The Department of Art History

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Department Handbook

Click here for the Department Handbook for entering classes prior to Fall 2007

Table of Contents

Graduate Program

1. Getting Started
1.1 Advising and Registration
1.2 Time Schedules
1.3 Departmental Communication
1.4 Residency Status
1.5 Leaves of Absence
1.6 Tracks
1.7 Fields
1.8 Faculty Advisor
1.9 List of Departmental Requirements
1.10 Charting the Program
1.11 Foreign Languages
1.12 Which Languages?
1.13 Supplemental Language Contract
1.14 Pre-first Year Summer Language Study
1.15 How to Meet the Language Requirement
1.16 Language Requirements for Students with M.A.s from Other Institutions
1.17 Course Credit for Language Courses
1.18 Required Number of Courses and Distribution
1.19 Methodology (AH 401)
1.20 Historiography (AH 499)
1.21 Types of Courses within the Department
1.22 Two-quarter Course Sequences
1.23 Research Courses
1.24 Courses outside of the Department
1.25 Taking or Auditing Additional Courses
1.26 Courses outside the University
1.27 Defining the Major Field
1.28 Defining the Minor Field
1.29 Distribution Requirements for Students Concentrating in a Field of Western Art
1.30 Distribution Requirements for Students Concentrating in a "Non-Western" Field
1.31 Seminar Papers
1.32 Qualifying Paper
1.33 Summer Stipend Holders
1.34 Grades
1.35 Exceptions and Petitions
1.36 Incompletes
1.37 Department Policy on Working during Full Fellowship Years
1.38 M.A. Degree
1.39 Students Entering with an M.A. from Another Art History Program
1.40 Form of the Preliminary PhD Exam
1.41 Content and Scope
1.42 The Need for Breadth and Diversity in Defining Areas
1.43 How to Select a Committee and Define the Areas of Concentration
1.44 Evaluation and Grading
1.45 How Long Should You Prepare for the Exam?
1.46 Defining the Dissertation Topic
1.47 Dissertation Proposal Workshop (ARTH 50200)
1.48 Pre-dissertation Grants
1.49 The Dissertation Committee
1.50 The Proposal
1.51 Admission to Candidacy
1.52 Applying for Dissertation Research Grants
1.53 Departmental Nominations
1.54 Departmental Grant Opportunities
1.55 Writing the Dissertation
1.56 Help for Dissertation Writers, including Workshops
1.57 Dissertation Write-Up Grants
1.58 Time Limitations on the Ph.D. Program
1.59 Scheduling the Defense
1.60 The Defense
1.61 Annual Dissertation Prize
1.62 Final Copies
1.63 Graduation

Grant Opportunities

2. Scouting out Grants

Teaching

3. Why and When to Teach
3.1 Teaching Inside the Department
3.2 Course Assistantships
3.3 Writing Internships
3.4 Lecturerships
3.5 BA Preceptorships
3.6 Teaching Fellowships in the College for 200-level Lectureships
3.7 Art History Department Teaching Colloquium
3.8 Center for Teaching and Learning
3.9 College Writing Program
3.10 Teaching Opportunities in Other Units of the University
3.11 Chicago-Area Art History Positions

Museum, Internship Opportunities

4. Positions at the Smart Museum
4.1 Rhoades Internship and Curatorial Course

Career and Placement Services

5. CAPS

Graduate Program

1. Getting Started: Your first year of graduate work may be a bit overwhelming. Getting used to a new place, to the rigors of graduate school and (for some) to the fast pace of the quarter system is all very demanding. Take time before school begins to absorb the information below, which is designed to walk you through the Ph.D. program and its requirements. Once you arrive on campus, you can easily ask for help with matters you don't understand from the faculty member who is serving as Graduate Studies Director and from the Department Coordinator.

1.1 Advising and Registration: In late summer you will receive information concerning course offerings and registration procedures so that you may begin to plan your program of study for the first year. During registration week, you'll be invited to attend various social and practical orientation meetings organized by the Department. At that time, you'll also meet individually with the Graduate Studies Director, who's responsible for answering your questions about the requirements and guiding you through the program. You should bring to that meeting a tentative plan of your first year's course of study, in order to be sure that you'll meet all the distribution requirements. You'll repeat this process of advisement and registration before each quarter of coursework. You may also wish to consult with individual faculty regarding their courses or your course selections. You may add or drop classes with no charge through the third week of the quarter. Classes dropped after the third week will remain on the transcript and will be marked withdrawn.

1.2 Time Schedules: The Time Schedules, found at http://timeschedules.uchicago.edu/, are the most up-to-date listing of course meeting times and locations. Course descriptions are available on the department website, http://arthistory.uchicago.edu/courses/.

1.3 Departmental Communication: Official departmental announcements and important deadlines are posted on our department email listserves so it's important to subscribe as soon as possible. Additionally, information regarding events, deadlines, and other department business can be found on our internal web calendar hosted at http://www.trumba.com/calendars/uchd_arthistory_internal.

1.4 Residency Status: Students must be registered in one of the University's three residency statuses: scholastic, advanced, and extended residency. Please see http://humanities.uchicago.edu/current/#dos|residence-system-and-continuous-registration for more information on the residency system.

Fees are determined by residency status, with scholastic being the most expensive and extended the least. Full-time students may take as many courses as they wish for that fee. In rare instances students elect to go part time. The rules governing this are complex. Check with the Dean of Students regarding these policies.

1.5 Leaves of Absence: Leaves of absence may be granted to help students because of difficult personal circumstances or medical conditions, including childbirth, or to allow them to take advantage of opportunities for intellectual development that open up elsewhere. They should not be considered for reasons of convenience or leisure. The amount of time that can be taken depends partly on your residency status and partly on the reason for the leave. Talk to the Graduate Studies Director, the Department Coordinator and Dean of Students about your situation. Applications for leave of absence should be made to the Dean of Students. Once a student enters Advanced Residency, leaves will be granted only for medical emergencies. Approval of the Dean of Students is required.

1.6 Tracks: The Department has two tracks, which are schedules for meeting requirements. The basic requirements for the Ph.D. degree are the same for both tracks; track two allows students to pace their courses differently because of their need to study foreign languages.

Track one will serve the majority of students, including all those specializing in the study of modern Europe and North America. Track two is for those students who must study one or more non-modern or non-European languages during their coursework. Typically, this track will accommodate students who must work on Asian, or ancient European languages. Track two allows the student an additional quarter to complete requirements, except for the qualifying paper, which should be completed at the same time as Track 1. Track 2 permits the student to take language courses as part of the normal course load of three courses, although credit towards the number of courses required for the degree is given only for intermediate- or higher-level language instruction: see below 1.16.

1.7 Fields: While most basic requirements hold across all of the different fields of study in the Department (for a description of these fields, see 2.19), there are different distribution requirements between those designated "Western" and "non Western" (East Asian and Islamic). Thus, it's important that you identify as early as possible the field in which you intend to concentrate your work.

1.8 Faculty Advisor: All entering students should identify a faculty advisor in their primary area of interest as early as possible and consult with that person about their program of study, minor area, and languages needed for their projects. It's understood that occasionally students may change advisors later in their studies.

