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Requirements
for the Barnard Art History Major/Minor
Art
History Major
Art History Minor
Senior Thesis
Art History with Visual
Arts Concentration
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
ART HISTORY MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
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.
I
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.
SENIOR
THESIS
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.One of
the implications of these changes will be that those choosing the
seminar paper option will be asked to do one more seminar than our
major currently calls for.
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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Art History
Minor
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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Art History
Major with Visual Arts Concentration
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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