University of Chicago

For more than a century, art historians at the University of Chicago have made transformative interventions in the discipline. While the Department of Art History at UChicago was a pioneer in the development of important theoretical methods in the 1990s, early art historical scholarship here flourished in tandem with the Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture’s foundational work in archaeology and the Midway Studios’ leadership in arts education.

Interdisciplinary commitments—a hallmark of the University of Chicago—are manifest in faculty’s co-teaching, cross-appointments, and involvements in other departments, centers, and initiatives across campus, in the multiple workshops faculty and students in art history sponsor and participate in, and in the coursework students are encouraged to pursue beyond art history.

The Department of Art History's interdisciplinary minor in Architectural Studies equips students to analyze the form and changing history of the built environment through a combination of history/theory and studio classes parented in Architectural Studies and related courses offered in adjacent fields. This is the only university program that focuses on designing and analyzing buildings as material, three-dimensional, culturally meaningful environments.