Welcome to the History of Art Department at UC Berkeley. The department is among the smallest of the top dozen art history programs in the country with roughly 16 faculty members, about 50 graduate students, and 100 or so undergraduate majors. Over the last 30 years, the National Research Council (NRC) has consistently ranked UC Berkeley's program among the top three. The department’s traditional strengths are in European and Asian Art, but in the past five years, we have expanded our coverage of the art of the Americas to include Pre-Columbian and Latin American as well as the full range of modern and contemporary American art.
The department’s offices are located in Doe Library on the Berkeley campus on the fourth floor of the finest humanities research library on the West Coast. We are situated in close proximity to both the department’s Visual Resources Center, which curates a substantial and growing body of digital images, and to the Art History/Classics Library. Many of the History of Art graduate seminars are held in the Jean Bony Seminar Room of this noncirculating library. Some further examples of the Berkeley program’s special resources are the annual Judith K. Stronach Travel Seminar, the annual Mary C. Stoddard Lecture in the History of Art, and the Curatorial Preparedness Initiative (funded over six years from the Mellon Foundation for a total of $1,250,000).
The Visual Resources Center (VRC) supports the History of Art department in the areas of digital teaching, image research, and audiovisual support. The VRC builds and maintains a collection of images for instructional and research purposes. The collection encompasses images of art and architecture of the world, ranging from prehistory to contemporary art. The VRC adds approximately 5,000 images per year to the collection, based largely on faculty requests. The facility is located in 307 Doe Library, situated within the Art History/Classics Library on the third floor of Doe Library. For further information, see the History of Art Department website.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2020
An introduction to the fundamentals of art history, including traditional and innovative perspectives designed for candidates for higher degrees. Offerings vary from year to year. Students should consult the department's "Announcement of Classes" for offerings before the beginning of the semester. Graduate Proseminar in the Interpretation of Art Historical Materials: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2014, Spring 2012
This seminar looks at both material culture theory and the practice of interpreting objects in the West and in Asia. It draws on the practices and inquiries of multiple disciplines including archaeology, anthropology, cultural geography, and art history . We will consider the variety of ways and contexts in which objects have been understood to "speak" as aesthetic vehicles and as cultural texts. Taught by two faculty members who have extensive experience as museum curators--one of American Art, the other of Asian Art, this class will combine theory with hands-on learning. Seminar in Material Culture: The Interpretation of Objects: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2015, Spring 2012
This seminar is intended to introduce graduate students--both archaeologists and non-archaeologists--to the discipline of classical archaeology, history, and evolution, and its research tools and bibliography. Since it is both impossible and undesirable to attempt to cover the entire discipline in one semester, after two introductory lectures on the history of the field, we will address a selection of topics that seems representative of its concerns. Proseminar in Classical Archaeology and Ancient Art: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Working knowledge of Latin, Greek, and German or French or Italian
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2012
Seminar on critical aspects of Middle Eastern art requiring intensive study and presentation of a research paper. Topics vary from semester to semester. Seminar in Middle Eastern Art: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: History of Art/Graduate
Grading: Letter grade.
Formerly known as: Near Eastern Studies C220/History of Art C220
Terms offered: Spring 2014
Mimesis, Greek for "imitation" is a key term in recent debates in a number of disciplines. However, what is at its core is often astonishingly undefined, open and ambivalent. Starting with antique and medieval works addressing key moments of mimesis we will also explore modern theories of mimesis. Crossing the threshold between pre-modern and modern examples will help us to understand the premises for the visual culture involving the rise of naturalism, and more generally the nature of representation in medieval and early modern culture. Seminar in European Art: Mimesis: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
This seminar focuses on artworks made by migrating peoples chronicling their journeys (Hmong storycloths, Aztec codices), and artworks made by others who made migration a major theme (Dorothea Lange photographer of dustbowl migrants to California, Jacob Lawrence chronicler of the migration north of African Americans). Also, we focus on the arts of traditional communities that base their artifact production on longstanding, ecologically localized and distinctive practices. Issues include nostalgia, memory, trauma; cultural heritage the selection of what is to be seen, remembered, recoiled from, embraced, what is to be taught to future generations/outsiders concerning fear, courage, pride, self-definitions, accusations, and authenticity. The Arts of Migration, Vernacular Arts: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3-3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022
Topics explore themes and problems, often reflect current research interests of the instructor, and supplement regular curricular offerings. Detailed descriptions of current and future offerings available in 416 Doe Library. Special Topics in Fields of Art History: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: History of Art/Graduate
Grading: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2019, Spring 2017
This course explores site-specific themes, topics, and problems, reflects current research interests of the instructor(s), and suppplements regular curricular offerings. Detailed descriptions of current and (where known) future offerings available in 416 Doe Library. Judith Stronach Graduate Travel Seminar in Art History: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of seminar per week
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
Independent study open to qualified students directly engaged upon the doctoral dissertation. Directed Dissertation Research: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 1-5 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1-4 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: History of Art/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020
Directed group discussion for graduate students, focused on selected books, articles, problems, primary sources, and/or works of art. Usually but not necessarily offered as preparation for a travel seminar or other supervised fieldwork. Group Study for Graduate Students in the History of Art: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor, and possibly courses in the history of art
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-4 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: History of Art/Graduate
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022
Weekly meetings with the instructor to discuss the methods and aims of the course, to plan the content and presentation of the material for the discussion sections, and to set standards and criteria for grading and commenting upon papers and exams. In addition, after visiting sections early in the semester, the instructor will discuss with each GSI individually his or her performance and make any necessary recommendations for improvement. Supervised Teaching of History of Art: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing and concurrent appointment as a graduate student instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0-0 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: History of Art/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2021, Fall 2020
This pedagogical seminar introduces graduate students to methods and theories of teaching history of art. The course has two primary goals: (1) to train new graduate student instructors to assist in teaching History of Art classes at UCB; and (2) to introduce students to techniques of designing and teaching their own classes. The seminar may be taken concurrently with the first teaching assignment or in the semester before beginning teaching. Seminar in History of Art Teaching: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Graduate standing and consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: History of Art/Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Fall 2021
Individual study, in consultation with the graduate adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D. degree. Individual Study for Doctoral Students in the History of Art: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: For candidates for doctoral degree
Credit Restrictions: Course does not satisfy unit or residence requirements for doctoral degree.
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: History of Art/Graduate examination preparation
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
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