The Department offers both a major in Art History and
a major in Art History with a concentration in the Visual Arts. In each
case, the student chooses a faculty advisor who assists her in planning a
program incorporating personal interests while meeting departmental
requirements.
For further information about Barnard College and the Barnard Art History
Major please visit the Barnard Online Catalog at
http://www.barnard.edu/catalog.pdf
A minimum of 12 Art History courses is required for the major including:
1. BC1001 and 1002 Introduction to Art History. This two-course sequence
is required.
2. BC3970 Methods and Theories of Art History. To be taken during the
junior or senior year.
3. BC3959 and BC3960 Senior Research Seminar. Either both semesters or
the second semester depending on which Senior Thesis Project option you
decide to do.
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4. Seven elective courses, with the following requirements:
- Two of these courses must be seminars. None of the seminars listed
above may count toward this requirement.
- At least one Western and one Nonwestern art history course. BC1001 and
1002 may not count toward this
requirement.
- Four of these must cover a broad range of disciplinary areas. Students
concentrating on Western art must have at
least one course each in four of the following five periods: Ancient,
Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern.
- Students concentrating on non-Western art must work out a similarly
comprehensive course of study in
consultation with their advisers. Lecture classes or seminars can be
used to fulfill this requirement. BC1001 and
1002 or any other broad survey cannot be used to fulfill this
requirement.
- Courses in film are accepted toward the major requirements; studio
courses are not.
Recommended: One or two studio courses should be taken by Art History
students. Students who plan to undertake graduate work should acquire a
reading knowledge of at least two foreign languages in which the major
contributions to the history of art have been made. Most graduate
schools require a reading knowledge of French, German, or Italian. The
department strongly recommends a student's taking one of these languages
while at Barnard.
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The minor in Art History consists of five lecture courses, including BC
1001, BC 1002, and three courses in the following areas, of which one
must be non-European:
European and American: Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and
Modern
Non-European: Chinese, Japanese, Indian, African, Mesoamerican, and
Native American
Requirements for the major in the History and Theory of Architecture
See Architecture Program offerings.
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Description: All art history majors write a
substantial research paper in their senior year. There are two options
for fulfilling this requirement: Seniors have the option of doing a
year-long thesis, or reworking and developing a seminar paper into a
thesis through a one-semester participation in the Senior Thesis
Seminar. The Senior Thesis Seminar would function for those interested
in working on a thesis over the course of a year, but those deciding for
the option of expanding a seminar paper would only join the course in
the second semester. The intent is to offer an alternative to those with
less interest in a major writing project.
Senior Thesis Options:
1. Students interested in participating in the year-long Senior Thesis
Seminar should write a brief (one-page) description of their thesis
topic and submit it to the appropriate adviser within the first two
weeks of the fall semester. The potential adviser will determine the
feasibility of the study in question and accept or decline to become the
student’s adviser. Such a thesis should ultimately be approximately
30-50 pages long.
2. Students interested in expanding and enhancing a seminar paper will
find a faculty adviser, preferably the professor with whom they wrote
the original paper, willing to help them in its transformation into a
thesis. They will then join the Senior Thesis in the spring semester of
their senior year. In this context they will have an opportunity to
present their ideas to the rest of the graduating class as well as
members of the faculty so as to receive comments and suggestions as to
how to develop their arguments. These created by these means should aim
to be approximately 30 pages long.
Grades: Two grades will be awarded in connection with your work on the
finished thesis. One will evaluate the way in which you have fulfilled
the requirements of the Senior Research Seminar. That is, your
participation and attendance in the Thesis Colloquium, the energy you
have put into the research, the effort you have made in producing an
original and challenging argument as well as a solidly constructed and
polished piece of prose. Since the course is yearlong, students will
receive a grade of Y (indicating year long course) for the fall semester
and will receive their grade at the end of the spring term for the year.
This grade will be assigned in the usual A through F spectrum. The other
grade will be awarded on the basis of the evaluation of the thesis
itself. This evaluation will consider whether or not the aims of the
project were met: was the research sufficient to warrant the
conclusions, is the argument of the thesis original as well as coherent
and convincing, was the writing adequate to the ideas that had to be
expressed? Very often the instructor will ask another member of the
faculty to comment on the paper as well. This grade will either be a
Pass with Distinction, a Pass or a Fail.
Note on Senior Thesis for Double and Combined Majors:
Please note the distinctions between the Double Major, the Double Major
with a Single Essay, and the Combined Major. In the Double Major
students will do all of the required course work for both majors and
write two different Senior Essays that fulfill the requirements of each
department. In the Double Major with Single Essay students do all of the
required course work for the two majors and write only one essay read by
an adviser in each major field. In the Combined Major students follow
the requirements for coursework for a combined major and write a single
senior essay also read by an adviser in each major field.
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A minimum of 12 courses is required for the major in Art History with
concentration in the Visual Arts, including:
1. Six Art History courses that include:
- BC 1001 and 1002, Introduction to the History of Art
- One course in 19th- or 20th-century art
- One seminar in Art History
2. Five studio courses including BC 3530 Advanced Studio
3. BC 3031 Imagery and Form in the Arts
4. A Senior Project, chosen in consultation with her professors and
lecturers, is to be completed by the end of the senior year in
preparation for the Senior Show.
Art History Senior Thesis Option for Visual Arts Concentrators:
Art History Majors concentrating in Visual Arts may elect to substitute
the Senior Thesis for the Senior Project. To do this they must:
1. Notify their adviser of their intention to do so by the end of their
junior year
2. Take both Methods and Theories of Art History (BC 3970) and the
Senior Research Seminar (BC 3959 and 3960)
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