Graduate Studies

MA and Ph.D.: Rhetorics of Art, Space and Culture (RASC/a)

RASC/a (derived from the Spanish vernacular for “scratch”) stands for “Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture” and marks a new curricular initiative in graduate studies launched in 2011. The department chose the unusual name to underline the commitment to shaping a small and dynamic graduate program that emphasizes close mentorship, innovative methodologies, and scholarship that challenges traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Our distinguished faculty offer graduate seminars and research supervision in wide-ranging areas, from ancient to contemporary art. We have clusters of research activity in:

• The arts of Africa and the African diaspora
• Ancient American and Latin American art and architecture
• Ancient and medieval art, architecture, and material culture of the Middle East
• European art of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries
• The art, visual culture, and material culture of the United States from the eighteenth century to present day
• Contemporary art in the Americas, Europe, and West Africa

Our graduate students and alumni have held prestigious internships, fellowships, and awards from the American Antiquarian Society, Brown University, the Edith O'Donnell Institute of Art History, the Graham Foundation, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Universidad Lusófona Lisbon, and the University of California Los Angeles.

Recent Alumni of our M.A. program are now completing Ph.D. degrees at Bard Graduate Center, Bryn Mawr College, Emory University, University of Illinois Chicago, and Northwestern University. Others are working at the curatorial and education departments at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Meadows Museum at SMU, and the Rubell Museum in Miami.

Alumni of our Ph.D. program are now in tenure-track teaching positions at California State University Stanislaus, the University of Missouri Kansas City, and Simmons University. 

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