Art History

Nine graduate and upper division courses (36 units) completed in graduate status are required for the M.A. degree. At least six of these courses (24 units) must be taken at the graduate level (200-series courses), including four graduate seminars. Students are required to complete Art History 200 with a grade of B+ or better. Art History 200 may be counted towards the total number of required graduate courses. All courses to be counted toward the M.A. degree requirements must be taken for a letter grade.

In addition, the nine required courses must satisfy the distribution requirement for the M.A. degree, including at least two courses from lists A and B below:

Courses to be taken should be determined in consultation with the student's adviser with the stipulation that progress toward the M.A. degree may not be impeded by requiring a course that is offered less than once every two years.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Field Experience

Not required.

Capstone Plan

None.

Thesis Plan

Every master's degree thesis plan requires the completion of an approved thesis that demonstrates the student's ability to perform original, independent research.

During the winter quarter of the second year, the Chair of the Graduate Review Committee/DGS appoints two readers from the departmental faculty in addition to the student's adviser to serve as the thesis committee. At least one of these appointees will have had no classroom experience with the student. For details on committee regulations, students should consult Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA, available on the Graduate Division website. Students and the major adviser must be in agreement on the members of the thesis committee.

By the end of the fall quarter of their second year, in consultation with their adviser, the student chooses a graduate seminar paper written for a class from the first year of coursework to expand and revise. Students then register for Art History 597 during winter quarter of the second year to work on their thesis under the supervision of a ladder faculty member who is usually the student's adviser. The thesis must be submitted to the department Student Affairs Officer by the first day of instruction in the spring quarter of the student’s second year. At this time, it is distributed to the three committee members. The thesis should deal succinctly with the topic in an independent, critical, and original fashion while taking fully into account the present state of research on the topic. The thesis must be clearly written, correctly documented, and illustrated, and must meet the minimum standards for formatting as set out by the Graduate Division Policies and Procedures for Thesis and Dissertation Preparation and Filing. The thesis should be approximately 30 pages in length and must be researched and written in consultation with the major adviser. By the fourth week of the spring quarter, members of the thesis committee each provide written evaluation of the student’s thesis to the Graduate Review Committee. There are four possible outcomes:

Time-to-Degree

Completion of the requirements for the master's degree is designed to determine whether students may continue in the doctoral program. Students are expected to complete the requirements for the M.A. degree within six quarters of full-time study. Students who do not complete the degree requirements within this time frame will be recommended to the Graduate Division for academic disqualification unless, by petition, the Graduate Review Committee grants an extension of time due to grave and unusual mitigating circumstances.

MAXIMUM TTD

Advising

At the time of application to the Ph.D. program, students select a major field of study within art history. By the end of the second quarter of residence, students select a minor field, which may be outside the department (e.g. Architecture, History, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, Archeology). These fields are registered on a form secured from and submitted to the department Student Affairs Officer, and must be signed by the department Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). The faculty member responsible for the chosen minor field serves as the minor adviser, with their consent. Each adviser is responsible for the student's course of study and academic progress within their field. In addition, students are expected to consult their major adviser about the overall course of study and academic progress at least once each quarter, and the major adviser must approve and sign the program card. A change of adviser(s), and of either the major and/or minor field, must be approved by the Graduate Review Committee. Each spring quarter, the entire faculty reviews the status of each student to ensure appropriate time-to-degree progress. Following this review, every student receives a formal written letter with the faculty evaluation.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

There are 14 fields of study: African; American; Chinese; European; Greek and Roman; Indian, South, and Southeast Asian; Islamic; Japanese; Korean; Latin American; European Middle Ages and Byzantine; Modern and Contemporary; Ancient Americas/pre-Columbian; Renaissance and Baroque.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students are normally required to demonstrate, no later than the time of the University Oral Qualifying Examination, reading fluency in one or more foreign languages in addition to those required for admission. The language requirement differs by field and area. The applicability of this requirement, the language(s) required, and the exact means of satisfying the requirement are determined in consultation with the major adviser.

Course Requirements

A total of eight graduate and upper division courses are required (32 units) for the Ph.D., of which at least four must be art history courses at the graduate level (200-series courses and/or 500-series courses). Five of the eight courses must be taken in the major field; three of the eight courses must be taken in the minor field. If a student has not completed Art History 200 or its equivalent, it must be added to the total requirements, and completed with a grade of B+ or better. In some cases, Art History 201 may also be required if recommended by the faculty adviser.

