I. ADMISSION
A. Guidelines for Students with Previous Training in Art History
In order to be admitted to the graduate program in art history, applicants must meet the general admission requirement of the university as outlined in the official Wayne State University Graduate Bulletin ( In addition, they are ordinarily expected to have an undergraduate degree in art history (eight courses beyond the basic survey sequence), achieved at least a 3.0 overall and a minimum 3.2 grade point average in undergraduate art history. Applicants with an undergraduate degree in art history who have not covered all of the basic areas will be asked to take courses in those areas outside of the degree requirements. Applicants who do not have an undergraduate degree in art history must have taken a minimum of two survey courses in the field as well as one course in each of the following areas: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance/Baroque, and Modern. In addition all candidates must have completed at least two years (four courses) of collegelevel study (or the equivalent) in one foreign language. German or French are required; the applicant must have earned at least the grade of B in these courses.
Applicants whose overall grade point average is between 2.25 and 3.0 may take the Graduate Record Examination and will be considered for admission if their performance on the examination warrants it. While GRE scores are not required for applicants with a grade point average of 3.0 overall and at least 3.2 in undergraduate art history, students wishing to apply at any point in the course of their subsequent studies for a graduate assistantship, GraduateProfessional Scholarship, or a Rumble Fellowship, must have their GRE scores reported to the appropriate representative at that time.
A. Application Procedure
A completed Application for Graduate Admission form ( the graduate application fee, and an official transcript from each college or university attended are required by the GraduateSchool before any student can be considered for admission to graduate study. The program in art history further requires that applicants submit separately - directly to the department's graduate officer – a departmental application form, a sample research paper (preferably on a topic in art history), and a statement of purpose, approximately two pages in length, including something about their interest in and exposure to art history and major works and monuments and the career goals they wish to pursue. Applicants must also arrange at that time for the separate submission of three letters of recommendation, preferably from previous art history instructors (for individuals who have been out of school for the last 10 years, letters from other professionals who are in a position to assess the applicant's potential for graduate work may be substituted). The three referees must send these letters directly to the department graduate officer.
Applicants wishing to be admitted for study beginning in the fall semester must arrange for the submission of all relevant material by February 1; for admission to study beginning in the winter semester the application procedure must be completed by October 1.
All potential applicants are encouraged to visit the campus to discuss the program and their career goals with the graduate advisor in art history. Candidates are also advised to consult the GraduateSchool website ( for information about funding opportunities. These opportunities are few for incoming students and highly competitive among continuing students; however, applicants are encouraged to make themselves aware of the available resources.
B. Guidelines for Students without Adequate Previous Training in Art History
Applicants to the graduate program in art history who have had little undergraduate training in the field but whose academic record indicates that they can successfully take up graduate work may be asked to satisfy the basic requirements in the following way: they may be asked to take one or both of the introductory survey courses (AH1110 and AH1120) and advanced courses in specified deficient areas as the faculty feels appropriate. These courses are to be taken at the postbachelor level and will not satisfy any credit or distribution requirements of the degree. For continuance in the program, the minimum satisfactory grade in these postbachelor courses is B.
Students without the required twoyear college training in French or German who have studied one of these languages independently, may satisfy the foreign language requirement by taking a language examination in either German or French a translation of an art historical text selected by the program - or by completing the full two years of study in French or German. Scheduling of the language examination must be arranged with the graduate advisor. Students who do not have sufficient training in a foreign language may be admitted to the program if they can demonstrate that the foreign language deficiency will be corrected no later than the end of the first semester of graduate study.
Once students without adequate previous training in art history and/or a foreign language have satisfied the above requirements, they may apply for admission to the graduate program in art history, following the regular admission procedure.
II. DEGREE REQUIREMENTS
For the credit totals and course distribution requirements, see the university’s Graduate Bulletin. M.A. candidates may choose either of two plans to complete the requirements:
A. Plan A: Course Work and Thesis
Thirty-two credits. A total of twenty-four credits (or eight courses) must be earned in art history course work. The thesis earns the additional eight credits. Within the course work, eighteen credits (or six courses) must be on the 5000 and 6000level; six credits (or two courses) must be a 7000level seminar. All students must take AH 5090 (Art Historical Methods and Theory). No cognate credits or graduate credits earned at other institutions can be counted toward the twenty four credit requirement in art history. A special form is required by the Graduate Office justifying the designation "thesis". Students wishing to opt for Plan A should obtain this form early so that they understand what the university's definition of "thesis" entails (see also III A, below).
