Learning Goals in the Art History Major

The Art History program provides majors with critical knowledge of visual culture. The program teaches visual literacy in the history of art of global cultures from antiquity to the present; develops strong research, written, and critical thinking skills; and cultivates students’ abilities to synthesize cultural, historical, political, and social information as it relates to the visual arts.

When they graduate, Art History majors will:

• Recognize the styles and periods conventionally used to categorize Western art from antiquity through the present.
• Be able to identify representative works from those styles and periods, to describe their salient formal characteristics (materials, composition, iconography), and to relate these works to their cultural and historical contexts.
• Be familiar with perspectives on visual culture outside the Western canon.
• Understand the relationship between art and social constructions, including race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality.
• Be able to communicate effectively about art, both verbally and in writing, applying complex forms of analysis in oral presentations and essay-length papers using clear and concise prose.
• Be able to design and execute a research project: define a question; employ appropriate technologies to locate pertinent primary and secondary sources; identify a suitable analytical method; and apply that method to write a well-argued, fully-documented interpretive paper.
• Be able to understand and engage effectively with debates in the art world.
• Be able to offer critical appraisements of art history scholarship and writings addressed to popular audiences.