Of the nine courses (36 units) completed for the M.A. at UCLA, students may use a maximum of two of these (8 units) to count towards Ph.D. coursework. Students may apply courses taken in excess of M.A. requirements at UCLA towards fulfilling Ph.D. course requirements. (This does not apply to students who received their MA from other institutions/departments.)

All courses to be counted toward the Ph.D. degree requirements must be taken for a letter grade.

Teaching Experience

Not required.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Doctoral Written Qualifying Examinations in Major and Minor Fields of Study

After completion of course work and language study, students must take the Ph.D. written qualifying examinations in the major and minor fields of study, designed and evaluated by the major and minor advisers, to test breadth and depth of knowledge in those fields. If the examination is failed, or any part thereof, that portion may be repeated during the subsequent quarter of residence. No further repetition is allowed.

The written comprehensive examinations may be taken during any two-week period in any normal academic term (fall, winter, spring). Typically, students take these exams during the winter quarter of the second year in residence, or fifth quarter, in the PhD program.

The department offers two formats for the major and minor written exams, the details of which must be worked out in advance between the student and the examiner. Format A: Take-home. 2-3 essay questions to be completed in one week (for the minor exam, 1-2 questions to be completed in three days). Format B: Sit-down. 2-3 essay questions to be completed in six hours (for the minor exam, 1-2 questions to be completed in three hours). Many faculty incorporate designing of a syllabus as an exam question and the formats above do not preclude this possibility. Such an assignment would count as one question/essay. The specific format and dates for the major and minor exams must be submitted to the Student Affairs Officer at least three weeks in advance using the appropriate departmental form.

Dissertation Prospectus

After passing the written qualifying examination, the student proposes a dissertation topic and nominates the members of their doctoral committee to Graduate Division in consultation with their adviser. This committee minimally consists of the major adviser, now serving as committee chair; two additional members of the art history faculty (normally, but not necessarily, including the student’s minor adviser); and one member from another UCLA department.

After the doctoral committee has been officially approved by Graduate Division, and after having conducted considerable exploratory research and preparation for their dissertation, the student submits to each member of the doctoral committee a dissertation prospectus. The prospectus should not be distributed to the full committee without the approval of the student’s committee chair. The dissertation prospectus should not exceed 20 pages, and should include a statement of purpose regarding the art historical topic/problem being addressed (what is at stake in the study), tentative chapter outlines, working bibliography, research plan, methodological strategies, and preliminary schedule for completion.

Students should submit the prospectus to committee members 2-3 weeks before the oral examination date to allow sufficient time for the prospectus to be reviewed. If any member of the Doctoral Committee finds the prospectus inadequate, they must notify the committee chair at least one week prior to the oral examination date. In some cases, the prospectus must be revised and/or the examination date postponed.

University Oral Qualifying Examination

After submitting a dissertation prospectus, the student then takes the University Oral Qualifying Examination, given by the doctoral committee. At the end of the examination, each committee member reports the examination as “passed” or “not passed.” A student may not pass and may not be advanced to candidacy if more than one member votes “not passed” regardless of the size of the committee, or if the major adviser so votes. Upon majority vote of the committee, the oral qualifying examination may be repeated once.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student's ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

MAXIMUM TTD

Termination of Graduate Study and Appeal of Termination

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for termination of graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing termination of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

If the department determines that a student is not making adequate degree progress—i.e., the student does not maintain minimum university GPA standard, does not receive minimum grades for courses, is carrying more than one Incomplete, and/or fails to meet normative time-to-degree expectations, they will be put on academic probation in the department. If put on academic probation, the student will receive an academic plan from the Director of Graduate Studies and must follow through on the approved plan to demonstrate their capacity to successfully continue in the program. If a student fails to successfully adhere to their academic plan, the department will recommend the student to Graduate Division for academic disqualification.

Students may also be recommended for academic disqualification from the doctoral program if they receive a Terminal Master’s Pass or Fail on the Master’s Thesis.

Appeals of recommendation for academic disqualification are submitted to the Director of Graduate Studies for referral to the Graduate Review Committee.

The Ph.D. written qualifying examination may be repeated once. If failed the second time, the student is recommended for academic disqualification.

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