

Programme Structure

Curriculum:

  • Courses offered at Harvard and the nearby Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) may be taken for credit free of charge by history of art students with the approval of the department.
  • Access to the holdings of the RISD Museum and the library of the Rhode Island School of Design, adjacent to the Brown campus; use of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World for students interested in antiquity; collections of the Bell Gallery, the John Hay Library, and the John Carter Brown Library; an extensive slide library housed in the List Art Center; and electronic visual resources in development.

Key information

  • 60 months

Start dates & application deadlines

  • Apply before 2025-01-02 00:00:00

Disciplines

Academic requirements.

We are not aware of any specific GRE, GMAT or GPA grading score requirements for this programme.

English requirements

Student insurance.

Make sure to cover your health, travel, and stay while studying abroad. Even global coverages can miss important items, so make sure your student insurance ticks all the following:

  • Additional medical costs (i.e. dental)
  • Repatriation, if something happens to you or your family
  • Home contents and baggage

We partnered with Aon to provide you with the best affordable student insurance, for a carefree experience away from home.

Starting from €0.53/day, free cancellation any time.

Remember, countries and universities may have specific insurance requirements. To learn more about how student insurance work at Brown University and/or in United States, please visit Student Insurance Portal .

Other requirements

General requirements.

  • All applicants are required to submit a personal statement regarding their interests and/or intended areas of study. 
  • We strongly encourage applicants to submit a scanned image of the transcript at the time of application, which can speed processing; however, a final, official transcript will be required of all admitted students who matriculate. 
  • The Graduate School requires three letters of recommendation by persons well qualified to speak from first-hand knowledge about the applicant's potential for graduate study. 
  • Applicants to programs requiring the Graduate Record Examination must have their results to the Graduate School or, if applying to one of the programs in the School of Public Health, to a separate Brown University code. 

Tuition Fee

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Scholarships Information

Below you will find PhD's scholarship opportunities for History of Art and Architecture.

Available Scholarships

You are eligible to apply for these scholarships but a selection process will still be applied by the provider.

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History of Art and Architecture

The concentration in History of Art and Architecture introduces students to the history of art, architecture, and visual culture.

The Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) was developed by the U.S. Department of Education to categorize educational programs in the U.S. for a variety of reporting purposes. Each program at Brown is assigned a CIP code that best matches its academic curriculum.

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  • Archaeology

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.

Department of History

Fields of study.

We welcome applications for potential Ph.D. students in the fields listed, where links to individual faculty pages will describe our department's expertise and scholarly projects in detail.

We encourage applicants to contact potential advisors directly to discuss research interests and resources at Brown, and to look at what our current graduate students are working on.

Faculty : Nancy Jacobs , Jennifer Johnson

The field of African history ranges from the 15 th through the 20 th centuries and covers the eras of the Atlantic Slave Trade, the colonial period, and decolonization. Regionally, our specializations are Francophone North Africa, Lusophone West and Central Africa, and Anglophone South Africa. Global considerations in our research include the Atlantic World, the Portuguese, French, and British empires, scientific networks, and anti-colonial movements. Brown’s Africanist historians have conducted research in Algeria, Cameroon, France, Ghana, Great Britain, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. Topical interests include empire, slavery, trade, public health and medicine, settler societies, political movements, science, and environment.

Faculty :  Hal Cook ,  Linford Fisher ,  Christopher Grasso ,  Tim Harris ,  Jennifer Lambe ,  Emily Owens ,  Jeremy Mumford ,   Seth Rockman ,  Daniel Rodriguez,   Neil Safier

Atlantic World history refers to relationships and interactions between the peoples of the Americas, Africa and Europe, from the fifteenth through the nineteenth century, as these regions came to constitute a single, integrated system, joined rather than separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Its study focuses on themes such as migration and colonialism; the African slave trade, New World slavery and its abolition; trans-oceanic commerce and the development of history’s first worldwide cash economy; violence, mixing and transculturation among Europeans, Africans and indigenous Americans; negotiation of knowledge about medicine, geography and the natural world; and the evolution of imperial systems and the wars of Independence.

