Art History Department Learning Aims

Students majoring in art history will demonstrate mastery in the following seven areas.

1. Visual literacy—defined as an ability to perform formal and comparative analysis and to use the formal (and material) properties of works of art in constructing historical arguments.
2. Knowledge of the methodology, historiography, conventions and terminology of the discipline.
3. Knowledge of the major periods, artists and monuments of the Western tradition (Additionally students will demonstrate familiarity with the art at least one non-Western tradition).
4. The ability to conduct scholarly research in the discipline (information literacy). This includes the use of scholarly sources and proper citations as well as the ability to use databases and other resources to find complete bibliographies for works of art, artists, artistic problems, etc.
5. Writing skills. This includes the ability to construct an argument with a clear thesis that is amply and consistently supported by appropriate evidence and arguments.
6. Critical reading and thinking skills. This includes the ability to determine a writer’s thesis and methodology and to respond critically and thoughtfully to the author’s arguments. It also entails the ability to read and understand complex art historical and theoretical texts.
7. The ability to construct a complex contextual analysis of a work of art that successfully relates the formal or iconographical aspects of the work to the societal, biographical, material and historical circumstances of its production.

Additionally the program:

• Aims to give the students a productive, rewarding and challenging academic experience.   
• Encourages excellence in undergraduate and post-graduate achievement.
• Supports the learning aims of the University and the Humanities Division.