Our department trains the next generation of scholars committed to diverse, socially-engaged and idea-driven scholarship in the histories of art and architecture. We offer a PhD program designed to train scholars who will lead the way in advancing and disseminating art-historical knowledge, whether in research universities, teaching colleges, museums and galleries, or other related professions. All students in the program enjoy five years of fully funded, year round support, and most compete successfully for other university and external grants and fellowships.
Our program is based in research Constellations that encourage idea-driven scholarship and interdisciplinary work. These Constellations unite faculty and graduate students around shared intellectual questions and interpretative approaches, meant to be flexible and evolving. At the same time, the program recognizes that in-depth knowledge of particular historical and geographical areas remains the foundation of any serious intellectual inquiry in our discipline.
Our Constellations framework fosters a diverse range of collaborative activities that extend beyond research specializations to engage large conceptual questions that cut across space and time.
This two-semester post-baccalaureate fellowship helps bridge the gap between undergraduate and graduate study for students underrepresented in our field.
Our graduate students host a biannual graduate student symposium that brings together graduate students from around the world to discuss a theme pertinent to the study and practice of art and visual culture.
Founded in 2011, Contemporaneity: Historical Presence in Visual Culture is a peer-reviewed scholarly publication edited by our graduate students and published through Pitt's Open Library Publishing program.