GC art history | program information

GENERAL INFORMATION

REQUIREMENTS

STAFF

Department Policy
Structure of the Program
Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium
Tuition
Financial Aid
Housing
Admission Requirements
Registration

Department Policy
The Ph.D. Program in Art History at The Graduate Center (GC) of The City University of New York (CUNY) is dedicated to the development of scholars, teachers, museum personnel, art critics, and other professionals, specializing in the history of modern and contemporary art and architecture, both European and American, as well as art criticism and theory; Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture; and African, Oceanic, Native American, and Pre-Columbian art and architecture; while providing students with a full general background in the history of art. Students in the Program are prepared to serve their discipline and their communities in all areas of cultural endeavor in which these areas of specialization may play a strong and meaningful role.

Structure of the Program
The Doctoral Faculty consists of professors drawn from the GC and from each of the CUNY senior colleges substantially participating in the program. The faculty's specializations cover the Program's major fields of concentration: European art from ca. 1300 to the present, American art, and also African, Oceanic, Native American, and Pre-Columbian art. Courses in these major fields, in addition to courses focusing on earlier periods of the history of art, are given at the GC. Other courses covering the broad spectrum of the history of art are given at the senior colleges in their master's programs. Schedules for the courses of the GSUC and the senior colleges such as Hunter, Queens, City, and Brooklyn are available in late May (for the fall semester) and in January (for the spring semester) from the Assistant Program Officer.

Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium
Students beyond their first year in the CUNY Ph.D. Program in Art History who can demonstrate a significant need to do so may take a course at the Bard Graduate Center, Columbia University, Fordham University, the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University, New School University, Princeton University, Rutgers University, or SUNY Stony Brook. After discussing their need with their adviser, they may obtain an Interuniversity Registration Form from the Office of the Registrar. Institutional requirements for such cross registration include the permissions of the student’s adviser, the course instructor, and the institutional deans. In addition, the Ph.D. Program in Art History requires the permission of the Executive Officer. Informal arrangements for students to attend courses for transfer credit at institutions other than their own may not be made.

Tuition
Please see The Graduate Center Student Handbook.

Financial Aid
Financial assistance is available to full-time CUNY doctoral students through fellowships (both service-connected and nonservice-connected), grants, assistantships, tuition fellowships, loans, and Federal Work Study assignments. Assistance is granted on the basis of need and merit, with need determined in accordance with uniform assessment procedures. For more information please consult the Graduate Center Bulletin.

Federal aid (loans and work study) is available to full-time and half-time students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. The New York State Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) is available to full-time matriculated graduate students who are legal residents of New York State and U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

In addition to fellowships made available by The Graduate Center, the faculty of the Ph.D. Program in Art History raises private funds for student fellowships. Such funds vary in amount from year to year. The Luce Foundation contributes an annual fellowship in American art. Several program dissertation fellowships, including the Rewald Dissertation Fellowship in honor of Prof. John Rewald, are awarded annually in October. Program travel fellowships are awarded annually in May. Announcements of these fellowships are emailed to all eligible students and posted in the Student Lounge and on the program website. Students should keep the office informed of any change in email address to ensure that they receive timely notification of financial aid possibilities.

Alumnae/i, friends, and families of former students have also contributed funds for student research. The Spero-Goldreich Award in European and American Sculpture from 1775 to1960 is awarded annually to a dissertation-level student. The Kristie A. Jayne Fellowship annually awards one or more fellowships to students who have passed the First Examination and who are focusing on the social and political concerns of twentieth-century art, especially projects that deal specifically with United States art of the 1920s and 30s.

Besides these Graduate Center and program sources, students are encouraged to seek outside grants to support advanced research and the preparation of the dissertation. The Graduate Center Office of Sponsored Research maintains lists of available funding sources and aids students in writing grant proposals, and the Art History Ph.D. Program sponsors workshops in the fall and spring semesters on grant applications. See the website http://web.gc.cuny.edu/azdatabase. The Graduate Teaching Fellowship Program provides funding for annual appointments (renewal for a total of three years) for full-time doctoral students to teach undergraduate classes at CUNY campuses. The intent of the GTF Program is threefold: 1) to provide the opportunity to develop instructional skills and enhance future employment prospects; 2) to produce needed instructors for undergraduate classes on the campuses; and 3) to enhance financial support for CUNY doctoral students. Continued support and assistance are provided through workshops, reading materials, and advice for new teachers. Students interested in a GTF should send an up-to-date c.v. and a letter of application to the art history office. For more information, contact the Assistant Program Officer.

The CUNY Writing Fellows Program is designed to enhance the writing skills of CUNY undergraduates while providing support to full-time registered students at Levels II and III. Fellows are assigned to specific campuses where their assignments of approximately fifteen hours weekly range from tutoring, to developing curriculum related to enhancing writing skills across the disciplines, to gathering data germane to the writing curriculum. Appointments are for one year with the possibility of renewal for a second year. Applications are usually due in March for the following academic year. Students interested in Writing Fellowships should contact the Office of the Provost (212.817.7284).

CUNY Honors College Instructional Technology Fellows are chosen from among doctoral students at The Graduate Center in all disciplines. ITFs should have broad interest in and a solid working knowledge of instructional technology and how to employ it in the classroom, should be comfortable working in a multidisciplinary environment whose focus will change each semester, and should have an interest in learning about cutting-edge pedagogy and technology. Each ITF is assigned to two seminars conducted at one of seven CUNY campuses; appointments are for one year with the possibility of renewal for a second year. For more information, contact Dr. Jane Bowers, Director of Academic Affairs, at 212.817.1858 or email jbowers@honorscollege.cuny.edu.

Housing
Please see Graduate Center Student Handbook

Admission Requirements
Please see Graduate Center Student Handbook

Registration
Please see Graduate Center Student Handbook