1.9 List of Departmental Requirements:

1.10 Charting the Program:

Year Quarter Coursework Other
Year 1 Fall 3 courses, including Methodology seminar Orientation week: register for language exam and courses, including Methodology.
Registration can be changed up until the end of week 3 without fee (same schedule holds for every following quarter)
Week 7: Advising meetings for Winter registration
Week 8: Registration
Winter 3 courses Week 7: Advising meetings for Spring registration
Week 8: Register for courses including language course if language exam was not passed.
Spring 3 courses  
Summer Language study and reading lists  
Year 2 Fall 3 courses including Independent Study and Historiography Week 1: Register for foreign language exams as needed
Week 1 or 2: Meet with faculty advisor to discuss summer reading.
Winter 3 courses including Independent Study Submit approved qualifying paper by last day of exam week.
Spring 3 courses Apply for course assistant and/or writing intern positions for following year
Summer Language study and reading lists  
Year 3 Fall  

Week 1 or 2: Meet with faculty advisor to discuss summer reading.
Begin formulating dissertation ideas and study for prelims
Serve as course assistant or writing intern in two or three courses this year
Take the teaching colloquium (ARTH 50100)
Winter Take prelims
Spring Participate in the Dissertation Proposal Workshop (ARTH 50200) Submit predissertation trip proposal for department approval
Apply for course assistantship, writing internship, and/or lectureship position for the following year
Submit PhD proposal for faculty committee approval
Summer Take predissertation research trip
Work on dissertation proposal and grant applications
 Advance to candidacy
Year Quarter Expectations
Year 4 Fall Dissertation research and writing
Apply for dissertation research grants
Serve as course assistant or writing intern and/or teach as an independent instructor during this year
Winter Course work if desired (e.g. special languages)
Spring Possibly apply for more teaching in the department
Summer  
Year 5 Fall Dissertation research and writing
Teach as independent instructor, if not done in year 4
Apply for external dissertation write-up fellowships
Winter Possibly apply for University of Chicago write-up grant
Spring  
Summer  
Year 6 Fall Dissertation research and writing
Winter  
Spring Dissertation defense. Submit final copies of dissertation to the Dissertation Office in quarter of graduation Graduate
Summer  

Description of Departmental Requirements

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

1.11 Foreign Languages: Becoming proficient in the foreign languages that have been and continue to be important for art history and for the particular culture that you study is essential for graduate-level scholarship. Before beginning graduate school you should brush up on your foreign languages and begin to acquire the new ones that you'll need for your graduate work. Being behind on languages may make your first year much more difficult than it needs to be, and may prevent you from doing the type and quality of work that you would like to do. All incoming students are eligible to enroll in an intensive language course at the University in the summer prior to their first year (see below 1. 13).

1.12 Which languages? All students must be certified in at least two foreign research languages, and are encouraged to meet this requirement in the first year. One of these must be one of the following modern research languages: Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish. The language selected for proficiency examination must correspond to the student's research plans and cannot be his or her native language. The student must achieve a grade of high pass on the language exam.

In addition, all students except specialists in East Asian art must be certified in German, by achieving a grade of pass or better on the German language exam. Students studying East Asian art must be certified in Japanese by achieving a grade of pass or better on the Japanese language exam.

Students whose field of study requires them to learn one or more languages that are not modern or not Western European may opt for track two.

In addition to the requirements listed above, each field will have its own expectations for languages. The level of proficiency for these additional languages should be determined by the faculty advisor and noted on the supplemental language contract. Below is a list of what fields typically require:

Western:

Asian:

Islamic:

1.13 Supplemental Language Contract: Each student schedules a meeting with the faculty advisor no later than the first quarter, to discuss which, if any, supplemental languages are necessary for the student's academic plans, and the level of proficiency needed. This language plan must be recorded on a Supplemental Language Contract. Complete the form with your faculty advisor, co-sign and date it, and return it to the Department Coordinator, who will place it in your department file. This form will help the Graduate Studies Director work with you to fit language study into your program of study. Students should devise a program of language study that could be met by the end of the 3rd year. The language contract can include language study after the 3rd year, but this study will not be required before obtaining formal admission to candidacy.

1.14 Pre-first Year Summer Language Study: All students, but especially those entering track II, are encouraged to work intensively on language study the summer before their first year. Students may register to take a condensed year-long language course in the University’s summer session. The Department will make available what funds it can to support track two students engaged in pre-first year summer language study. For foreign students, this will entail early planning in collaboration with the University in order to allow sufficient time to obtain a student visa. Information will be given to students early in the acceptance process.

1.15 How to Meet the Language Requirement: You should register to take the appropriate University language exam (listed in Time Schedules) when you register for courses.

If you don't achieve the necessary "high pass" or “pass” in your research languages, you'll be expected to enroll in a University-directed language course. In the unlikely event that you have no background in one of the languages that can meet the requirements for the degree then you should enroll in a University language sequence beginning in the fall. An independent course cannot be substituted nor can language exams other than the University's. A language course in one of the modern research languages cannot be counted towards the degree and is expected to be a fourth course, added on top of the usual three-course load. For the language in which you need a High Pass, you'll be expected to continue enrolling in language courses each subsequent quarter until the exam is passed with a "high pass" or the substitute (three quarters of language instruction with a grade of "B+" or better in the third quarter) is achieved. For the language in which you need a Pass, you'll be expected to continue enrolling in language courses each subsequent quarter until the exam is passed with a "pass" or the substitute (three quarters of language instruction with a grade of "B" or better in the third quarter) is achieved. For the modern Western European research languages, the introductory one-year sequence is appropriate. For additional languages you may need for your field, one year is often not not sufficient. Consult your faculty advisor about the number of years you’ll need and record your individual requirements on the supplemental language contract.

1.16 Language Requirements for Students with M.A.s from Other Institutions: If you enter the Ph.D. program from another university, you must fulfill the requirement for both languages. To do this, you must either secure a High Pass in one and a Pass in the other on the University’s language exams, or you'll be required to enroll in the appropriate introductory language sequences at the University. You should take the language exams in the fall quarter of your first year at the University and if necessary, enroll in language courses winter quarter.

1.17 Course Credit for Language Courses: The University does not allow graduate students to receive course credit for beginning-level language courses. Credit is given only for intermediate- or higher-level language courses. Intermediate-level modern Western European language courses cannot be counted towards the 18 courses required for the degree. Track two students are allowed to take one beginning-level language course sequence (in a non-modern or non-European language) as part of their 3-course load during their first year, but these language courses are not counted towards the 18 courses required for the degree. During their 2nd year, track two students may count three intermediate or higher-level language courses towards the course requirements for the degree.

COURSES

1.18 Required Number of Courses and Distribution: Eighteen courses are required for the Ph.D. degree. Usually students take three per quarter constituting typically full-time enrollment. In the first year, students take Methodology and at least 5 additional courses in art history; the other courses may be outside the department. In the second year, students take Historiography and at least 3 additional courses in art history. In total, a maximum of eight of the eighteen courses may be taken outside the Department of Art. (Track two students are allowed to take a total of five courses outside the Department in addition to their language courses.)

If you're specializing in a field of Western Art, then you must take one course in non-Western art (defined as non-European and non-North American). If you're in either Asian, Islamic, or Latin American art, then you must take one course outside of your geographical area (Asian or Latin American). Students also define a minor field, in which they must take at least two courses and write one seminar paper. It’s expected that by the second year, the bulk of the coursework and paper writing will fall in the major field.

1.19 Methodology (AH 401): Offered each fall quarter and required for all incoming students (except those who enter with an M.A. in Art History), this seminar is designed to introduce you to various methods in art history and the approaches of Department faculty.

1.20 Historiography (AH 499): This required course is usually taken in the 2nd year of coursework. It's designed to give in-depth consideration to the history of the discipline and its methods.

1.21 Types of Courses within the Department: The Department offers several types of courses: lectures (which have AH 300 numbers); seminars (AH 401-499); graduate independent research courses (AH 498). Most courses don't require faculty permission for registration, but you should make arrangements with the specific faculty member before you register for an independent study course with him or her.

Lecture courses will include advanced undergraduates, and are ordinarily combinations of lecture and discussion. Often they cover a larger body of material, in a more survey-like fashion, than is done in seminars. Requirements of students in lecture courses vary widely from one faculty member to another, and may include papers and/or exams. Seminar courses are more intense, research-oriented classes. Students typically make seminar presentations and write in-depth papers for these classes. Some graduate seminars rely heavily on non-English language reading and research, so be sure of the requirements before you enroll.

Most students balance their work-load between seminars and lectures during each quarter. There is no requirement regarding the number of lectures or seminars that must be counted toward the eighteen courses needed for the Ph.D. degree, but it's expected that you will want to take at least one seminar each quarter so as to develop the skills in critical analysis, independent research, group discussion, and public presentation that this format encourages.

1.22 Two-quarter Course Sequences: Among the course offerings, students will find pairs of linked courses offered sequentially over two quarters. There may be one or more such sequences per year in each field. These paired courses enable a student to do more sustained work in a particular area than the quarter system generally permits, and are a valuable way to develop research paper skills and expertise. Students may take the first course alone, but may not take the second course without the first.

