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The Department of Art History and Archaeology offers the free-standing M.A. in Modern Art and Architecture: Critical and Curatorial Studies. The goal of the program is to prepare its graduates to pursue careers in publishing, criticism, and art-market fields. Students enroll in one of the program’s two tracks: Critical Studies or Curatorial Studies.

For the Free-Standing M.A. Degree

Full-time students are expected to complete all requirements for the M.A. degree in two years, of which the second year is half-time. Part-time study for the M.A. is also possible.

Courses: Ten courses including two semesters of G9900 (M.A. Thesis), taken in the third and fourth semesters.

Languages: Students are required to demonstrate proficiency in one foreign language relevant to their field of study by taking a departmental language examination. The examination is offered four times each year.

Sample Program: Critical Studies Track

Semester 1: M.A. Colloquium, seminar, two lecture courses

Semester 2: two seminars, two lecture courses

Semesters 3 and 4: G9900 (M.A. Thesis)

Sample Program: Curatorial Studies Track

Semester 1: ‑M.A. Colloquium, Curatorial seminar I, two lecture courses

Semester 2: ‑Curatorial seminar II, seminar, two lecture courses

Semesters 3 and 4: G9900 (M.A. Thesis)

Program of Study

The M.A. Colloquium is designed to explore issues of historical and critical method by focusing on them through the lens of a particular area of concern within the modernist field. These lenses change from year to year. One possible topic is the rise of photography within modernism, with all that it implies for the relationship between high art and mass culture, and all that it signals with regard to new media. Other topics include notions of primitivism, which could involve sessions ranging from postcolonial studies to contemporary art’s use of ethnographic models, or again, contemporary architectural studies and theories of urbanism. The structure of the colloquium combines reading and analysis of major texts, conducted by the colloquium leader, with a sequence of lecture-discussions by major theorists and critics working in a given subject area.

Full-time students are expected to complete all requirements for the M.A. degree in two years, of which the second year is half-time. Part-time study for the M.A. is also possible. The program is determined in discussion with the student’s adviser, and should comprise both seminar and lecture courses. A total of ten courses is required, including two for the M.A. thesis (G9900) which is completed under the advisement of a faculty member. Curatorial Studies students may choose to complete a curatorial thesis project as their M.A. thesis.

A typical program includes five lecture courses at the 3000 or 4000 or 6000 level (no more than two at the 3000 level), of which two may be taken for R credit. An additional two graduate-level seminars and G8990 (M.A. colloquium) must be taken for a letter grade. Curatorial Studies students meet their two-seminar requirement through the two Curatorial Seminars that they are required to take. Curatorial Seminars are taught by a curator at a New York museum. With the consent of their advisors, students may take courses in the culture, literature, history, and philosophy of their areas of interest, and students are encouraged to take advantage of the wide variety of courses outside the area of Modern Art. A reading knowledge of one foreign language relevant to the student’s field of interest must be demonstrated in order to complete the M.A.; to meet this requirement students are expected to be proficient with languages when they begin the program. Language examinations are scheduled within the department; consult the graduate student coordinator for more information.