Since 1960,
the MA program in the history of art at Tulane has prepared
outstanding students for careers in research, teaching, and
museum work. About a third of our graduates have continued
toward their doctoral degrees either at Tulane or elsewhere.
The program welcomes students who have majored in fields other
than art history. The MA stipend is $15,000 a year.
Admission
requirements :
Application to the program is made online through the Graduate
School . The following must be received, along with
the application fee:
a completed
application form, including a Statement of Purpose
three
completed recommendation forms
score
results from the GRE
official
transcripts of all undergraduate records and any previous
graduate work
additionally,
the Art History program requests a writing sample (e.g.,
a term paper)
To be competitive,
applicants should have earned strong grades as an undergraduate,
achieving an overall 3.2 grade-point average and at least a
3.4 in the major. All MA students must take the GRE exam.
Curriculum
:
The MA requires 24 credit hours (8 courses) at the 600 and 700
levels, plus a thesis. The distribution requirement
calls for two courses in each of three areas: 1) Classical,
Byzantine, Medieval, Pre-Columbian; 2) Renaissance, Baroque,
Colonial Latin American; 3) American and Modern. The 700-level
courses are for graduate students only, and are sometimes taught
in tandem with 300-level courses for undergraduates. The
600-level courses are taken by juniors and seniors as well as
graduate students. Both include seminars on special topics.
In recent years, such topics have included: The Use of Antiquity
in the Middle Ages; Word and Image in Early Italian Painting;
Giotto and the Art of the Narrative; Michelangelo; Cellini;
Degas; Manet; Art History and Photography; Modernism in the
Americas; African-American Art; Visuality, Representation and
the Body; Reading Abstract Expressionism; Revising the 1960s;
Postmodern Formations: Art since 1980; Aztec Iconography; Mexican
Manuscript Painting; Images and Meaning; and Approaches to the
History of Art. With the permission of the graduate advisor,
students may take two courses outside the art history program.
Language
Requirement:
Reading proficiency in at least one foreign language relevant
to the student's work is required. French, German, Italian,
Latin, and Spanish are especially useful for research in art
history. The requirement is satisfied by passing a reading
exam. Because reading knowledge of foreign languages is
necessary for research in most art-historical fields, students
are urged to take their language exam early.
Thesis:
The last step in the MA program is the writing of a thesis and
its subsequent oral defense. The thesis may be the outgrowth
of a seminar paper, or it may focus on a special interest of
the student insofar as it falls within the area of competency
of the faculty. As soon as a field and subject have been chosen,
the student should approach the appropriate member of the faculty.
Once the topic has been defined, the student and faculty advisor
together select two other faculty members for the thesis committee,
one of whom may be from another department or school in the
university. While moderate in length and considerably
more limited in scope than a doctoral dissertation, the MA thesis
should demonstrate the student's ability to do research of publishable
quality.
Local
Resources:
Among the important resources available at Tulane is the Howard-Tilton
Memorial Library that, with well over a million volumes,
possesses relatively large holdings in the history of art.
Its Latin
American Library is one of the finest specialized collections
in the country. Howard-Tilton's
Southeast Architectural Archive and its Special
and Louisiana Collections serve students of American art.
Tulane University is also home to the Middle American Research
Institute, the Newcomb
College Center for Research on Women , and the Amistad
Research Center with its extensive African-American collections.
The university enjoys excellent working relationships with other
local institutions, such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, the
Historic New Orleans Collection, the Louisiana State Museum,
and the Contemporary Arts Center.