B. Plan B: Course Work and Essay
Thirty-three credits. A total of thirty graduate credits in art history must be earned in course work; six of these credits may be taken in cognate areas. The essay earns the additional three credits. Within the course work, twenty-four credits (or eight courses) must be on the 5000 or 6000level; six credits (or two courses) must be a 7000level seminar. All students must take AH 5090 (Art Historical Methods and Theory) during their first years of study unless they have taken previously an equivalent course. Upon special approval of the graduate committee a maximum of nine graduate credits (or three courses) may be transferred from other institutions. No more than six graduate credits (or two courses) in art history may be transferred.
C. Course Restrictions
1. Directed study courses (AH5900 and AH7790) require the approval of the respective instructor prior to registration. It is the department's policy that such courses are reserved for students who have already taken 5000 and 7000level courses in the field involved. They are not to be used as substitutes for basic courses or as substitutes for seminars. The department permits no more than two directed study courses at the M.A. level.
2. All seminars require the approval of the instructor prior to registration. Seminars normally carry a maximum of three credit hours. Seminars with the same course number can be retaken, provided the topic of each seminar is a different one.
D. Plan of Work and Declaration of Candidacy
Entering students are expected to broaden their art historical background by taking lecture courses in areas not previously studied. The first 12 hours of course work must be either in four different areas or three different areas plus Theory and Methods (AH5090). They may then concentrate in one of the following fields: Classical, Medieval, Renaissance/Baroque, or Modern (19th and 20th centuries). Since exceptions to the course distribution can be granted only under unusual circumstances, students are required to meet with the Graduate Advisor prior to each registration period to have their program approved. Students who fail to meet with the Graduate Advisor will be subject to probation.
Candidacy must be established by the time twelve credit hours (or four courses) are completed. Already in the second semester of study, however, a Plan of Work leading to the M.A. degree must be prepared in consultation with the Graduate Advisor. This plan of work must be made out in quadruplicate. One copy is retained by the student; one copy is kept on file in the office of the departmental graduate officer; the remaining copies are forwarded to the university's Graduate Office. Students may obtain the proper forms from the Art and Art History Office, 150 Art Building.
E. Slide Examination
Students admitted to the graduate program in art history are required to pass a comprehensive slide examination. Since the examination covers all the major art historical periods from ancient to modern times, in roughly even distribution it is to the student's advantage to complete the required area distribution of courses at the beginning of their graduate work. Two slide examinations are scheduled annually: normally at the beginning of the fall semester and at the beginning of the winter semester. Check with the graduate advisor for specific dates. The slide examination may be retaken only once; careful preparation is, therefore, necessary. Detailed guidelines on the slide examination, including grading policy, are available from the departmental office and website ( .
F. Academic Progress Policies
Time limit: Students will choose either a part-time or full-time schedule leading to either the thesis or the essay to complete the degree. With the thesis, the full-time schedule requires the completion of all work in two years, the part-time in five years. With the essay, the full-time schedule requires the completion of all work in three years, the part-time in six years. Each graduate student is required report to the Graduate Advisor in art history her choice of thesis or essay and full- or part-time schedule before the first week of classes of the term she first enrolls as a graduate student.
Grade requirements: All courses applied to the degree need a grade of not less than B.
Probation: A student will be placed on academic probation upon earning a grade of B- or less in any course. Removal from probation in this case will require raising the average to B in the immediately following term. A subsequent grade of B- or less will, at the discretion of the art history faculty, be grounds for dismissal from the program. Additionally, a student must complete at minimum of one course in each academic term until completion of course work, or she will be placed on probation. Removal from probation in this case will require completing two courses in the immediately following term.
Leave of Absence: A student may request a leave of absence from the program should circumstances make continued progress towards the degree impossible. Requests must be made in writing to the Graduate Advisor and must stipulate the amount of time requested. No more than two consecutive semesters of leave will be granted at any one time, and no more than two leaves of absence will be granted during the entire course of study.
Dismissal: Dismissal from the program will result from the failure to rectify the academic probation. Dismissal will also result with the accumulation of three courses on the academic record with grades of B- or less.
