北卡羅來納大學教堂山分校

The undergraduate program in art history is directed toward two main educational goals:

• To provide students with an excellent liberal arts foundation through an understanding of the historical and global significance, cultural diversity, and intellectual richness of human artistic traditions from prehistoric times to the present; and
• To provide these students with the intellectual tools needed to investigate the complex roles played by the arts in a variety of social contexts.

Skills in visual analysis, historical research, critical reading, analytical and descriptive writing, and oral communication are developed throughout the course of the study. The practice of art history is interdisciplinary, dynamically engaged with many fields in the humanities and social sciences, as well as with the University’s diverse area studies programs and the Auckland Art Museum. The art history major equips students with skills, knowledge, and values to negotiate rapidly changing, richly diverse, and increasingly interconnected local, national, and worldwide communities.

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the art history program, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the works of art, artists, viewers, and patrons in a variety of cultures and societies; and the visual arts in the context of the past and present societies that produced them
• Recognize that visual forms and symbols are historically and culturally contingent, and that interpretation requires a knowledge of the visual language specific to the work of art, as a result of studying the arts in a variety of cultures and historical moments
• Pose an art historical question, pursue that question through research in original and secondary sources, evaluate evidence, and create an argument in response to that evidence
• Demonstrate deep content area knowledge by explaining and discussing intelligently major issues related to that field

Honors in Art History

The honors program is open to students with a 3.3 grade point average who have demonstrated overall excellence in the discipline. Honors are generally pursued in the senior year. Students enroll in the honors courses (ARTH 691H in the fall; ARTH 692H in the spring) through the student services assistant in the Department of Art office. This should be done after consultation with the faculty honors advisor and department honors advisor. For more information, see the honors program description elsewhere in this catalog and the departmental honors announcement. Honors work will allow a student to graduate with honors or with highest honors