1.23 Research Courses: These courses are "independent studies" and will vary widely in format and requirements depending on the individual faculty and student. At the beginning, you should establish with the faculty member how often and when you will meet, what materials you will cover and how they are to be covered (joint discussion; written report, etc.) and what you will be expected to produce by the end of the quarter (a paper, annotated bibliography, etc.)

1.24 Courses outside of the Department: Because eight courses may be taken outside the Department, you're encouraged to investigate the offerings in history, literature, religion, anthropology, music, philosophy and other disciplines that might complement your art historical studies. Other departments often have descriptions of courses like the one prepared by our Department. Contact the department in question for this information, or check the listings in the "Time-Schedules" Publication. You may also want to consider taking courses at other area universities.

Note that DOVA courses must be graduate-level (300) in order to count among the eighteen degree courses.

1.25 Taking or Auditing Additional Courses: Eighteen is the minimum number of courses required for the Ph.D. You and your advisor may decide that you should enroll in more courses during your second or third year, or that you should audit some of special relevance for your dissertation work.

Students are encouraged to officially audit a survey course for an ‘R’ in their primary field. Auditing or serving as a course assistant in a particular survey is a prerequisite for subsequently teaching a version of that survey as a lecturer in the Department. While auditing a survey, students may wish to take an independent study course to enlarge their knowledge of the material.

1.26 Courses outside the University: In choosing courses, you may wish to consider supplementing the University offerings through study at other Chicago-area graduate colleges and universities, such as Northwestern. A convenient vehicle for doing this is the CIC program which permits University of Chicago students to register officially for courses at a number of mid-western universities, including Northwestern. Fellowship aid can be used for this purpose, and credit is automatic. However, you should be aware that University calendars do not always coincide and that registration deadlines may come earlier than ours.

MAJOR/MINOR AREAS

1.27 Defining the Major Field: Normally, you'll define a major and minor field in accord with the following list.

Western:

Asian

Chinese:

Japanese:

Islamic:

Historiography, Theory and Criticism: Literature on art and representation, its philosophical traditions and historical contexts.

1.28 Defining the Minor Field: Give careful thought to the selection of a minor field and discuss it with your faculty advisor. Ideally, it should intersect with the interests you pursue in your major field, but also provide breadth in your perspectives. It may be important, too, for establishing the attractive profile you will want to present as a job candidate

The minor field may be drawn from the list of major fields or may be a subsection of a large major field. For example, someone majoring in modern painting might minor in photography & film or in architecture; someone majoring in Buddhist art might minor in European medieval art.

For the minor field of study, you may elect to do an outside minor, that is, a minor in another department or departments. Normally, the outside minor complements the major by providing additional study in the period, area, and civilization of choice. Careful attention should be given to the composition of the outside minor in consultation with your advisors.

FIRST YEAR DISTRIBUTION REQUIREMENTS

Distribution requirements are designed to ensure that you become familiar with different methods and areas of art history. For students concentrating in a field of Western art, three aspects of the program have distribution requirements: courses, papers, and faculty advisors. For those in a field of "non-Western" art, two aspects of the program have distribution requirements: courses and papers. These requirements should be satisfied during the first year. In addition, all students are expected to declare a minor field, with the goal of taking at least one of the two required courses in that field by the end of the year.

1.29 Distribution Requirements for Students Concentrating in a Field of Western Art:

Courses: You must take at least one "non-Western" course in the Art History Department (defined as non-European and non-North American). You must take a course on pre-1600 European material, and one with European or North American post-1600 material. There is no required number of seminars that you must take though it's expected that you'll take a balance of seminars and lectures each quarter. If you want to meet a distribution requirement by time period with a course that spans ancient to modern periods or in a cultural area with a course spanning multiple cultures, you may do so by writing a paper on a topic in the appropriate period or culture. The point is to gain familiarity and experience with material outside your specialty.

If you want to meet a distribution requirement by time period with a course that spans ancient to modern periods or in a cultural area with a course spanning multiple cultures, you may do so by writing a paper on a topic in the appropriate period or culture. The point is to gain familiarity and experience with material outside your specialiy. Thus if an East Asian specialist takes a course on ancient Greek art but writes the course paper on Chinese ancient art, that course will not fill the distribution requirement for a course outside the East Asian specialty.

Papers: Your four papers (i.e., the three seminar papers and the qualifying paper) must fall within at least two of the following three areas: (1) "non-Western" (defined as non-European and non-North American); (2) European, pre-1600 (3) European or North American, post-1600. Faculty: At least one of your seminar papers must be directed by a faculty member other than the two readers of your qualifying paper.

1.30 Distribution Requirements for Students Concentrating in a "Non-Western" Field:

Courses: You must take at least one course outside of your specific geographical field. Thus, for example, students of Asian art must take at least one non-Asian art history course. There is no requirement regarding the number of different faculty with whom you should work. Nor is there any requirement regarding the number of seminars you must take.

Papers: Among your four required papers, one seminar paper and the qualifying paper must be within your field of concentration; the other seminar paper may deal with the art of any culture or period.

PAPERS

1.31 Seminar Papers: Three "seminar" papers are required for the degree. "Seminar" papers are generally begun and completed within a single quarter, often but not necessarily as part of the work for a seminar course. They may also be developed from lecture courses or as independent research projects pursued in specially-arranged graduate research courses.

For each completed seminar paper, be sure to fill out a seminar-paper form (available on the Department website), obtain the signature of the faculty member who supervised the paper and give it to the Department assistant to file with your Departmental record.

1.32 Qualifying Paper: During fall and winter quarters of second year, the student will research and write a qualifying paper under the guidance of a principal advisor, who must be a faculty member in the Art History Department. Another faculty member, who need not be in art history, will serve as secondary advisor. Students will typically enroll in an independent research course with the primary advisor, or with the primary and secondary advisors, in both fall and winter quarters, to accommodate the research and writing within the course load. These two courses count toward the 18 required for the degree. The penultimate draft is due Friday of the 7th week of winter quarter. The final approved copy, together with an approval form signed by both readers, must be submitted to the Department by the last day of exam week in winter quarter.

1.34 Summer Stipend Holders: Students are encouraged to develop summer reading lists of several books and/or substantial articles, with the help of their faculty advisor. The first summer list should be directed toward identifying the qualifying paper topic. The second summer list may be directed toward the preliminary exam fields or the dissertation topic. The list should form the basis of a meeting between student and faculty advisor at the start of fall quarter.

Summer stipends are intended to enable students to continue their training and research through the summer by supporting expenses. The first priority for summer work is to take care of language skills, whether acquiring or improving them. The University offers the equivalent of a one-year introductory language course in a condensed format in summer quarter. Most languages are available at the University, without tuition charge to graduate students. The Department requires students to take these courses for a letter grade and to enroll in regular three-quarter courses, not the research-for-reading courses. The goal here is for you to get solid language training that will stay with you.

You will need to submit a short statement describing your plans for the summer (language study, research/travel plans, faculty member advising your first- or second-summer reading list) early in spring quarter, and to file a brief statement on completed summer activities (noting language study, research and summer reading list) by fall registration week.

Students are encouraged to develop summer reading lists of several books and/or substantial articles, with the help of their faculty advisor. You should make an appointment to discuss your list by the middle of spring quarter and should have agreed on the list by the end of exam week. The first summer list should be directed toward identifying the qualifying paper topic. The second summer list may be directed toward the preliminary exam fields or the dissertation topic. The list should form the basis of a meeting between student and faculty advisor at the start of fall quarter.

1.33 Grades: The official grading scale used by the Department is A, B, C, D, and F, including pluses and minuses. In general, however, graduate student grades range from A to B-, and grades of "B" or "B-" indicate seriously inadequate work. A+ is not an official grade in the University, but may be used within the Department. Graduate research courses may be graded Pass/Fail.

A blank grade indicates that the student has completed the course work but for some reason the instructor has not yet filed the grade. A grade of I (Incomplete) indicates that the student hasn't yet completed requirements for the course but will do so in the future. When requirements for the course are completed, the student should ask the faculty member to send in a grade. The final grade is entered next to the I. Accordingly, the Department strongly discourages students from taking I's. It's important to understand that a grade of I remains on the transcript forever. See the policy on incompletes and the schedule for completing them below, section 1.36.

