History of Art and Architecture

The teaching interests of the faculty are closely aligned with their research and form six clusters of expertise: Art and Architecture of the Ancient and Medieval WorldsArt and Architecture of the Early Modern WorldModern and Contemporary Art, Architecture, and Visual CultureArchitecture and UrbanismMuseum and Curatorial StudiesTheory and CriticismFaculty expertise in these six clusters is exceptional for its intellectual diversity and global reach across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. We work across national boundaries as well as media and sites — painting, print, photography, popular art, sculpture, ceramics, architecture, cities, digital media — to define a global interdisciplinary field. In the undergraduate curriculum, a new emphasis on global perspectives and intercultural exchanges joins the department’s long-established strengths in European and Non-Western traditions. The department also offers two interdisciplinary undergraduate Emphases: in Architecture & Environment, a program that promotes an understanding of architecture within a complex matrix of social, geographical, and political factors, and in Museum Studies, a program designed to engage historical and theoretical questions with professional practice and encourage "hands on" experiences through internships. The department’s graduate program for the Ph.D. degree balances maximum flexibility with rigorous training in order to foster the creativity that is essential to the development of a vital discipline. Students are encouraged to utilize individual and collective faculty expertise to create specific fields of art historical inquiry. Feminist art history and gender studies, text-image relationships, art theory, technology and art, the epistemology of collecting and displaying objects, the study of urbanism and the cultural landscape are some noteworthy faculty interests. For those interested in museum careers, there are ample opportunities to work through our internship program with area institutions, including the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UCSB, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Fowler Museum at UCLA and the Huntington Library and Art Collections; the department also enjoys a close working relationship with J. Paul Getty Museum.