Department of Art History

The Department of Art History is now accepting applications from Master of Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) students for Research Assistants (RAs) during the 2026-2027 academic year. All openings are 10 hours per week for $20 per hour. These jobs offer an opportunity for applicants to develop a wide array of knowledge and skills.

Former RA to Prof. Christine Mehring, Isabella Ortega, describes her experience in the role performing work related to an upcoming book on the art and architecture around the 1972 Munich Olympics: "Overall, working on the project has given me so much insight into how to even begin and organize a long-term research project. From tracking down sources, rifling through (digital) archival materials, and working with databases like the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), I have gained better historical skills that will definitely help me with my further music studies… Getting to work with artist books and visit Hannah Higgins’ private collection has also been an incredible opportunity. ”

Another one of Mehring’s RAs, Esme Graham, details how the experience helped with her personal academic work: “I have had the opportunity to develop my own academic interests: I am very interested in feminist art, and during this project I have worked directly with books by Jenny Holzer, Adrian Piper, and Suzanne Lacy, both in handling the objects and in developing and writing labels for them. This has been valuable in my own academic work, as it gave me a chance to engage further with a number of foundational feminist artists”.

Faculty members themselves also find MAPH RAs to be very helpful to their work. Prof. Jacobé Huet describes how her RA, Zac Jones, worked on multiple article projects and assembled bibliographies. “Zac provided excellent research assistance with multiple article projects I'm currently working on”.

This is the second year the department has been able to support MAPH RAs for their faculty and the offering has allowed for significant contribution toward both faculty research and students’ professional development. If you are a MAPH student who may be interested in working with Art History faculty, please see below brief descriptions of each RA opening and GradGargoyle Job ID. Please reach out to arthistory@uchicago.edu with any questions.

MAPH Research Assistant to Professor Jacobé Huet
Working with Prof. Jacobé Huet to conduct research on Modern Architecture, building annotated bibliographies and procuring and organizing library materials and images, liaising with museums and other art institutions and other duties as assigned.

- Book project, Chicago Manual of Style, bibliographical research, modern architecture, image and copyright research

GradGargoyle Job ID: 9387972

MAPH Research Assistant to Professor Christine Mehring
This position of Research Assistant to Prof. Christine Mehring for the 2026-27 academic year supports art historical research related to a co-authored book on the art and architecture around the 1972 Munich Olympics and another on Wolf Vostell’s work with concrete centered on UChicago’s public sculpture Concrete Traffic. See full description on GradGargoyle.

- Editorial work, modern and contemporary art, architecture
- German language skills strongly preferred

GradGargoyle Job ID: 9387973

MAPH Curatorial Research Assistant to Professor Christine Mehring
This position of Curatorial Research Assistant to Prof. Christine Mehring for the 2026-27 academic year supports a large-scale exhibition of artist’s books scheduled for fall 2027 in the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center. See full description on GradGargoyle.

Preferred Skills: Applicants should have interest in the arts, media, literature, libraries, museums, archives, or related fields; strong writing and research skills; strong organizational skills and attention to detail.

- Large-scale exhibition, artists books, libraries, modern and contemporary art
- Knowledge of one or more Western European languages especially of German is helpful but not required

GradGargoyle Job ID: 9387974

MAPH Research Assistant to Professor Megan Sullivan
Working with Prof. Megan Sullivan to conduct research on a book project on contemporary Latin American art and development of a new course on Latin American photography by building annotated bibliographies and procuring and organizing library materials and images, liaising with museums and other art institutions and other duties as assigned.

- Book project, contemporary Latin American art, course development, Latin American photography
- Advanced Spanish reading ability required

GradGargoyle Job ID: 9387971

MAPH Research Assistant to Professor Wei-Cheng Lin
Working with Prof. Wei-Cheng Lin to conduct research on Wu Hung's archive initiative, building annotated bibliographies and procuring and organizing library materials and images, liaising with museums and other art institutions and other duties as assigned for the Dispersed Chinese Art Digitization Project (DCADP) .

- DCADP
- Understanding of Chinese, English

GradGargoyle Job ID: 9387970