Emphasizing critical thinking and writing, HTCA challenges students to forge historically situated, individually motivated analyses of art and culture.
Students engage a variety of analytic models through a curriculum addressing questions such as the influence of media and notions of reproducibility; the role of the artist as social researcher, interventionist, or activist; the influence of globalization; questions of authorship and appropriation; the legacy and currency of feminism and gender studies; and the lineage of modernism and postmodernism.
The field is open to students’ interests and inquiry, and students are pushed to anticipate what questions future art historical scholarship will need to pose.
Students may also pursue the MA in HTCA through our Dual Degree MA/MFA.
Recent MA Thesis Projects
Le Mot Peint: Dada Vandals of French Nationhood
The Enigma of the Sphinx: Kara Walker’s A Subtlety
Kaufman Hasn’t Left the Building: Epic Performance and Virality
Queering the Dream: Immigrant Activism and Defending the Right to Dream Differently
Skull Fucked: Power and Masculinity in Skateboard Graphic Design
Dirty Pretty Things: Confronting the Pleasures and Pitfalls of Excess in Fashion and Environmental Sustainability
In or Out, but Always Chilango. An Analysis of Mexico City’s Contemporary Art Scene through the Life and Work of Dr. Lakra and Gabriel Orozco
Forms of Reality: Perceptual and Spiritual Dimensions of John McCracken’s Sculpture
Paris Petrified and the Kiss of Displaced Things; or, The Lamp and the Mirror
Facing the Effaced Photographs: Indelible Ignorance on Illicit Subjects of History
Honey under the Tongue: Performing Intimacy in the Relationship between Artists and Audiences
Sweetness Is a Simple Citizen: Lê Huy Hoàng’s Installation Works as an Example of Vietnamese Hybrid Art
Curriculum
With only 6 units now required per semester in the second and final year (36 units total), students can take advantage of boundless opportunities to deepen their individual practice and create networks in the broader art world. MA scholars work alongside and in collaboration with artists in SFAI’s renowned MFA program.
THE PROGRAM’S NEW STRUCTURE IS COST EFFECTIVE AND ENABLES STUDENTS TO:
+ Focus on thesis research and writing
+ Seek outside employment or internships in the vibrant Bay Area arts community
+ Pursue independent scholarly or curatorial projects
TOTAL: 36 UNITS
Title | Units |
---|---|
Methods and Theories of Art History | 3 |
Global Perspectives of Modernity | 3 |
Art History, Critical Studies, or EMS Seminar Elective (2 courses) | 6 |
Graduate Lecture Series | 0 |
Title | Units |
---|---|
Research and Writing Colloquium | 3 |
Art History, Critical Studies, or EMS Seminar Elective | 6 |
Elective | 3 |
Graduate Lecture Series | 0 |
Title | Units |
---|---|
Thesis | 3 |
Collaborative Project | 3 |
MA Intermediate Review | 0 |
Graduate Lecture Series | 0 |
Title | Units |
---|---|
Thesis | 3 |
Art History, Critical Studies, or EMS Seminar Elective | 3 |
Graduate Lecture Series | 0 |
MA Final Review | 0 |
MA Thesis Symposium | 0 |
Program Learning Outcomes