III. MASTER'S THESIS OR ESSAY GUIDELINES
A. Definition of Essay and Thesis
The primary distinction between the essay and the thesis is scholarly originality. The essay may be a synthesis of material that has already been published on a work of art, a period of an artist's career, a collection, or an iconographic question, etc., while the thesis must be based on an original idea or on material that has not yet been treated in the manner proposed.
The exact definition of the essay or thesis is to be arrived at in consultation with the individual faculty advisor, keeping in mind that a special form is required by the Graduate Office justifying the designation "thesis". The topic may develop out of a research paper or a seminar report, but the candidate embarking on the essay or thesis should have had at least one course with the instructor supervising the final paper.
The length and structure of the essay or thesis will depend on the type of material involved. Candidates should keep in mind, however, that the three credits earned for the essay as opposed to the eight credits for the thesis is a matter of academic convenience and unrelated to the substance of the project. In other words, the essay should not be looked upon as just another term paper, but as the candidate's culminating written work that is more substantive than any previous paper and demonstrates what the M.A. degree signifies: "mastery" of the methodology of the field, including the use of foreign language sources.
Both the essay and thesis must include the normal scholarly apparatus of footnotes, bibliography, list of illustrations, and plates. The basic formal requirements are outlined below.
B. Prerequisites
All course requirements, including passing of the comprehensive slide examination, must be completed before the essay or thesis is prepared. It may be advantageous, of course, to begin research on a possible topic well before the final course requirements are met, particularly in cases where seminar reports seem to be promising topics. Students should feel free to consult with individual faculty members about such possibilities at an early stage and be sure to allow ample time to do the necessary bibliographical research before trying to define a topic specifically.
C. Proposal
The student must select a thesis or essay topic in consultation with a faculty member who will be the major advisor and reader of the paper. After general agreement concerning the scope and organization of the paper has been reached, the student is to write a formal proposal of four to six pages, which should include: (1) a clear statement of the topic and its significance; (2) a working outline; (3) a preliminary working bibliography (i.e., an extensive list of all the sources the student has been able to find that may be relevant to the topic - including sources that must be requested through Interlibrary Loan, or require travel in order to use); (4) in the case of topics concerning artists or monuments that have already been subject to a great deal of scholarly work, particular care should be taken to investigate the literature thoroughly (including foreign language sources) before submitting the proposal. It is, in any case, advisable to discuss a first draft of the proposal with the individual faculty advisor. The student and faculty advisor will then decide on another faculty member who will be asked to co-approve the proposal and serve as a second reader for the completed essay or thesis. The proposal must be submitted to the graduate advisor for inclusion in the candidate's dossier.
D. Research and Writing
After the proposal has been accepted, the student should meet with the faculty advisor to work out a practical schedule of work for completing the essay or thesis. It is suggested that even in the process of defining the topic the student should consider the availability of research materials. It can take as much as six months for essential material to come in through Interlibrary Loan. Experience has shown that the time needed for basic research and the tracking down of illustrations is usually more than anticipated.
The university has established deadlines for the submission of the final draft of an essay or thesis to the faculty advisor. This is generally six weeks prior to the deadline given by the Graduate Office for final submission of the essay or thesis. It is the student's responsibility to consult with the faculty advisor on the dates of these deadlines. Students must also keep the faculty advisor informed on the progress of the essay or thesis, to arrange for consultations, and to turn in sections or chapters of the draft well in advance of the date on which they wish to discuss them.
Once the topic has been determined, the first step in research is the development of a working bibliography through a wideranging search for all sources that are likely to contain relevant material. It is most important at this stage to consult a wide range of indexing sources, library catalogues and electronic databases among them. In addition to the working bibliography, a careful record of the works of art that may be discussed in the essay or thesis must be kept; it should include not only the physical data and locations of the works, but also notes on sources of good reproductions.
Writing is a highly individual process, and it is not the intention of these instructions to set up rigid guidelines for either style or content. Questions of format should be worked out with the faculty advisor. Some general guidelines may be helpful, however. It is recommended that the student follow as nearly as possible the model of a reputable scholarly journal, e.g., Art Bulletin, Gesta, etc. For footnotes and bibliography, the forms in any approved style manual are recommended (The MLA Style Sheet; C. Turabian, A Manual for Writers; Strunk & White, Elements of Style; The Chicago Style Manual, etc.).