The Ph.D. program in this department is considered one of the foremost in the country. The doctoral degree is offered in a wide range of fields from Ancient Near Eastern art and archaeology to contemporary art and critical theory, with most of the major fields in between strongly represented: Aegean, Greek, Roman, western Medieval, Byzantine, Italian, French and British Renaissance and Baroque, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth-century European art, and the history of photography. There is considerable strength in the history of architecture, as befits a university with the foremost architectural library in the country. The Department is also proud of its strengths in art outside of Europe and offers degrees in pre-Columbian art and archaeology, American art, and in the arts of China, Japan, India and sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, courses are regularly taught in Native American art.

First-semester students all enroll in a methodologically oriented Proseminar, as well as seminars and graduate lecture courses. Adventurous breadth in art history is encouraged, and there is ample opportunity for course work in related departments. There is also a steady exchange of advanced students with our sister institutions in the metropolitan area, particularly the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. Each semester at least one course, and often several, are taught in New York museums. Learn how Columbia Phd students may take courses at fellow institutions through The Inter-University Doctoral Consortium.

Columbia believes in the training of teachers and offers unparalleled opportunities for experience at all levels. After their first year students are considered Fellows in Teaching. In the second and third year most work as Teaching Assistants in the larger undergraduate courses. At the most advanced level, after the oral examinations and the M.Phil. degree, students can be appointed Preceptors in the Columbia Core Curriculum, which involves both a highly organized training program and unusual independence as teachers in a small seminar setting.

About sixteen students will be accepted each year for the Ph.D. program. Most students receive full funding, including tuition and stipend. Standard fellowships are for five years, and involve teaching or other types of department service during at least three of the five years. Students are very often successful in obtaining further support from competitive fellowships offered by Columbia, as well as from the various national fellowship competitions.

Normally, course work lasts three years and culminates in an oral examination in the spring of the third year, when the M.Phil. degree is awarded. At this point the program is flexible and admits travel for research, or a combination of teaching and research at Columbia. Many students spend between one and three years pursuing thesis research outside the United States. Time to degree should be no more than seven years. The final step in acquiring the degree is the dissertation defense, which allows constructive feedback from faculty outside the department as well as from art historians within it.

Students intending to study for the doctoral degree should apply directly to the Ph.D. program. [The M.A. and M.Phil. degrees are awarded en route.] However, there are also several independent M.A. programs, of approximately two or one and a half years duration. They are described elsewhere on this web page.

Application Procedures
All application materials must be received by December 15th. Applications are available online here. On the application make sure to indicate under "Subfield" the proposed field of study such as Northern Renaissance, South Asian, ancient, modern, East Asian, medieval. Applicants to the PhD program are encouraged to contact faculty in their proposed field of study. A good time to do this is the fall semester. Applicants are advised to take their GRE test (and TOEFL if required) in sufficient time to ensure that the scores arrive by December 15. We encourage all applicants to investigate and apply for non-Columbia funding. For additional information and an elaboration on the above points, please visit FAQs or call (212) 854-4507.