The Department of History at Brown University includes eleven scholars who research and teach on the Atlantic World, with special focus on North America, Mexico, the Andes, Brazil, the Caribbean, Angola, and the British Isles, along with their interrelationships. Members of the group have leadership positions at the John Carter Brown Library (among the world’s best rare-book libraries for the Americas in the Atlantic World) and the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and are active in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Andean Project.

Faculty :  Cynthia Brokaw ,  Brian Lander ,  Rebecca Nedostup ,  Kerry Smith

The East Asia history program at Brown explores the particular historical trajectories of China, Japan and Korea, their interaction within the region, and their place in early modern and modern global histories; it is well positioned both to provide solid training in foundational fields of study and to foster the development of exciting new research agendas. The work of our faculty embraces a wide range of methodologies and analytical frameworks; we have engaged with initiatives in environmental history; science and disaster; history of the book and print culture; comparative urban history; war and displacement; and religion and society. Recent and current graduate students have worked on topics including Japanese mass culture; the birth of the modern Chinese examination; and borderlands and mapmaking. We frequently work with students and faculty across fields, particularly in trans-Pacific history, the history of science and medicine, and the culture of knowledge. We collaborate closely in graduate training with colleagues elsewhere in the Brown community as well, including American Studies, East Asian Studies, and the Watson Institute.

Faculty :  Caroline Castiglione ,  Harold Cook ,  Tim Harris,   Tara Nummedal ,  Amy Remensnyder ,  Neil Safier ,  Adam Teller

The Early Modern period most commonly refers to the period from roughly 1500 to 1800. Those centuries saw the beginning of a new world system, with the New World and Old World becoming interdependent. The period is often considered to have laid the foundations of modernity because of the rapid transformations in society and politics, economics, law, warfare, culture, religion, ideas, and science and technology; such profound transformations have also made it a kind of testing-ground for many explanations of historical change. Members of the department study such themes in and between the British Isles and in western and eastern, and northern and southern Europe, as well as North America, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. Research materials are strongly represented at the Hay and Rockefeller Libraries while interdisciplinary programs such as that from the Center for the Study of the Early Modern World foster collaboration with students and faculty in other departments and are complemented by the Department’s Medieval and Early Modern History Seminar (MEMHS); the presence on campus of the John Carter Brown Library makes the study of the early modern Americas and their connections to Europe, Asia, and Africa during the colonial period particularly vigorous.

Faculty :  Omer Bartov ,  Holly Case ,  Bathsheba Demuth ,  Benjamin Hein , Ethan Pollock ,  Michael Steinberg

At the moment, the History Department has seven modern European historians engaged in active research and graduate training. While recognizing the continuing relevance of the nation state, the European faculty is characterized by diverse thematic and methodological perspectives. It offers training in British, French, German, East-European, Russian and Soviet history as well as specialization in the history of genocide, the Holocaust, intellectual and cultural history, the history of science, digital methods, Jewish history, minorities, the Cold War, science and politics, and aesthetics and modernism. Perhaps the hallmark of the modern European graduate program is its flexibility and dependence on a series of faculty and student-run workshops. It encourages transnational and interdisciplinary dissertations and strives to provide incoming students broad training.

Faculty :  James Green ,  Evelyn Hu-DeHart ,  Jennifer Lambe ,  Daniel Rodriguez ,  Jeremy Mumford

The Department of History at Brown University includes eight scholars actively involved in research and teaching on Latin America and the Caribbean, with particular strengths in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Peru. Faculty members also reach beyond their immediate geographical contexts to participate in other clusters in the department, such as African, Atlantic, and U.S. imperial and borderlands history. History faculty hold key leadership positions in several Brown initiatives and institutions, including the Andean Project, Brazil Initiative, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and the John Carter Brown Library. Many of them collaborate with the Watson Institute for International Studies on programming and scholarship. Faculty working on Latin America and the Caribbean also research and teach around several unifying thematic axes, especially gender and sexuality, history of science and medicine,race and ethnicity, and environmental history. Many of them share a broad interest in international and transnational histories of the region, from the colonial period (with strengths in Atlantic, imperial, and indigenous history) to the early national and modern eras (with attention to transpacific, Caribbean, and Cold War sociopolitical connections).