1.35 Exceptions and Petitions: If you wish to have the Department consider other options for completing requirements, you may petition the faculty by addressing a letter to the Graduate Studies Director describing, explaining and justifying the changes you request. It will be presented to the faculty and voted upon by them.

1.36 Incompletes: Every year, student academic progress, including any Incompletes or blank grades, is reviewed by the faculty at a meeting early in the spring quarter. Department staff will contact students to confer about the status of any such grades before the meeting. After the meeting, any student with an Incomplete dating back more than four quarters will receive a letter saying that she or he will no longer be allowed to complete the course for a letter grade. This may mean taking another course instead to satisfy the course requirements for the PhD program. Any student who is receiving fellowship funds and has an Incomplete from the current academic year (fall or winter quarters) or before will receive a letter saying that the coursework must be completed and submitted by the week preceding fall registration. Students receiving fellowship funds who have additional incompletes at the end of the spring quarter must also complete that coursework by the week preceding fall registration. The student should send a copy of the completed coursework to the department coordinator at the same time she or he submits it to the instructor. If the coursework is not completed, the student will be unable to register. Continuing fellowship funds will not be available without registration.

Exceptions are courses that require a summer field work component (courses in classical archaeology) and courses taken in other departments for which the instructor gives all students a later due date. In these cases, the Department Coordinator will need an email from the instructor stating the due date for the class. As always, if you have questions, you should feel welcome to consult the DGS.

1.37 Department Policy on Working during Full Fellowship Years: Graduate students are expected to devote full time to their studies during their fellowship years. They will teach at the University to meet the teaching obligations associated with their fellowship, but they should not undertake teaching at other institutions or any other significant employment that could reduce their attention to their studies. If you are uncertain about how this policy affects you, or if there are special opportunities or concerns you would like the faculty to consider, please consult the Director of Graduate Studies. Non-compliance could have consequences for a student’s annual spring progress review, on which basis fellowships are renewed.

1.38 M.A. Degree: The objective of the program is the Ph.D. degree. However, students may apply for the M.A. degree along the way to achieving the Ph.D., or if they choose or are advised to leave the Ph.D. program after the second-year review. Any student is eligible for the M.A. degree after completing the following requirements: one foreign language required for the student’s field; fifteen one-quarter courses, which include Methodology, and meet the first-year distribution requirements; two seminar paper approval forms; approval of the qualifying paper from both readers.

1.39 Students Entering with an M.A. from Another Art History Program: Students entering the program with an M.A. in art history in a field other than the one in which they anticipate writing a dissertation or with an M.A. in another discipline, or with an M.A. from an art history program based outside North America or Britain will follow the regular program, taking 18 courses.

Special provisions apply to students entering the program with an M.A. from an art history program in North America or Britain in the field in which they anticipate writing a dissertation:

1) In the spring of their first year, these students have the option of petitioning the Department to grant course credit toward the departmental requirements for courses taken in their previous program. The Department considers petitions on a case-by-case basis, and may approve anywhere from one to nine credits. The student should give the Director of Graduate Studies a brief cover letter requesting the credits, accompanied by a list of the course titles, descriptions, and instructors, and a copy of the transcript. The DGS will present the petition at a faculty meeting for discussion and vote, and will report the decision to the student.

2) These students write the qualifying paper on the same schedule as other students. If, however, they and their faculty advisor feel they have written a course paper during the first year that is suitable for the qualifying paper, they have the option of expanding that paper over the summer and completing it in the fall of the second year.

PRELIMS

The Preliminary Examinations (Prelims) are an important turning point in your graduate career. They simultaneously bring to a close your formal coursework (they are, quite possibly, the last exam you'll ever have to take), and they help to prepare you for work on the dissertation and for a career of teaching and research.

1.40 Form of the Preliminary PhD Exam: The exam is a written, closed-book exam, paced over the course of three days, at a time that you decide upon with your committee after you have completed the courses required for the Ph.D. degree. The exam consists of three "areas of concentration," each assigned to a day. The exam period on each day should not be any longer than three hours. Other details, such as the number of questions to be asked, will be decided by your faculty committee.

1.41 Content and Scope: You'll take the exam in one of the "fields of study" defined by the Department (see 1.26). You won't be examined on the entirety of this field, but rather on three "areas of concentration" within it. Some students choose to do two areas within their major field, and one within their minor.

An "area of concentration" is defined according to two criteria:

For most students the three areas of concentration will fall within the chronological and geographical bounds of their field of study, but this need not be the case. For instance, you might want to pursue an area that does not begin or end neatly within a field; or you might want to develop an area that is principally defined around a methodological approach that has not been widely developed in your field of study and will thus require reading in depth in another field.

1.42 The Need for Breadth and Diversity in Defining Areas: In defining your three areas of concentration, you should keep in mind that studying for the prelims is a process through which you should begin to make a transition from the highly structured and fast-paced coursework of the quarter system to the different sorts of intellectual demands that lie ahead. Thus, in developing areas of concentration, you should look forward to what you expect will form the subject of the dissertation, and aim to prepare a broad intellectual foundation to support that more specialized work. You should also aim to develop a range of expertise that will provide bases for teaching. The three areas of concentration are ones that you should expect to list on the cv. as subjects that you'll feel prepared to teach.

These two goals – preparing a broad foundation for the dissertation and developing diverse areas of expertise for teaching – are not identical and require that you and your committee discuss carefully how to strike a productive balance between the two.

1.43 How to Select a Committee and Define the Areas of Concentration: The dissertation committee will consist of three or four faculty, of which at least two should be from the Art History Department. You and your advisor should put together the committee during the second year, subject to approval of the Graduate Studies Director. It's often the case that the prelims committee and the dissertation committee are the same, but this is not required.

You should arrive at the definition of the three areas in consultation with your committee. Ordinarily, each committee member will have expertise specific to one of the areas, and will work especially closely with you in developing that; however, the possibilities for this sort of correlation may vary widely from one field to another in the Department, owing both to the limited number of faculty in some fields and to the special needs of individual students.

You should prepare an extensive bibliography for each area, which the faculty will help to condense, ensuring that the list has both historical depth and methodological breadth. In some areas, the committee may also help the student to develop a body of visual material to be studied. It should be clearly understood that the bibliography (and accompanying compilations of visual materials) will be the basis for the exam. While studying, you should discuss your reading with the committee periodically to ensure that the faculty remains in touch with your developing interests. Some faculty will ask you to suggest exam questions. These will not necessarily be the questions you are asked to answer in the exam, but preparing and discussing them will help you to prepare for the exam.

1.44 Evaluation and Grading: The committee will usually meet together to evaluate the exam. Each area will be graded "P or "F". In the case of an excellent exam, a special note will be written and placed in the student's file. If you should fail an area, you'll be required to re-take that area in order to advance in the program and pursue dissertation work. Should you fail the area a second time, you must petition the Department in order to continue in the program.

1.45 How Long Should You Prepare for the Exam? While the length of time a student will need to study for the exam will vary with the individual, four months of full-time work should, on average, be sufficient preparation. Thus the Winter of the third year is likely to be the earliest occasion at which a student can sit for the exams; summer of the fourth year is ordinarily the latest date for taking them. Failure to have taken prelims by that time jeopardizes a student's satisfactory standing in the program.

THE DISSERTATION PROPOSAL

1.46 Defining the Dissertation Topic: Over the course of your third year, you should define the area of your dissertation and the intellectual problems with which you'll be engaged. You should, of course, stay in close touch with your principal advisors during this year about your thoughts concerning the dissertation. By Winter students should ideally be ready to engage in sustained research directed towards establishing their dissertation topic. Such research would then be continued over the course of the summer of the third year. Track-two students may be on this same schedule or one that is roughly one quarter later.

1.47 Dissertation Proposal Workshop (ARTH 50200): The Dissertation Proposal Workshop (ARTH 50200) is conducted by a faculty member every spring to introduce third year students to the tasks of preparing proposals and making grant applications. Here you will read and critique each others' proposals. The aim of the workshop is to help you to produce a finished proposal by the fall of your third year and to prepare you to apply for grants at that time.

1.48 Pre-dissertation Grants: It's generally in the spring of your third year that you will plan a pre-dissertation trip and submit a trip proposal to the department for approval. These trips, typically for a month or so, are designed to conduct preliminary research on the dissertation. On this trip you might canvass archives and works of art abroad, consult with foreign-based scholars, and approach one of them about the possibility of directing your research when you go overseas to work on the dissertation. The primary purpose of a pre-dissertation trip is to help you prepare more specific, and thus stronger, grant applications for dissertation research.

