Art History
The Ph.D. Program in Art History at the CUNY Graduate Center is dedicated to the development of scholars, teachers, museum curators, art critics, and other arts professionals.
Request InformationDegree Offered
Ph.D. in Art History
Full-time
Admissions Deadlines
January 1 for fall enrollment
(No spring enrollment)
Founded in 1971, the Ph.D. Program in Art History at CUNY Graduate Center is one of the foremost programs of its kind in the United States. Dedicated to the development of scholars, teachers, museum curators, art critics, and other arts professionals, our program provides students with a general background in the history of art to prepare them to serve their discipline and their communities in all areas of cultural endeavor.
In Fall 2019, we were awarded a $650,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund New Initiatives in Curatorial Training, a five-year project in the Ph.D. Program in Art History that aims to enhance the diversity of curatorial training at the Graduate Center and ensure the sustainability of the initiative beyond the end of Mellon funding.
We are proud to have produced a robust network of alumni, many of whom hold senior positions at esteemed universities, museums, and cultural institutions across the country and abroad. For more information about our program, its faculty and students, as well as our alumni, please follow the links below.
Art History Announcements
More Like ThisNaiomy Guerrero accepted to a Museum Professionals Program at the Studio Museum
A round of applause goes to Naiomy Guerrero who was accepted to the Winter 2023 Museum Professionals Seminar at The Studio Museum in Harlem. The seminar is comprised of a series of workshops designed for emerging museum professionals to "incubate and ideate" their ideas. Congrats to Naiomy!
- Congratulations/Kudos
Congrats to Tie Jojima for making the New York Times Best Art Books of 2022!
Ph.D. candidate Tie Jojima co-curated (with Rachel Remick and Aimé Iglesias Lukin) an exhibition of Mexican sculptor, Geles Cabrera. Geles Cabrera: Museo Escultórico was on view at the Americas Society this summer. An accompanying book of the same title was co-edited by Jojima. She authored an essay on the interrelation between dance, affect, and Mexico city in Cabrera’s sculptural practice and wrote the artist’s chronology. The New York Times has just recognized this book as one of the Best Art Books of 2022!
- Congratulations/Kudos
Mona Hadler's new book reviewed in Women's Art Journal
Congrats to Professor Mona Hadler who co-edited, Pop Art and Beyond: Gender, Race, and Class in the Global Sixties with Kalliopi Minioudaki (Bloomsbury, 2022). Woman's Art Journal touted it as a "marvelous snapshot of the global sixties." See the review here.
- Congratulations/Kudos
Most recent issue of October has article by Alum Arnaud Gerspacher
Kudos to alum Arnaud Gerspacher (Ph.D. 2017), who has a new article out in the journal October. In Zoonotic Undemocracy (2022:181, 61-92), Gerspacher "argues for the urgency of re-thinking politics from a posthumanist perspective, one that considers the impact of environmental harm caused by the uses of nonhuman animals." He examines a film by Wilson Coutinho and the work of conceptual artist Cildo Meireles, the subject of Coutinho's film. Already in the 1970s, they addressed environmental issues - global warming, biodiversity loss, racist food politics, and zoonotic illnesses. Gerspacher analyzes the role of nonhuman animals in the context of environmental politics in Brazil, and beyond.
- Congratulations/Kudos
Our Program
Our doctoral program provides students with a general background in the history of art to prepare them to serve their discipline and their communities in all areas of cultural endeavor. Courses given at the Graduate Center cover the broad spectrum of the history of art; courses given at the senior colleges in their master’s degree programs are also open to doctoral students, as are courses given at universities within the Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium.
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Faculty
The doctoral faculty consists of professors drawn from the Graduate Center and from the CUNY senior colleges. Courses given at the Graduate Center cover the broad spectrum of the history of art; courses given at the senior colleges in their master’s degree programs are also open to doctoral students, as are courses given at universities within the Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium.
View our faculty
Student Highlights
Find out more about our current doctoral students, their research interests, academic accomplishments, and professional careers. We work closely with our students to assist them with professional placement upon graduation. Many of our graduates hold prominent positions at cultural and educational institutions in the U.S. and abroad.
Read about our studentsProgram News
Jan 12, 2023
Catch These Shows Before They Close
Museum and gallery exhibitions across New York showcase the work of Graduate Center scholars.
- GC Stories
- Faculty News
Jan 11, 2023
With Met Museum Show, Professor Emily Braun Reveals a New Side of Cubism
A radical idea that grew out of a Graduate Center seminar led to a critically acclaimed exhibition.
- Faculty News
- GC Stories
Jan 9, 2023
The Art of the Ukraine War
An exhibition of Ukrainian contemporary art in the Graduate Center’s James Gallery spotlights the human and cultural stakes of the war in Ukraine.
- GC Stories
- Alumni News
Jan 3, 2023
Student’s Work Receives a Nod From ‘The New York Times’
Art History Ph.D. candidate Tie Jojima contributed to two works about Latin American artists on the Times’ Best Art Books of 2022 list.
- GC Stories
- Alumni News
Program Events
Student Handbook
Review our student handbook for our policies and procedures, resources, and other important information.
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