Faculty :  Jonathan Conant,   Amy Remensnyder 

Historians have frequently used the Middle Ages as a laboratory for thinking about alterity. Traditionally defined as the period from roughly 300 to 1500, these centuries saw the collapse of Roman imperial structures and the emergence of startling new cultural, economic, political, and social forms. Equally central to the Middle Ages were the early development and entanglement of Christianity and Islam, fostering a complex Mediterranean world system. In this period forms of European colonialism and colonization evolved that lay the groundwork for later developments across the globe as the contraction and expansion of networks of exchange reshaped connections between Europe, Asia, Africa and even the Americas. Faculty work on these themes across Continental Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. Areas of focus include entanglement across ethnic, religious, and cultural lines; the imagination and experience of space/place; the history of power, captivity, violence and trauma, and the larger Mediterranean world. Students are encouraged to explore the period through a diverse array of approaches and methodologies, including cultural, religious, and social history, archaeology, material culture, and visual culture. Collaboration across disciplines and historical fields is strong, bolstered by the Program in Medieval Studies, the Medieval and Early Modern History Seminar (MEMHS), and opportunities for graduate students to form other interdisciplinary working groups. At Brown, the field in medieval history particularly underscores the ways in which the Middle Ages are in dialog with other time periods and global geographies.

Faculty :   Faiz Ahmed ,   Beshara Doumani ,  Sreemati Mitter

Middle East Studies at Brown University is in the midst of rapid expansion in terms of faculty, graduate students, cutting-edge research initiatives, and innovative programming. The core growth is in the Department of History, which welcomes applications from graduate students interested in deeply grounded, globally contextualized, and ethically engaged knowledge production on this pivotal region.

The specializations of our faculty cover the social, cultural, legal, and economic history of the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia during the early modern and modern periods (17th-20th centuries). Their published works employ both materialist and discursive approaches to histories of capitalism and political economy; Islamic law and society; family, gender, and social transformation; empires, settler colonialism and nationalist politics; displacement and partition; constitutional movements and state formation; and the history of finance and energy during the Ottoman, Mandate, and decolonization periods. Colleagues in other departments at Brown include historians of early Islam and the Mamluk period.

As specialists in a region straddling three continents, our faculty are especially interested in how the peoples of the Middle East shaped their own histories while producing South-South and North-South connections across Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic worlds. 

Faculty :  Hal Cook ,  Bathsheba Demuth ,  Nancy Jacobs ,  Jennifer Johnson ,  Jennifer Lambe ,  Steven Lubar ,  Rebecca Nedostup ,  Tara Nummedal,   Ethan Pollock ,  Lukas Rieppel ,  Daniel Rodriguez ,  Neil Safier ,  Kerry Smith

“STEAM” faculty are engaged in teaching and research on a broad range of critical issues that center on our epistemic and practical interactions with the material world, including the relationship between nature and culture, head and hand, innovation and material constraint, and the entanglement of material resources, material culture, and the exercise of power. Our research engages the history of alchemy, biology, technology, the body, human interactions with non-humans, land use, mathematics, museums, psychiatry, medicine and public health, and risk and disaster. We work in Africa, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States from the early modern period to the present. Our faculty are affiliated with programs in East Asian Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, and Science and Technology Studies, and collaborate with the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Watson Institute.

Faculty :  Vazira Zamindar

The study of South Asia in the History Department, albeit a small field, draws on considerable thematic and comparative strengths from other fields and from across the university through the vibrant Brown India Initiative and the South Asian Studies program. Drawing upon a critical engagement with the politics of knowledge and the very making of geographic and political categories that we think with, our focus remains primarily in modern and contemporary history. Some themes of interest have included empire and borderlands, nationalism and minorities, violence, displacement and refugees, as well as Muslim intellectual thought and postcolonial theory. In addition, the annual South Asia Graduate Student Colloquium has served to foster transnational and interdisciplinary conversations and build wider scholarly networks for graduate students working on South Asia.