The third year summer money that the Department guarantees to each student from its endowed and other funds is typically to be used to fund this pre-dissertation trip. In any given year, the Department may be able to supplement a particular student's third year summer money for travel purposes. These decisions will be made on the basis of the Department's financial situation and the student's need to travel. Students should also look for other sources for pre-dissertation funding.

After consulting with your advisors, you should submit your pre-dissertation trip proposal in time for the Department's deliberations about student travel awards in the spring. There is a form available in the Department that must be submitted with the proposal.

1.49 The Dissertation Committee: You should prepare your proposal in close consultation with your principal advisor and with two other faculty members, both of whom may be from other departments. You may only have one reader from outside the University. (Be sure to consult also the requirements below regarding readers' attendance of dissertation defenses: 2.44.) The dissertation committee is usually put together over the course of the third year.

The Dissertation Committee is officially appointed by the Department Chair. If, at a later date, the second or third reader should leave the University or, for various reasons, can no longer serve on the dissertation committee, the Chair will appoint a new member in consultation with you and the remaining committee members.

1.50 The Proposal: The dissertation proposal should be presented in a concise, clearly written form that begins with a definition of the topic. Although proposals vary as topics vary, most proposals contain sections on the current state of the question, the contribution to scholarship that the dissertation will make, the specific questions and problems to be considered and the expected results, both immediate and far-reaching. Writing the proposal should help you to plan which materials you will need to consult, and in which order; the proposal might be followed by a schedule of future travel, research and writing. If appropriate, any restrictions in the scope of the topic should be noted and explained. If the research is sufficiently advanced, an indication of the organization and pertinent divisions of the dissertation itself might be offered. You should include an extensive bibliography.

Circulate the proposal among your committee members. When all agree that revisions are sufficient, have them sign the appropriate form (available in the Department office) and pass the form and accepted proposal on to the Chair.

Be sure to send your name, topic and area to the Department Coordinator by Nov. 30th for inclusion in the Art Bulletin's list of dissertations in progress. It is imperative to inform the professionals at large of your research and topic so that students elsewhere do not work on the identical material and approach. (Check the CAA web-site for how to describe your area.)

You many also want to present your proposal at one of the University's graduate-student workshops. Here you can often get very useful interdisciplinary feedback and can begin to establish a local community of students and faculty that will be interested in and supportive of your work over the coming years.

1.51 Admission to Candidacy: When you've completed course work, paper requirements, language requirements, prelims, and your dissertation proposal has been approved, you're admitted to candidacy and become what is called A.B.D., all but the dissertation." A.B.D. status is frequently required for fellowship awards.

It is a requirement of the University that the student be admitted to Ph.D. candidacy at least eight months prior to the awarding of the degree. When you are ready to be admitted to candidacy, make an appointment with the Department Coordinator to go over your file and check that all requirements have been fulfilled and that you have all the correct seminar and research paper forms. If everything is in order, the Department Coordinator will circulate the paperwork admitting you to candidacy. The University requires that you, the Chair of the Department, and the Registrar or Dean, complete an official form marking your admission. Once the form has been signed, you will receive a letter from the Dean approving your new status. Official copies of your transcript will also include the date of your admission to candidacy.

DISSERTATION

1.52 Applying for Dissertation Research Grants: Generally it's during the fall of your third year that you begin to apply for outside grants to support your dissertation research. Note that dissertation fellowships are due surprisingly early during the academic year. The Fulbright, for example, usually requires application by the beginning of the fall quarter, at which time students must demonstrate appropriate language skills.

Grant applications take a lot of time to prepare and they fall at a very busy time of year for the faculty. Thus, you'll want to plan well in advance. It’s especially important that you keep in close touch with your advisor, so that he or she knows your plans, and you have the benefit of his or her advice. Work carefully with your advisor on your project description, by far the most important part of any grant application. A brief note to your advisor outlining the grants for which you plan to apply is a very good idea.

1.53 Departmental Nominations: For some dissertation grants Departmental nomination is required. Lists of these fellowships may be obtained from the Department Coordinator. The principal ones are:

To be considered for nomination, you should submit a letter to the Graduate Studies Director by late October (check for posted deadlines). Your advisor's approval of your project description is necessary in order for you to submit an application for the faculty committee's consideration, so be sure to have him or her sign the appropriate approval form (available in the Department office) and include it along with the materials you submit. Departmental decisions are usually made in mid-November.

1.54 Departmental Grant Opportunities:The Department normally has some funds of its own to put towards the support of graduate student research travel and summer language study. The amount available varies from year to year, dependent in part upon the success of the Department’s fund-raising initiatives. Preference is given to students who apply for outside funding but aren’t successful. In general, the Department’s priorities are ranked as follows:

Note that the Department does take into account a student’s fellowship income for the year in question and how much travel money it has given to a student in previous years, and it expects and appreciates frugality in the calculation of living expenses. An announcement describing the funds and their purposes and the application form are circulated late winter quarter. Applications are due in April; the faculty reviews them and the Director of Graduate Studies notifies students of the results about mid-May.

Checks are available around the start of summer quarter. Outstanding work for incompletes, including any from spring quarter, must be submitted to Department Coordinator and the instructor(s) before a check for summer language study or research travel will be released.  Exceptions are courses that require a summer field work component (courses in classical archaeology) and courses taken in other departments for which the instructor gives all students a later due date.  In these cases, the Department Coordinator will need an email from the instructor stating the due date for the class.  Students who receive awards for primary dissertation research must be A.B.D. by the time the award is to be given, or the money will be withheld until this status is obtained. As always, if you have questions, you should feel welcome to consult the Director of Graduate Studies.

1.55 Writing the Dissertation: Different topics, students, and advisors require different strategies for the submission of part or all of the dissertation for approval; you should therefore consult often with your committee and devise a plan and a schedule for your work. It's typical that the first chapter takes the longest time to write, and it's generally advisable to make sure that your entire committee weighs in on it before you proceed further. This way you'll know that you're on the right track with each faculty member. Be sure, too, to consult early in your research the University's requirements for finished dissertations, and especially those regarding photographs.

1.56 Help for Dissertation Writers, including Workshops: Working on a dissertation is often a long and lonely experience. To alleviate the pressures of this situation, which can lead normally productive students to fall into the doldrums, the University sponsors graduate workshops, one of whose primary purposes is to provide a supportive intellectual environment for the dissertation-writer. Graduate students often present chapters of their dissertations here for constructive criticism. You're strongly encouraged to begin participating in one or more of these workshops even before you start the dissertation. Through the process you'll become acquainted with the forms of Ph.D. proposals and chapters. The University also sponsors dissertation-writing support groups. For information on these, ask the Department Coordinator or the Office of the Dean of Students.

1.57 Dissertation Write-Up Grants: Special fellowships for writing the dissertation are usually designed to support students in their final year. Indeed, evaluation of applicants for such grants usually includes some careful assessment of whether the student can truly finish his or her dissertation within a year. Most often, you'll be asked to submit a letter of application, an abstract, and one completed chapter of the dissertation.

Several University write-up grants require Departmental nomination. Students should submit letters of application, abstracts and completed chapters to the Department Coordinator by the posted deadline, which usually falls in the middle of February. Departmental nominations are usually made by early March.

Look for other grants. The AAUP and other agencies offer write-up grants for which no nomination is required.

1.58 Time Limitations on the Ph.D. Program: The requirements for the Ph.D. degree must be completed within twelve years of residence (4 scholastic, 8 advanced). Any requests for an extension of time should be made in the form of a petition addressed to the members of the student's Ph.D. committee, the Graduate Studies Director and the Department Chair. Sufficient cause must be given and an estimated date of completion must be provided. Should the student be granted an extension of time for completion of degree requirements, one or both of the following courses of action may be required: (1) the student may have to re-formulate and re-submit for approval the dissertation proposal; (2) the student may have to demonstrate his or her ongoing familiarity with the field of research by re-taking the Ph.D. prelims.

