Welcome

As Chair of Duke University's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, I invite you to explore our website, with information on our faculty, graduate students, programs, and graduate and undergraduate curricula. The Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, as its name implies, has two distinct yet profoundly complementary units, one primarily devoted to the making of works of art, the other primarily devoted to the historical understanding and current interpretation of visual images and constructed space. All members of the Department are actively engaged in teaching and research as well as scholarly or artistic production. Our faculty and students, undergraduate and graduate, are committed to international research, interdisciplinary courses, and the study of visual culture across geographic and historical categories. Brief descriptions of the Department's course offerings and programs are provided in the Courses and Programs sections of this website. Although founded in 1931, Duke University's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies has taken its present shape within the last 20 years. Since 1986, the Department broadened its perspective by introducing courses in theory, methodology, and criticism; by attracting faculty specialists in African and African Diaspora, East Asian, and Latin American art histories in addition to our still-growing strengths in European and North American art, from ancient times to our contemporary world; and by interacting through interdisciplinary teaching, collaborative research and symposia with other departments and programs, such as African and African-American Studies, Economics, English, Women's Studies, the Center for Documentary Studies and the Center for French and Francophone Studies. Duke University is one of the only research universities with a Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, who fosters and facilitates such projects.

This year is the 14th anniversary of our Ph.D. Program in Art History. Designed to be small and highly selective, the program has graduated 16 students, who are currently working as university teachers, program coordinators, museum professionals, and postdoctoral fellows. Our 31 current graduate students, in various stages of their studies, have also distinguished themselves through publications, public lectures and internationally competitive fellowships; they comprise an intrinsic part of the Department's intellectual life, most notably in our annual Graduate Student Symposium. Please feel free to view the fuller description of the Ph.D. program, along with brief resumés and listings of the Department's faculty, graduate students, and staff on the website.

If our website has not provided you with the answers to your questions, please don't hesitate to ask me or any other member of the Department.

Welcome to Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke!

Sincerely,

Hans J. Van Miegroet
Chair and Professor of Art History
115B East Duke Building
P.O. Box 90764
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708
919 684-2224


As Chair of Duke University's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, I invite you to explore our website, with information on our faculty, graduate students, programs, and graduate and undergraduate curricula. The Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, as its name implies, has two distinct yet profoundly complementary units, one primarily devoted to the making of works of art, the other primarily devoted to the historical understanding and current interpretation of visual images and constructed space. All members of the Department are actively engaged in teaching and research as well as scholarly or artistic production. Our faculty and students, undergraduate and graduate, are committed to international research, interdisciplinary courses, and the study of visual culture across geographic and historical categories. Brief descriptions of the Department's course offerings and programs are provided in the Courses and Programs sections of this website. Although founded in 1931, Duke University's Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies has taken its present shape within the last 20 years. Since 1986, the Department broadened its perspective by introducing courses in theory, methodology, and criticism; by attracting faculty specialists in African and African Diaspora, East Asian, and Latin American art histories in addition to our still-growing strengths in European and North American art, from ancient times to our contemporary world; and by interacting through interdisciplinary teaching, collaborative research and symposia with other departments and programs, such as African and African-American Studies, Economics, English, Women's Studies, the Center for Documentary Studies and the Center for French and Francophone Studies. Duke University is one of the only research universities with a Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, who fosters and facilitates such projects. This year is the 14th anniversary of our Ph.D. Program in Art History. Designed to be small and highly selective, the program has graduated 16 students, who are currently working as university teachers, program coordinators, museum professionals, and postdoctoral fellows. Our 31 current graduate students, in various stages of their studies, have also distinguished themselves through publications, public lectures and internationally competitive fellowships; they comprise an intrinsic part of the Department's intellectual life, most notably in our annual Graduate Student Symposium. Please feel free to view the fuller description of the Ph.D. program, along with brief resumés and listings of the Department's faculty, graduate students, and staff on the website. If our website has not provided you with the answers to your questions, please don't hesitate to ask me or any other member of the Department. Welcome to Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke! Sincerely, Hans J. Van Miegroet Chair and Professor of Art History 115B East Duke Building P.O. Box 90764 Duke University Durham, NC 27708 919 684-2224