Why Study Art History at USC?
The Department of Art History at USC offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs that are designed to prepare students for teaching, research, and curatorial careers. It draws its strength from a dynamic and productive faculty in the fields of North American, Continental European, British, Mediterranean, Latin American, and Asian Art. Studying objects in their complex physical, cultural and intellectual contexts, our program is committed to a historically situated, materially engaged, and theoretically nuanced approach to art history and visual culture.
Undergraduate Studies
Art history combines the study of art with the study of culture. The undergraduate major provides general knowledge of the history of art and, through upper-division courses, specialized knowledge in a variety of areas.
Graduate Studies
USC’s department of Art History offers its doctoral degree in a wide range of fields of Western and Asian art history, from ancient to contemporary. It is designed to prepare students for university teaching, research, and curatorial careers.
Prospective Ph.D. Students
USC is a diverse community of scholars in the heart of Los Angeles — a dynamic center for technology, health services, media and the arts.
Department Calendar
News and Events
USC art historian, Kimia Shahi, plumbs the archives of the Documerica project, an early Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) effort to teach about environmental damage and how the agency prevents and repairs the harm.
Featured Faculty
2022 – 2023
The Department of Art History welcomes Assistant Professor, Luke Fidler
Professor Luke Fidler will join the department of Art History starting Fall 2023. A specialist of twelfth-century North German and Southern Scandinavian sculpture, Fidler is interested in questions of the sculptural, landscape, political and social order, and especially questions around embodied coercion. In addition to his scholarship on Medieval art, he is a curator of contemporary art, an active art critic, and an activist for prison education.
Hector Reyes on how math and art are closely linked in USC Dornsife video feature “The Mathematics of Art”
In this USC Dornsife video feature, mathematics and art may seem diametrically opposed, but there is creativity and beauty in both. USC Dornsife’s Felicia Tabing is a mathematician who approaches her field of study through a creative lens. USC Dornsife’s Enrique Martinez Celaya is a professor, artist and former physicist who uses his mathematical background to inspire his work. Together with Dornsife art historian Hector Reyes, the three examine how math and art are more closely linked than it appears.
Congratulations to Professor Vanessa Schwartz on project awarded FNRS for 2023-2026 “Globetrotting: Touring Round the World (1869-1914)”
Professor Vanessa Schwartz is a co-PI on an international, interdisciplinary, multi-year project directed by Jean-François Staszak, (Geography, University of Geneva) – and the project, “Globetrotting: Touring Round the World (1869-1914),” was selected for funding of close to one million Swiss Francs by Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Suisse) (FNRS) for 2023-2026.
Art History Professors, Lisa Pon and Hector Reyes, visited the studio of muralist Fabian Debora
Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies (IACS) staff and faculty, including art history Professors, Lisa Pon and Hector Reyes, visited the studio of muralist Fabian Debora to learn about his art and the transformative work happening at Homeboy Industires Art Academy in communities, colleges and correctional facilities across SoCal.
Student Spotlight 2022-2023
Local Area Resources
USC’s program takes great advantage of our location within the vibrant cultural environment of Los Angeles. undergraduate fieldtrips and Graduate seminars are regularly held on site or work with collections in area museums including the including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), the Getty Center, the Getty Villa and the USC Fisher Museum of Art among others.
Los Angeles Museums
USC Museums, Archives and Special Collections
Contact
Art History Main Office
USC Dornsife Department of Art History
3501 Trousdale Parkway, THH 355
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0351