DISSERTATION DEFENSE AND FINAL COPY

1.59 Scheduling the Defense: After you complete the dissertation and it's been approved by your committee, you should arrange for the defense. You should contact the members of your committee and get all to agree on a day and time; be sure to clear this time with the Department chair and Administrative Assistant. Once everything is arranged, send the chair a letter with this information.

You should present one copy of the dissertation and an abstract to the Department at least three weeks prior to the scheduled oral defense. For a period of two weeks or more a copy of the dissertation must be made available for the Art History Department faculty's inspection and approval. A copy of the abstract will be sent to the Dean of Students.

Observe that arranging the defense takes time and that if you're trying to schedule it before having actually finished the dissertation, you face a potentially tricky situation. Faculty may be quite reluctant to agree to a defense before approving the dissertation in its entirety. A defense cannot be scheduled with the Dean of Students unless the dissertation is complete. Especially if you'll have to fly in for the defense, your best strategy is to plan to finish the dissertation and to submit an entire copy to each committee member at least three months before you hope to defend it. If the faculty takes six weeks to review and approve the text (a not unreasonable amount of time), you'll then have four weeks to make final plans for the defense. (Remember that everything must be settled three weeks before the actual date.)

If you're under considerable pressure to finish the dissertation (because of the demands of your newly secured employment, for example), be sure to discuss the situation carefully with your committee and be aware of the considerable difficulties you face in trying to accelerate the last stages of your graduate career.

1.60 The Defense: The entire Art History faculty is invited to attend the defense. You have the option of opening the defense to your fellow students at the University, and you should inform the Department Chair of your decision about whether the defense will be open or closed well in advance of the date. Your committee is required to be present, as is a faculty member designated by the Chair to represent the Art History Department. One faculty member, selected by the Dean of Students, comes from another department, and is called the "Dean's Representative."

Should you have a reader from outside the University, he or she is not required to be at the defense. Should you have obtained permission from the Department to have two readers from outside the University, one of them will have to attend the defense in order that two of your three-person committee be present. Note that neither the Department nor the University has funds to bring readers to the campus for dissertation defenses.

The Chair of the Art History Department usually opens and concludes the proceedings. During the defense, you'll be examined about the dissertation and closely related matters. You should surely be prepared to summarize and evaluate your conclusions, and to position your achievements within the scholarship of your fields of inquiry. All faculty present may ask questions, but students are only present as observers. Defenses usually last from one and one-half to two hours.

Possibly the greatest value of the defense for the student is the opportunity to have your work critiqued and evaluated from different perspectives, and to defend and clarify your ideas accordingly. This process should help to show you the sorts of research and revision that will be required to turn your dissertation into a book or series of publications. Thus, while the defense is the culmination of your graduate career, it should also serve to prepare you for your future work.

At the end of the defense, you (and any students who have attended) will be asked to step outside. The faculty will discuss the defense and with the approval of a majority of the examiners, you'll be recommended for the Ph.D. degree. In the event that the faculty should vote not to award the degree, the Chair and dissertation committee will consult with the Dean of Students to consider the possibility of a second oral examination.

1.61 Annual Dissertation Prize: The Department awards an annual prize of $1000 each spring for the best dissertation defended in the previous calendar year. (For example, dissertations defended during the calendar year 2006 are eligible for the prize awarded in the Spring of 2007.) The award is recorded by the University Registrar and is included in the list of student awards on the department website. The process works as follows: faculty members nominate exceptional dissertations for consideration by letter; nominated dissertations are read by a faculty committee; and the committee's recommendation is presented, discussed and voted on at a faculty meeting.

1.62 Final Copies: The University of Chicago places some restrictions on the form of presentation for the final copy of the dissertation. This is regulated by the Dissertation Office in Regenstein Library. The office has guidelines specifying these requirements, including the type of paper, margins, notes and other factors that affect legibility, durability and reproducibility. (However, the office no longer regulates the academic style of the dissertation's scholarly apparatus; such matters as the form for citing references are to be decided upon by you and your committee.) You should study the University's requirements well in advance to avoid last minute surprises especially as regards photographs and copyright permissions.

Changes may be suggested at or immediately after the defense, so you should plan to produce your final copies after that event. Once you've obtained the Chair's signature on the dissertation approval form, take it and two copies of your dissertation to the Office of Academic Publications. They will send one of these to U.M.I. (University Microfilms International); the other will be kept in Regenstein. Note that this means that you will probably need to have two sets of illustrations.

You'll also need to complete a publication-agreement form with U.M.I. (available at the dissertation office) and to supply an abstract meeting U.M.I.'s rather strict formatting demands.

1.63 Graduation: You need to file an application to graduate before the first day of the quarter in which you plan to receive your degree. You must submit the final copies of the dissertation on or before the Friday that falls three weeks before convocation. (Note that some years the corresponding Wednesday of this week is the deadline.)

Grant Opportunities

2. Scouting out Grants: Online information about grants is available from the Division of Humanities at ttp://humanities.uchicago.edu/current/#grants or from the Office of Graduate Affairs at http://grad-affairs.uchicago.edu/programs/index.shtml. Students are also encouraged to contact Sarah Touhey, Assistant Dean of Students, for more information on available grants.

A file in the Administrative Assistant's office includes announcements of grants relevant to Art History. This will be extremely helpful, but you should not expect that it will include every grant for which you should consider applying. Visit the International Affairs and the Graduate Affairs Office; talk to your friends in other departments; be sure to look at the Career and Placement Services (second floor of Ida Noyes) which has a library of grant directories and information; look on the web including the College Art Association site. Don’t be passive when it comes to finding grants. No one person or place will have all the information you need!

Grants vary in the documents required. These may include transcripts, curricula vitae, budgets, itineraries, autobiographies, proposals, statements of progress and letters of reference. No one application will ask for all of these, but the list is a fair representation of what you may be called upon to provide.

Teaching

3. Why and When to Teach: Why should graduate students teach, besides the opportunity to make some money or fulfill fellowship-based teaching obligations? Obviously, teaching at this stage provides experience that will prove valuable in your future career, should you become a professor, and it allows you to learn to teach in an apprentice-like situation that should be supportive and encouraging. Teaching experience helps on the job market. Practice in balancing teaching and research develops a valuable skill. And you may well find that your own work will benefit from trying to justify and make accessible to non-specialists your field of art history.

It's generally expected that graduate students will teach in the third, fourth and fifth years. Students often continue, intermittently, to teach throughout their graduate career, either at the University or elsewhere in the area. It's important to realize that there may well be times in your graduate life when it's advisable not to teach, an endeavor which has a tendency to become all-consuming.

3.1 Teaching Inside the Department :   The Department has four types of positions that will contribute to students' teaching credentials. Each year the Department seeks Ph.D. students to fill positions as Course Assistants for the undergraduate lecture survey courses and as Writing Interns for smaller, discussion-based thematic introductory courses offered as part of the College core. These positions differ significantly in responsibilities but are open to first-time as well as experienced student teachers; they carry about the same level of remuneration. The Department also employs more advanced students as Lecturers who teach Art History 101 sections on their own or offer 200-level courses. Lectureship appointments presuppose prior experience as a Departmental course assistant, writing intern, or preferably both.   B.A. Preceptors mentor the majors writing BA papers in their fourth years; two are appointed each year to co-teach the Senior Seminar in the fall and to work with faculty advisors in guiding the majors to the completion of their papers early spring quarter.   Each position offers students a salary and, for those in Advanced Residence, tuition remission, in return for job performances described below. The positions are advertised late in winter quarter. Appointments are made by a faculty committee that reviews applicants' credentials and academic progress and seeks to match skills and needs across the Department.   Notification is usually late in spring quarter.

Most graduate student fellowships entail the requirement that students teach in some of these positions. The particulars are stated in the fellowship letter. To meet this obligation, you need simply apply for Departmental teaching positions in the appropriate year, following the standard system described below.   More advanced students who have completed any fellowship-related teaching or have fellowships that do not require teaching (such as the Javits) may also apply. All applicants are considered on an equal footing.

