ARTHS-BA - Art History (BA)
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Program Overview
The undergraduate program is designed to help students think critically about the visual arts and visual culture. Courses focus on the meaning of images and media and their historical development, societal roles, and relationships to disciplines such as literature, music, political science, religion, and philosophy. Work performed in the classroom, studio, and screening room is designed to develop a student’s powers of perception, capacity for visual analysis, and knowledge of technical processes.
Preparing for the Major
Suggested Preparation for the Major
Students considering a major in art history should take ARTHIST 5 Art and Power or any of the survey courses below:
course Experiencing Early Global Art and Architecture
course How to Look at Art and Why: An Introduction to the History of Western Painting
course Asian Arts and Cultures
course Introduction to Islamic Art
How to Declare the Major
Students who wish to major in Art History must meet with the Student Services Specialist. At that meeting, the student selects a faculty advisor and officially declares the major on Axess.
Minimum Units in the Program
Minimum University Units
All undergraduate majors complete at least 65 units (15 courses that carry four or five units each). Courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Completing a full year of ITALIC or SLE can count as an Art History elective.
Majors must attend an orientation session presented by the professional staff of the Art and Architecture Library, which introduces the tools of research and reference available on campus or through the Internet. This requirement should be completed before the quarter following the major declaration.
Eligible students may also pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Art History with Honors.
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Cornerstone Course (5 Units): course Art and Power. This course introduces students to various art and artifacts across different cultural and historical contexts. It demonstrates how structures of power and inequality shape art and its history and how power relations are represented, reinforced, or subverted by art. Two professors specializing in different historical periods and cultural traditions will teach the course.
Writing in the Major (5 units): course Writing and the Visual: The Art of Art Writing. This course is designed for Art History majors in their junior year, equipping them with the scholarly tools necessary for writing about art in various contexts as they progress through the major. This course fulfills the requirements of Writing in the Major (WIM).
Capstone Junior Seminar (5 units): course Junior Seminar: Methods & Historiography of Art History. This course is designed to introduce majors to methods and theories underlying the practice of Art History. The seminar is offered annually, typically during autumn quarter.
Art Practice Course (4 Units): Any 4-unit, introductory (100-level) Art Practice course can fulfill this requirement
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The department encourages students to pursue their interests by designing an area of concentration tailored to their intellectual concerns. This area of concentration provides the student with an in-depth understanding of a coherent topic in Art History and consists of three Art History courses: one must be a seminar, and two of the three courses must be in a single field or concentration constructed by the student in consultation with the faculty advisor.
The student’s principal advisor approves concentrations within the major; they are not declared on Axess and do not appear on the transcript or the diploma. Concentrations include:
Historical concentrations: ancient and medieval (prehistory - 1350), early modern (1350 - 1850), modern and contemporary (1850 - present)
Topical concentrations: art and gender; art and race; art, science, and technology; urban studies, sacred space; environmental art history; architecture and acoustics;
Genre concentrations: painting; sculpture; architecture; prints and media; decorative arts and material culture
Geographical concentrations: Asia, Africa, Islamic, the Americas, Europe, and the Mediterranean
Interdisciplinary concentrations: art and literature; art and religion; art and economics; art and medicine; art and music
Students must submit an area of concentration form, signed by their faculty advisor and approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies, by winter quarter of the junior year.
Students must choose their courses in consultation with their advisor, and the proposed plan of study must be approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Both the advisor and the Director can help the student identify a concentration, which must be selected by winter quarter of their junior year.
The student needs at least one seminar (200-level) course within the area of concentration.
So that students acquire a broad overview of different historical periods and geographic regions, majors must take two courses in each of 6 Distribution Categories, three temporal and three geographic. Any individual course satisfies one temporal and one geographic category. For courses across multiple temporal or geographic categories, students may use the course to fulfill only one temporal and one geographic requirement (a single course may not be used to satisfy multiple temporal or geographic requirements). Survey Courses and courses taken in the Area of Concentration may apply toward Distribution Categories.
Temporal: Before 1350; 1350 - 1850; 1850 to the Present
Geographic: Asia, Africa, Islamic; Europe; the Americas
Additionally, one FILMEDIA course is required - the survey course course meets this requirement.
A given course may only be used once to satisfy the below temporal distribution categories.
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A given course may only be used once to satisfy the below geographical distribution categories.
This course is designed for Art History majors in their junior year, equipping them with the scholarly tools necessary for writing about art in various contexts as they progress through the major.
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This course is designed to introduce majors to methods and theories underlying the practice of Art History. The seminar is offered annually, typically during autumn quarter.
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The purpose of the honors program is to extend and deepen work done in Art History classes. The honors thesis topic typically emerges from prior coursework; it should be focused and have clear parameters. Ordinarily, an honors thesis is not an exploration of an area the student has never studied.
Admission to the Honor Program
The minimum requirement for admission to the honors program is an overall GPA of 3.5 and at least 3.5 in Art History courses. Students must complete at least five Art History courses at Stanford by the end of their junior year, and four must be completed by the end of winter quarter; with the advisor’s approval, two of these courses may be taken at an overseas campus or Stanford in Washington. Students interested in pursuing honors should consult a potential thesis advisor on the Art History faculty during autumn quarter of the junior year. Thesis advisors must be in residence during autumn quarter of the student’s senior year, and it is recommended that they be in residence throughout the senior year. Students considering honors should contact the Director of the Honors Program in their junior year as soon as they consider writing an honors thesis. Those wishing to do so must announce their intention to write an honors thesis by submitting an intent form signed by their thesis advisor (who need not be the student’s academic advisor) by February 1 of their junior year.
Submission of the Thesis Proposal Package
Candidates for the honors program must submit a five-page (double-spaced) thesis proposal, including bibliography and illustrations, and one completed paper that demonstrates the student’s ability to conceptualize and write cogently about art historical issues. A complete application is due to the proposed thesis advisor on March 1. The deadline for submitting the complete package to the department’s Student Services Specialist is the first day of spring classes of the candidate’s junior year. Upon approval by most of the faculty at its regular meeting in early April, the candidate is accepted into the honors program.
Research and Writing of the Honors Thesis
Once admitted to the honors program, students work with the director of the honors program and their thesis advisor to define the scope of the study, establish a research and writing timetable, and enlist one other faculty member, ideally but not necessarily in the Department of Art and Art History, to serve as a second reader. The summer between junior and senior years is usually devoted to refining the topic and pursuing off-campus research. Students are encouraged to apply for VPUE research grants to help finance trips or expenses related to research for their honors thesis.
During their senior year, students must register for ten units of course Honors Thesis Writing, five units of which may count towards the student’s concentration in Art History. Students must register for two to five units each quarter during their senior year, for a total of ten units.
Submission and Approval of the Honors Thesis
With the guidance of the Honors Program director, students and thesis advisors should plan their work so that a final draft is submitted to the thesis advisor and the second reader by April 15 of the senior year. The final copy of the thesis is due to the department’s Student Services Specialist by May 1 - there are no extensions beyond this date. The thesis advisor assigns a letter grade; the advisor and the second reader must approve the honors thesis to qualify the student to graduate with honors.
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