Adopted October, 2016

 Students who major in Art History will develop:

1. The ability to interpret the formal attributes, discuss the historical contexts, and assess the social functions of artworks and objects of material and visual culture from a broad chronological and geographic span and from diverse media.

2. The visual literacy necessary to analyze and critically evaluate the images that comprise our increasingly media rich and technologically driven world.

3. The ability to write and speak about images with clarity and rigor.

4. The ability to construct historical and theoretical arguments that demonstrate an awareness of the relevant critical terms and interpretive approaches of the discipline of art history, engage the appropriate methods for conducting research, and practice proper conventions of citation.

Welcome to the Art History Department!

Our department offers personalized attention in the context of a large, prestigious university. With our small class sizes and opportunities for close working relationships with faculty, the Art History major provides students with the critical thinking, reading, writing, and research skills that enable them to succeed in college and beyond. Our students go on to work in auction houses, museums, and commercial galleries; they get degrees in architectural design, historic preservation, and academic art history.

Art History at Rutgers is also a classic humanities major that prepares students for much broader careers in fields like education, non-profit work, journalism, law, and many others. Our major offers a chance to think critically about architecture and art-making across time and around the globe.