3.2 Course Assistantships: Course assistants will be appointed for all art history surveys as well as a few 200 level courses with high undergraduate enrollments.   Course descriptions for available assistantships are listed below. Teaching assistant assignments are based on projected enrollment, so each assistant may expect to work with roughly 25 students. Course assistants teaching for the first time are expected to attend the Department's teaching colloquium (ARTH 50101) and should consider making use of the University's Teaching and Learning Center programs. Course assistant responsibilities may include but will not necessarily be limited to the following:

Faculty Responsibilities to Course Assistants: While these positions require you to engage with undergraduates in particular ways, they are also opportunities for you to think about pedagogy in general and to consult with the faculty member in charge of the course. Although each course is likely to proceed a little differently from the others in its details, the faculty has drawn up a general checklist of things that you can expect as part of the working relationship in any course:

If you feel that your working relationship with your professor or with your students is not effective in some way, it's expected that you'll point this out and seek to resolve it with the professor. If there is a problem doing so, the Director of Graduate Studies is the appropriate person to help you define it and work it out. Any discussion you may have concerning teaching appointments will be treated confidentially.

Compensation: $1500 (plus tuition remission if in Advanced Residence) per quarter long appointment.

Application materials typically include:

Undergraduate catalogue text description: 14000 through 16999. Art Surveys. May be taken in sequence or individually. Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. For nonmajors, any ARTH 14000 through 16999 course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. The major monuments and masterpieces of world painting, sculpture, and architecture are studied as examples of humankind's achievements in the visual arts. Individual objects are analyzed in detail and interpreted in light of society's varied needs. While changes in form, style, and function are emphasized, an attempt is also made to understand the development of unique and continuous traditions of visual imagery throughout world civilization. Courses focus on broad regional and chronological categories.

3.3 Writing Internships: Writing interns coach undergraduates in how to write about art, assisting in faculty-taught sections of Art History 10100 and Art History 17000-level & 18000-level courses (aka Art-in-Context courses).   Limited to approximately 18 students, Art History 10100 and Art-in-Context courses are taught as discussion courses introducing undergraduates to visual art.   While each instructor handles these courses differently, all share the goals indicated in the generic course description; see the generic and specific descriptions appended at the end of this announcement. The writing internship requires some training (described below, under qualifications) that is valuable for any kind of future teaching.  

Job Description: The chief responsibility of the writing interns is to assist faculty in teaching writing in our discipline.   Because faculty will define that responsibility in different ways, the duties of each intern will vary somewhat.   However, interns are expected to read the assigned texts and attend every class.   They evaluate and comment on all student papers and meet with students who need extra help, holding weekly office hours.   (It should be noted, however, that they do not replace the instructor as the sole evaluator of papers, but rather collaborate with the instructor.)   Their typical role is to lead tutorials of 5 to 6 students each to discuss the student papers.   Normally they conduct 2 to 3 series of tutorials per quarter.   The time commitment averages about 15 hours per week.   Interns are not required to teach in class sessions, but are typically asked if they would like to prepare and teach one session, with the faculty member's involvement.

Faculty responsibilities to writing interns: While these positions require you to engage with undergraduates in particular ways, they are also opportunities for you to think about pedagogy in general and to consult with the faculty member in charge of the course. Although each course is likely to proceed a little differently from the others in its details, the faculty has drawn up a general checklist of things that you can expect as part of the working relationship in any course:

If you feel that your working relationship with your professor or with your students is not effective in some way, it's expected that you'll point this out and seek to resolve it with the professor. If there is a problem doing so, the Director of Graduate Studies is the appropriate person to help you define it and work it out. Any discussion you may have concerning teaching appointments will be treated confidentially.

Compensation:

$1600 (plus tuition remission if in Advanced Residence) per quarter.

Qualifications:

Applicants are expected to have taken the Little Red Schoolhouse course, English 50300, Principles of Teaching Writing, or to take the training seminar for art interns in the fall quarter of the year they are first appointed.

Application materials typically include:

Undergraduate catalogue text description: 17000 through 18999. Art in Context. Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. For nonmajors, any ARTH 17000 through 18999 course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Courses in this series investigate basic methods of art historical analysis and apply them to significant works of art studied within definite contexts. Works of art are placed in their intellectual, historical, cultural, or more purely artistic settings in an effort to indicate the origins of their specific achievements. An informed appreciation of the particular solutions offered by single works and the careers of individual artists emerges from the detailed study of classic problems within Western and non-Western art .

10100. Introduction to Art. For nonmajors, this course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. This course seeks to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and appreciation when dealing with a variety of visual art forms. It encourages the close analysis of visual materials, explores the range of questions and methods appropriate to the explication of a given work of art, and examines the intellectual structures basic to the systematic study of art. Most important, the course encourages the understanding of art as a visual language and aims to foster in students the ability to translate this understanding into verbal expression, both oral and written. Examples draw on local collections. Autumn, Winter, Spring

3.4 Lecturerships: Lecturers are advanced graduate students, finished with coursework and preferably, although not necessarily, the preliminary exams, who teach (1) their own one-quarter sections of the discussion-format Introduction to Art (Art History 10100) or (2) a small (limited to 18 students) version of a one-quarter 100-level introductory survey lecture course that they have helped teach or audited in the past, or (3) a one-quarter 200-level course on a topic of their choice appropriate for upper-level undergraduates. The 100-level courses fulfill the undergraduates' general education requirement in one of the “dramatic, musical, and visual arts,” and must be planned to serve the undergraduate with no prior experience in art history. They equip undergraduates with the basic skills and a sense of the types of questions and evidence that enable a critical reception of art and visual culture. These courses may inspire undergraduates to major or minor in Art History. The 100-level survey courses also fill requirements for undergraduates majoring or minoring in Art History.   The 200-level courses serve Art History majors and minors, as well as any interested undergraduate with at least one prior course in Art History.

Art History 10100: See the generic course description below for all sections of the course, from the college catalog. This course is being redesigned to create more consistency among the different sections while allowing a certain degree of instructor choice. A working group has designed a set of course “modules” from which faculty and lecturers will choose when establishing their individual syllabi. A module is a unit to be taught over two to four class meetings, designed to explore, through discussion as well as lecture, a single basic issue using particular works of art, readings, and possibly assignments.   It may center on art from any culture and period (or combination) but must be accessible to beginning undergraduates and should be teachable by non-specialists. When possible, it incorporates works that can be seen first-hand in local collections, from the University's Smart Museum and Oriental Institute to the Art Institute and other Chicago resources.   101 lecturers will be required to sit in on selected sessions of a faculty-taught 101 section and to participate in occasional staff meetings. 

Surveys and 200-level courses:   Lecturers design their own syllabi, usually consulting with their faculty advisors and the Graduate Studies Director, and are responsible for all aspects of their course.   Applications are welcome for any of the surveys usually offered by faculty, for any quarter in which faculty will not be teaching them; we especially welcome applications for surveys that will not be offered by faculty next year (see the list below).   200-level courses need not require the writing of a research paper but should allow for it, to enable Majors and Minors to meet a research paper requirement.   The Department will announce a special interest in 200-level courses in areas related to those of faculty who will be on leave each year.

All these courses have a maximum enrollment of 18 undergraduates and meet twice a week for a total of three hours.   Lecturers are responsible for all aspects of their course. While the course is being taught, a faculty member is assigned to mentor each lecturer, and will visit and discuss a class session by arrangement with the lecturer.   The mentor also prepares a teaching assessment for the lecturer's file, to be of help when the lecturer needs a recommendation addressing teaching qualifications.

Undergraduate catalogue text description: 10100. Introduction to Art. For nonmajors, this course meets the general education requirement in the dramatic, musical, and visual arts. Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment. This course seeks to develop skills in perception, comprehension, and appreciation when dealing with a variety of visual art forms. It encourages the close analysis of visual materials, explores the range of questions and methods appropriate to the explication of a given work of art, and examines the intellectual structures basic to the systematic study of art. Most important, the course encourages the understanding of art as a visual language and aims to foster in students the ability to translate this understanding into verbal expression, both oral and written. Examples draw on local collections. Autumn, Winter, Spring

Compensation: $3,500 per course (plus tuition remission if in Advanced Residence)

Application materials typically include:

3.5 BA Preceptorships: Two advanced graduate students will be selected to co-teach the Senior Seminar Autumn quarter and will continue to work with the students through Winter and early Spring quarters to facilitate completion of art history majors' BA papers.   Preceptors will inherit and may adapt the previous syllabus and are responsible for all aspects of the course.   They will be mentored by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Undergraduate catalogue text description: 29800. Senior Seminar: Writing Workshop. Required of fourth-year art history majors. This workshop is designed to assist students in researching and writing their senior papers, for which they have already developed a topic in the Junior Seminar. Weekly meetings target different aspects of the process; students benefit from the guidance of the workshop instructors but also are expected to consult with their individual faculty advisers. At the end of the course, students are expected to have completed a first draft of the senior paper and to make an oral presentation of the project for the seminar. Autumn.

