Degree Requirements - 126 credits
Students can earn a Bachelor of Arts degree with this major
Art History Major Requirements: 11 courses, 39-40 credits
Core Requirements (3 courses, 9 credits)
| ARH-101 | Art History I | 4 |
| ARH-102 | Art History II | 4 |
| CAS-201 | College to Career: Explore Your Options and Find Your Path | 1 |
| CAS-H201 | Honors College to Career: Explore Your Options and Find Your Path | 1 |
Students in the Honors Program have the option of completing the Honors version of a course.
Studio Art Requirement (1 course, 3 credits)
Choose one of the following:
Art History Electives (7 courses, 27-28 credits)
Choose seven electives, one of which must be an ARH 400-level seminar or ARH-H555, Art History Honors Thesis. Electives must include at least one course in groups A, B, and C
A) Ancient Through 18th Century Art
| ARH-303 | Art of the Early Renaissance in Italy | 4 |
| ARH-304 | Art in the Age of Michelangelo: The High and Late Renaissance in Italy | 4 |
| ARH-308 | Art of the Baroque and Rococo | 4 |
| ARH-312 | Art of the Northern Renaissance | 4 |
B) 19th Century Through Contemporary Art
C) Non-Western Art
| ARH-203 | Arts of Asia | 4 |
| ARH-206 | Global Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Art | 4 |
Notes:
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One elective course may be in related areas of visual culture such as the philosophy of art, photojournalism, advertising, and cinema. A relevant First-Year Seminar with a strong concentration in art history or visual culture may also count as an elective at the discretion of the program director:
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Upper-level Art History courses taken at other institutions or through study abroad must be approved by the program director and must not overlap significantly with any other upper-level Art History course(s) counted toward the major.
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AP credit cannot be applied toward the major.
Residency Requirement Policy: In the College of Arts and Sciences, a two-course (8 credit) residency requirement must be satisfied for completion of a minor and a four-course (16 credit) residency requirement must be satisfied for the completion of a major.
About the Art History Major
Learn more about the experiences and opportunities available within this major.
View the Program Page
Art History Major Learning Goals and Objectives
Learning goals and objectives reflect the educational outcomes achieved by students through the completion of this program. These transferable skills prepare Suffolk students for success in the workplace, in graduate school, and in their local and global communities.
| Learning Goals |
Learning Objectives |
| Students will know/understand... |
Students will be able to... |
| The important roles that the visual arts have played in society |
- Demonstrate awareness of the multiple purposes visual arts have played in different cultures and periods |
| Appropriate methods for analyzing works of visual art |
- GENRE: know the traditional aims and conventions of the major types or genres of work produced in the historical and regional contexts covered by the course (e.g. Renaissance status portraits, Gothic cathedrals); and articulate how a given work or monument sustains, transforms, or breaks those conventions in the pursuit of its particular aims
- FORM/STYLE: thoroughly and accurately perceive the media, techniques, and formal elements of a given work (composition, texture, scale, etc.); use appropriate technical vocabulary for describing them (contrapposto, nave, painterly brushwork); and relate them to the contextual meaning/purpose and expressive content of the work
- CONTEXT: relate works to the ideas and practices of their original contexts (social, cultural, political, religious, etc.); and account for how a given work sought to affect or influence the ideas and practices of its original context |
| How learning experiences inside and outside the classroom are connected and interdependent |
- Analyze works of art seen in person at local museums and galleries using course-acquired knowledge and skills |
About the Art History Major
Learn more about the experiences and opportunities available within this major.
View the Program Page
Honors in the Major
To become a candidate for honors in the major, a student must*:
- Have a major GPA of 3.6 or higher.
- Have an overall GPA of 3.3 or higher.
- Receive an invitation to apply from the major.
- All students, Honors Community Scholars and non-Honors Community Scholars may apply in the spring of their sophomore year to the new Honors in the Major Program. An application must include a letter of intent, and the names of two faculty references and a copy of the student’s program evaluation.
- Attend an honors orientation session.
- Complete an honors contract and a declaration of topic/advisor form for the thesis, which must be signed by a faculty member who has agreed to supervise the project.
*Consideration for honors in history will be given to the art-history major(s) with the highest overall GPA (minimum of 3.6) at the end of the sophomore year. If there are multiple candidates within a narrow range of high GPAs, a secondary criterion will be the number art-history courses taken, preferably at Suffolk, with a normal minimum of 2. If there are still too many plausible candidates, a third criterion will be a demonstrated dedication to the field, revealed through extra-curricular activities (such as internships, art-history tutoring, participation in the honors society, etc.) and/or coursework that instructors have described as surpassing expectations.
To complete requirements for honors in the major, a candidate must:
- Graduate with a major GPA of 3.6 or higher
- Graduate with an overall GPA of 3.3 or higher
- Complete CAS H322, the Honors Real World Problems Interdisciplinary Course in the junior year.
- Complete a senior thesis in ARH-H555 that is approved by the department (1-4 credits)
- Present work at an Art-History Program event in April or May (designated by advisor in concentration) in the senior year.
- Present work from the senior honors experience at the Honors Symposium.