Faculty :  Howard Chudacoff,   Bathsheba Demuth ,  Linford Fisher ,  Christopher Grasso ,  Françoise Hamlin,   Steven Lubar ,  Mark Ocegueda ,  Lukas Rieppel ,  Emily Owens,   Seth Rockman ,  Naoko Shibusawa ,  Robert Self ,  Ken Sacks ,  Tracy Steffes,   Michael Vorenberg

The U.S. history program has a long tradition of excellence in research and teaching, with many of its faculty having won prizes for their publications and pedagogy.  A close-knit group of ten faculty with broad, overlapping interests, they combine the sensibilities of social history with the insights of cultural history, producing fine-grained studies of lived experience and devoting particular attention to Americans on the margins of the dominant society. In their research and pedagogical endeavors, they share a commitment to interdisciplinarity and transnational approaches. While the Americanists train graduate students in all periods, from the colonial era to the turn of the twenty-first century, they have particular strengths in Early America and the Atlantic World, the economic and legal history of the nineteenth century, and the post-1945 period.  The Americanists also work with faculty working in other geographic regions, as well as with faculty in American Studies, to strengthen comparative and transnational approaches. Major thematic strengths include the history of capitalism, political and legal history, the history of civil rights, and the history of domestic and foreign policy. Americanist faculty and their graduate students are currently working in a range of subfields: material culture studies; the history of science, technology, and the environment; the history of social, political, and cultural movements; comparative legal history; histories of children and childhood; the history of sexuality; U.S. in the world, with special emphasis on transnational Asian/American history and transnational labor history; history of education; the history of religion in America; and Native American history.

With strong ties to related programs, centers, and libraries across the Brown campus, the Americanist faculty and graduate students benefit from specialists and resources outside the department as well as within.  The John Carter Brown Library , for example, houses one of the finest collections in the world for the study of Early America and the Atlantic World, and it has a large fellowship program that provides an always exciting intellectual community.  The Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice , one of the first institutes of its kinds, offers fellowships as well as a steady stream of workshops and lectures.  The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America , the  John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage , the  Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology,  and the  Watson Institute for International Studies  open up many intellectual exchanges between the Americanists within the History Department and those in related programs such as Africana Studies, American Studies, Anthropology, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and Urban Studies.

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art history phd brown

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  1. Art History PhD Candidate Chasitie Brown awarded CASVA Ittleson

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  2. Art History PhD Candidate Chasitie Brown awarded CASVA Ittleson

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  3. About

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  4. Brown University: Department of the History of Art and Architecture

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COMMENTS

  1. History of Art and Architecture

    Mailing Address. Brown University. Box 1855. [email protected]. 401-863-1174. Visit the Department of History of Art and Architecture.

  2. PhD Program

    PhD Program. Brown's Ph.D. program in the History of Art and Architecture offers professional training in the history of art and architecture and, more broadly, in the history of visual and material culture and the built environment. The application for the 2024-2025 academic year is closed. Graduate Admissions.

  3. History of Art and Architecture

    Brown's Ph.D. program in the History of Art and Architecture offers professional training in the history of art and architecture and, more broadly, in the history of visual and material culture and the built environment. The application for the 2024-2025 academic year is closed. Professor Anthony Bogues will be awarded a Doctor of Literature ...

  4. Graduate Admissions

    The Department of the History of Art & Architecture at Brown University is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive academic global community. Our commitment to diversity reflects the changes in our field and extends to the composition of our intellectual community and the content of the work of our faculty and graduate students.

  5. About

    About. The Department of the History of Art and Architecture (HIAA) serves the undergraduate and graduate student communities at Brown by offering training in the history and theory of art, architecture, material culture and related fields of critical inquiry. List Art Center. Brown's Department of the History of Art and Architecture serves the ...

  6. History of Art and Architecture at Brown University

    Box 1855. 64 College St. Brown University. Providence RI 02912. Telephone: (401) 863-1174. Fax: (401) 863-7790. E-mail the department. Welcome to the department of the History of Art and Architecture at Brown University. The Department of the History of Art & Architecture at Brown University grants undergraduate degrees in the History of Art ...