Compensation: $4,000, disbursed over 3 quarters (plus tuition remission if in Advanced Residence )

Application materials typically include:

A completed application form for lecturers

A vita

3.6 Teaching Fellowships in the College for 200-level Lectureships: (salary: $3,500/quarter) Every year, the Art History Department invites advanced Ph.D. students to submit proposals to teach a new undergraduate course of their own design and nominates one to two applications for a Teaching Fellowship in the College. These fellowships are awarded through a division-wide competition. Fellows offer an upper-level undergraduate course on a topic of their own choice with a syllabus of their own design, teaching in their home department. The course may be taught in any of the three academic quarters. Successful proposals often offer an area or theme not normally available in faculty course listings and likely to have broad appeal to a diverse student body; they combine an exciting, teachable topic with thoughtfulness about how it will be taught. Applications require a course title, course description, and syllabus with readings, together with a vita and the name of a faculty member prepared to recommend your proposal. These syllabi can, of course, become the basis for courses you may apply to teach in the Art History department or elsewhere, or items you may wish to include in teaching job applications. The Department's nominees have done well in these competitions. An announcement is made late in autumn quarter and applications are usually due to the department in early January.   Winners must achieve ABD status by the start of the following fall quarter.   

TEACHING GUIDANCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

3.7 Art History Department Teaching Colloquium (ARTH 50101): Third year graduate students are required to attend the department's quarter-long Teaching Colloquium (ARTH 50101), offered every year by an Art History faculty member. Weekly meetings address different topics through presentations by visitors, discussion, common readings, etc. Students who attended a past year's colloquium are more than welcome to return to share their most recent teaching experiences and insights and seek advice on their new teaching challenges.

You should register for the R (audit) credit, so that your transcript records your involvement. The colloquium doesn't require the same amount of work as a regular course and no grade is given.

3.8 Center for Teaching and Learning: The Center for Teaching and Learning   (http://teaching.uchicago.edu) helps new and experienced instructors increase their practical and theoretical knowledge of university teaching. The Center serves faculty and students teaching courses in the College and across the four Divisions.

The Center provides support to the University teaching community primarily through workshops, seminars, and conferences that address a variety of topics, ranging from theories of education to hands-on application of techniques, from basic teaching strategies to the use of new technologies. These programs focus on aligning theory and practice with the roles required of teachers in lecture halls, seminar rooms and labs, across disciplinary and pedagogical settings. The Center also provides a number of resources, including a lending library of educational books, articles, and videotapes, a web site which collects an assortment of useful information (related both to teaching at this University, in particular, and to post-secondary teaching, more generally), and the opportunity to receive feedback on one's teaching.  

The Center offers an annual two-day workshop to orient new teachers to the University and discuss teaching skills and strategies. It is held in the week before fall classes begin, and is strongly recommended for all students with first-time teaching appointments in the upcoming academic year. Details are available from the website. Be sure to check the schedule when making your plans to return for the new academic year in September.

3.9 College Writing Program: A complementary source of teaching guidance is the course on the teaching of writing skills to college students, offered every spring quarter through the English Department as English 33000, Academic & Professional Writing. All students who wish to teach are urged to take it. Details are available from the office of the College Writing Program. The email address is: writing-program@uchicago.edu.

TEACHING OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENT OF ART HISTORY

3.10 Teaching Opportunities in Other Units of the University: The most valuable experience for a prospective teacher of art history will be within the Art History Department. However good opportunities are also available elsewhere in the University. Art history students have served as writing interns in the Humanities Core program, teaching in two- to three-quarter sequences of core courses in the Humanities (see the annual College handbook entitled Courses and Programs of Study). These interns teach under the auspices of the College Writing Program, which also trains Art History Department Writing Interns. In addition, Art history students have worked as Preceptors for degree candidates in the Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH), working with MAPH candidates in small groups and individually as they prepare their MA theses.

Another source of opportunities is the University's Graham School of General Studies, which administers both continuing education courses for (mostly post-B.A.) adults and the Summer Session courses for undergraduates. With the approval of the Departmental Chair, you may propose an Art History 101 course for Summer Session or propose a course on a topic of your choice for the continuing education program. In either case, the offering depends on the registration the course draws: if the minimum number of students does not register, the course is cancelled. The continuing education courses usually hold ten or so students who are older than typical college students, often with interesting work experience to bring to bear in discussions. Classes are intended to be discussions of readings. There are no papers or exams, so this is a course that gives you the chance to practice leading discussion. It's also a chance to teach “non-traditional” students, a valuable skill to cite in some job interviews. A good time to apply for these positions is around the middle of winter quarter. General information is available from the website: http://www.grahamschool.uchicago.edu.

TEACHING OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSITY

3.11 Chicago-Area Art History Positions: : For advanced students who are no longer on fellowship, teaching outside the university may offer financial support and broaden teaching experience. Frequently throughout the academic year, full-time and part-time teaching positions are available in Chicago-area art history programs. Watch the bulletin boards and artdepart listserve for postings or ask advanced students who have secured these positions for advice. Advanced Ph.D. students have been hired to teach introductory, survey, or upper-level art history classes in several departments that need short-term or temporary lecturers to fill in for full-time faculty away on leave or sabbatical.

In applying for these jobs, be sure to address your cover letter to the department chair (call the school to find out who that is), and to include your c.v. Your letter should indicate when you'll be available to teach, what your teaching experience to date has been, and why you're interested in teaching at the school (possibilities include wanting to keep in touch with teaching while you work on your dissertation, wanting teaching experience in a different environment and having a strong interest in teaching which motivated you to go to graduate school in the first place).

You should try to send out applications of this sort in the spring. Most schools make their scheduling decisions in the spring, and will know by June how many courses they'll offer and if they'll have openings.   You should also consider making a follow-up call in the summer, or at the beginning of September. Finally, make another follow up call in December, since it's at this point that schools realize they need people for the spring. Bear in mind, also, that some schools in Chicago are on a quarter system similar to ours, so there may be opportunities in spring quarter as well.

Be careful when accepting part-time or adjunct teaching positions. Remember to weigh the benefits of the teaching experience against the time it will take away from your dissertation. First time teaching is stressful and often much more time-consuming than you might expect. Ask about what is really involved in planning and teaching the course and, if possible, contact a student who has taught the class before. He or she will be able to give you a better sense of the actual time required for preparation and grading.

The Chicago-area institutions where our students have taught include:

A list of Chicago area colleges and universities is available at CAPS.

Museum, Internship Opportunities

4. Positions at the Smart Museum: As part of its teaching mission, the Smart Museum offers several paid internships in the curatorial, education, and registrarial departments to University of Chicago students. These internships offer an excellent opportunity for students to become more acquainted with museum work, and to gain experience in preparation for a museum career, Interns generally work 10-15 hours per week. Intern positions are posted in the Department of Art History and on the Museum's web site.

4.1 Rhoades Internship and Curatorial Course: The Rhoades Internship is an endowed position at the Art Institute that is held annually by an advanced graduate student in our department. During the Internship, the student is appointed to an appropriate curatorial department and works on a project related to his or her scholarly interests. The Internship carries compensation for 10 hours of work per week through the academic year. A call for applications for the Rhoades Internship is issued during spring quarter.

The Rhoades curatorial course is taught annually in our department by a curator at the Art Institute. It often involves class sessions at the Art Institute to study works first hand.

Career and Placement Services

5. CAPS: The Career and Placement Services office (CAPS) offers programs and services designed to assist graduate students, graduate alumni and post-doctoral fellows in career exploration and finding both academic and non-academic employment. A staff of full-time graduate counselors provides confidential help with everything from C.V. and resume review to self-assessment for a job search within or outside academia during one-hour counseling appointments and walk-in hours. See https://caps.uchicago.edu/ for more information.