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August 24, 2007 > News > Art history gets Ph.D.

Art history gets Ph.D.

By Rachel Green | Thresher staff

Rice will offer a doctoral program in art history beginning fall 2009 as a result of a $10 million grant from the Brown Foundation. The grant will allow Rice to accept 25 students into the only art history doctoral program in Houston, funding fellowships for students and research partnerships between the art history department and scholars at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Menil Collection.

“There has been a steady build-up of resources for this program, from the growth of the art history faculty to our becoming a separate department in 2003 to the growth in the museum collections to the continued growth of library holdings,” Art History Chair Joseph Manca said.

Manca said the creation of the doctoral program fits in President David Leebron’s vision for Rice to become an important part of the Houston community.

The program will be heavily researched-based, necessitating close ties between Rice and the MFAH and Menil, Manca said.

He said the program also corresponds with Dean of Humanities Gary Wihl’s desire to build the university’s reputation as a strong humanities research institution.

Manca said the doctoral program will draw upon the research and expertise of professors in other departments on campus as well as scholars from local museums.

“Many new courses will be taught by local curators, and the classes will take place in large part in the galleries of the Menil Collection and the MFAH,” he said. “Affiliated faculty in other departments at Rice and the curators of the Menil Collection and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will teach courses, make their collections available to us, advise students and read theses.”

Manca said the department also plans to supplement its current faculty with new appointments in Latin American, modern and contemporary art. He said an expanded range and volume of expertise in various fields will also increase opportunities for advanced undergraduate students to study subjects not previously taught at Rice.

Classes currently offered will remain taught by regular faculty and not graduate students or teaching assistants, Manca said. Additionally, the incorporation of the doctoral program will also mean expanded course offerings for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.

Another benefit for undergraduates is that an art history postgraduate program will raise the profile of the entire department, putting undergraduate art history majors in a better position for jobs, internships, and graduate study placement, Manca said.

“Of course, Rice undergraduates will also have the option to continue their art history studies here and go on to earn their doctorates,” he said.

Brown College senior Merrill Turner said the creation of an art history doctoral program is a positive move for the university.

“I think the expansion of all graduate programs is a good thing for Rice, but being a humanities major, I am obviously very excited about the possibility of enlarging and improving our programs in the arts and literature,” Turner said. “By creating a Ph.D. program in art history, the department and the university can only stand to gain. It’s nice to see that Rice is taking its art history department as seriously as its engineering departments.”

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