Here at UMass Amherst, you'll be part of a program enrolling an average of 15-20 students, ensuring close collaboration between students and our nine full-time faculty members. This dynamic and comprehensive program develops expertise across a broad range of geographic areas and time periods including ancient Greek and Roman art, Medieval art, East Asian art, Early Modern, 19th century European and Orientalist art, Black diaspora, American and Latinx art, Modern Architecture, and Modern and Contemporary art. It is one of only a handful of M.A. programs that require that students pass a Comprehensive Image Exam in all of these fields, while also allowing the opportunity to develop expertise in a two major and minor areas chosen by the student through in-depth research papers and an Essay Exam.Our faculty\u2019s active research is reflected in a range of great courses highlighting art history's diversity of methodological approaches, geographic areas, and thematic issues.Through your work, you'll be well-prepared for doctoral study, and you'll get professional training for many careers \u2014 museum and historical society work, government programs in the arts, the art market, journalism, teaching at all levels, and so much more.Our recent graduates have been accepted into doctoral programs at Princeton, University of California, Berkeley, Columbia, The Courtauld Institute of Art, John Hopkins, the Graduate Center at CUNY, and Boston University, among others. Graduates also have continued to full-time careers in the museum world and art market at places like the Clark Art Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Bonhams, and Skinner Auctioneers\u2014the list goes on.The program financially supports graduate students through teaching assistantships and fellowship awards. Teaching positions provide students with comprehensive financial support including a stipend, 95 percentage of health insurance costs, and full tuition credit. The Graduate Diversity Fellowship was created to support one student per graduate cohort from a community historically underrepresented in art history, in the form of a full GAship plus 5000 summer funding in addition to the standard Professional Development funding offered to every graduate student (normally 4000 per student after their first year in the program). For students who do not receive teaching assistantships, department fellowships may be awarded to help with the cost of tuition.