  7. Research Funding and Resources

    The Kermit Champa Memorial Fund was established in memory of Kermit Swiler Champa, who inspired generations of students during the 34 years that he taught at Brown, from 1970 until his death in 2004. He was the first Andrea V. Rosenthal Professor of art history, and a specialist in modernism and 19th-century European and American painting.

  8. 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 ...

  9. Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in History of Art and Architecture

    Brown's Ph.D. program in the History of Art and Architecture offers professional training in the history of art and architecture and more broadly, the history of visual and material culture and the built environment. Our graduates have gone on to hold positions in museums and academic departments throughout the nation and abroad.

  10. History of Art and Architecture < Brown University

    History of Art and Architecture. The department of History of Art and Architecture offers graduate programs leading to the Master of Arts (A.M.) degree and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree. For more information on admission and program requirements, please visit the following website:

  11. People

    Itohan Osayimwese. Department Chair, Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Associate Professor of Urban Studies. [email protected]. List 414. Research Profile. Office Hours Tuesdays, 2-3 pm and Wednesdays 11-12 pm, List 414.

  12. History of Art and Architecture < Brown University

    This course will be tailored to graduate students in the history of art and architecture. It will offer individual support, critique and advice, bringing you into a community of academic writers. Wendy Laura Belcher's "Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success," will provide structure to the courseA ...

  13. History of Art and Architecture < Brown University

    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.

  14. History of Art and Architecture Concentration

    Brown students must choose and declare their concentrations before pre-registration in the second semester of the Sophomore year. The History of Art and Architecture concentration trains students in the techniques of close-looking, visual description and interpretation, and critical analysis that are necessary to locate the work of art in history.

  15. History of Art and Architecture, Ph.D.

    Students in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Brown University are able to study in a wide array of areas including ancient, medieval, early modern (Renaissance, 17th and 18th centuries), modern, contemporary, East Asian, African and Latin American art and architecture, and history of photography. ... The Graduate School ...

  16. Ph.D. Program Overview

    The Ph.D. program in History trains students in the skills of conducting original historical research and crafting original historical arguments. In the course of their work as historians, Brown scholars draw on a wide range of methods and engage with a variety of audiences. While training emphasizes the core skills of academic research ...

  17. Masters Program

    Masters Program. In the fall of 2018, the Department of History suspended its terminal master's (A.M.) degree program. The History A.M. program is still offered for three different kinds of programs internal to Brown: 1) Participants in the Open Graduate Education program, coming from outside of the Department; 2) Participants in the Fifth ...

  18. Ph.D. Program Outline

    The Ph.D. program in History is designed to train students in the skills of conducting original historical research and crafting unique historical arguments. In the course of their work as historians, Brown scholars draw on a wide range of methods and engage with a variety of audiences. Thus although we begin with the core skills of academic ...

  19. History of Art and Architecture

    CIP Code. 50.0703 ℹ. 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 ...

  20. Graduate Overview

    Graduate Overview. The Department of History at Brown trains graduate students in a wide range of fields, methodologies, and regions of the globe. As a medium-sized program, we offer an intimate setting that fosters tightly-knit cohorts and that offers the opportunity to work closely with world-class scholars in research and teaching. Our ...

  21. Fields of Study

    The Department of History at Brown University includes eight scholars actively involved in research and teaching on Latin America and the Caribbean, with particular strengths in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, and Peru. Faculty members also reach beyond their immediate geographical contexts to participate in other clusters in the department, such as ...

  22. Art History

    Thegradcafe's Art History forum covers many different topics. See others admission results, art PhD programs questions or share your advice with other students! ... MA Classics or MA Art history to do a PhD in ancient Greek art? By vaneyckstan, September 26, 2023. 0 replies; 2.4k views ... To the Brown interview poster By gobardhan, January 21 ...

  23. Kathryn Brown

    Following the completion of a second PhD at the University of London Brown returned to academia as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia. She was subsequently appointed to a Lectureship in Art History at Tilburg University before moving to Loughborough. Brown is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.