ARTHS-PHD - Art History (PhD)
Download as PDF
Program Overview
Doctor of Philosophy in Art History
The doctoral program in Art & Art History provides students with rigorous training in researching and analyzing visual and material cultures including Film and Media Studies. The program prepares students to produce original scholarship and to teach art history at advanced academic levels.
Admissions Information
Information on how to apply for graduate study at Stanford is available on the university’s Graduate Admissions website. Application information specific to the PhD program in Art History can be found on https://art.stanford.edu/.
Minimum Units in the Program
Minimum University Units
Degree Requirements
Doctoral students in the department must take required courses for letter grades, if that option is available. Students are expected to earn a grade of B+ or higher in each course.
The student must complete at least three graduate-level courses in relevant disciplines outside the department—such as Anthropology, Classics, History, Literature, Philosophy, or Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies—selected in consultation with departmental advisors.
These courses are intended to support and deepen the student’s interdisciplinary engagement with the study of art history.
Note: Courses cross-listed with ARTHIST or FILMEDIA do not fulfill this requirement.
The department offers two distribution requirement tracks: Art History and Film & Media Studies.
The Art History track has five areas of distribution:
1000 BCE-13th Century
14th Century-17th Century
18th Century - Present
Film & Media Studie
Asian/African/Islamic/Indigenous
Students must take at least one course in each of the four areas outside the student’s concentration area.
The Film & Media Studies track has five areas of distribution:
Theories of Cinema
Media Studies
Art History
National Cinemas (includes international)
Form, Function, and Aesthetics
Students must take at least one course in each of the five distribution areas.
Fulfilling the distribution requirement with graduate seminars is strongly encouraged. If students have entered the Stanford program with an MA, they may transfer courses taken at the graduate level to fulfill up to two areas of the distribution requirement.
The qualifying exam, ideally to be taken in the winter quarter of the student’s third year of PhD study, consists of a written and an oral component. These parts of the exam are administered on separate days during the same week, with the written part taking place first. Both parts of the exam are graded on a High Pass/Pass/Fail system. If a student fails one or both parts of the exam, they are allowed to retake that portion or portions of the exam they have failed. For a detailed account of the written and oral exam format, see the Graduate Student Handbook for the Department of Art and Art History. To prepare for the exam, students may enroll in up to two 5-8 unit exam preparation courses (ARTHIST620), one per quarter.
Teaching is core to the academic and professional training of doctoral students in our program. All students are required to complete four quarters of teaching during their time in the doctoral program regardless of their financial support.
Students are required to take ARTHIST405A Graduate Pedagogy.
NOTE: This course is offered every other academic year.
- 2148871
Students are required to complete four quarters of teaching assistantships. Students can complete more than the required number of teaching quarters, given availability. .
At least one teaching experience must be in a course from the following list:
ARTHIST 1A
ARTHIST 1B
ARTHIST 2
ARTHIST 3
ARTHIST 5
FILMEDIA 4
At the end of spring quarter of the second year, faculty formally review graduate students’ progress to determine whether they meet the requirements for candidacy. To apply for candidacy, applicants must, at the beginning of spring quarter, assemble a file showing that they have met all candidacy requirements. (Those entering the program with an MA may apply for candidacy earlier in the second year). All students must be admitted to candidacy by the end of their second year. Students are required to complete all language requirements, distribution requirements, and 45 units of coursework (as further detailed in the department’s Graduate Handbook).. The graduate student does not become a formal candidate for the PhD degree until they have satisfied these requirements and faculty have voted to confer candidacy.. Failure to advance to candidacy will result in the student’s dismissal from the program.
Each student participates in a Colloquium with their dissertation committee by the spring quarter of the third year. Faculty on leave or away from campus are expected to Skype/Zoom in for the meeting. At least two weeks before that meeting, the student submits an early draft of the prospectus (approximately five pages)an) that the committee reads in preparation for the meeting.
By the beginning of autumn quarter in the fourth year, students should have identified a dissertation subject and written a proposal in consultation with their principal advisor. The proposal must be between 12 and 15 pages in length (not counting bibliography and appendix of images). To prepare the proposal, students may take one 5-unit independent study course, ARTHIST 640.
The student must submit the dissertation proposal previously approved by their dissertation reading committee members for the consideration of the entire Art History faculty at least two weeks before the October or November faculty meetings in the student’s fourth year.
If a proposal is not approved, the faculty establishes conditions for its resubmission and reconsideration at a later date.
There is a required review by the PhD Committee of the first chapter completed. The timing of this review should be determined in consultation with the principal advisor.
The dissertation must be completed within five years of the student’s admission to candidacy for the PhD degree.
The final draft of the dissertation must be in all readers’ hands at least four weeks before the date of the oral defense.
Students in Western Art must demonstrate reading knowledge of two European languages. Students in Asian Art must demonstrate competence in one Asian language (equivalent to three years of study) and at least one year of study in a second language, which may be a classical version of Chinese or Japanese. One of the language requirements should be satisfied by the end of the first year, while the second should be fulfilled by the end of the second year. Students entering with an MA should already have satisfied one language requirement before admission. Foreign language requirements for the PhD are fulfilled by taking the reading examination given each quarter by the various language departments.
Students may petition for the sub-plan designation, either on the basis of their coursework or the focus of the dissertation.