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apotheosis

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    New England
  • Application Season
    2013 Fall
  • Program
    Art History

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  1. Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams If it is ever shown 3D in a cinema again, I would fly across the country to see it!
  2. Claire Fox's Making Art Panamerican: Cultural Policy and the Cold War (UMinn Press, 2013) It is admittedly very new, so not a canonical must read, but on the must read list of any progressive 20th c. Americanist.
  3. @brazilianbuddy, I think that while these questions may allay your curiosity in giving an image of what the "successful applicant" looks like or went through, there is really little to be gleaned from these facts. The people I met at interviews and open houses come from such different backgrounds, ages, and places of origin that I believe we were all accepted for different reasons and judged under different expectations. To be trite, I think grad school apps are pretty much a crap shoot and there's no recipe for success. I am applying as a senior from a small top 10 LAC as a non-art history major (only took three art history courses). I have done two curatorial internships, speak three languages, and published a few short stories for literary journals. I want to study contemporary art with approaches culled from political science and cultural studies. I probably belong more in an interdisciplinary humanities program given my background and interests, but I know my goal is to work in a museum, and an art history PhD is still the best path to go. Being aware that I am at a disadvantage in terms of preparation, I made sure to show in my writing sample that I could enter into a dialogue with theories in art historiography and with art historians, as well as do visual analysis and close readings of objects, as a good art history major should know. The topic or style of my writing sample is not at all reflective of what I plan on doing when I actually get in, but I wrote for an audience, and that audience is an admissions committee that is composed, inevitably, of a mix of faculty who have varying degrees of openness to non-traditional approaches to art history. My SOP, on the other hand, was directed to the faculty member I was interested in working with at each school, and there I let my quirky, interdisciplinary side show, knowing that I need to get that one professor to advocate for me in the admissions committee. So what can I say... be strategic? But that strategy is ultimately about making up for your weaknesses and letting yourself shine in the appropriate spaces, and only you can decide what that all means. In the end, even those of us who got in can never be really sure why! The reason I got in might just be that they're graduating all of their contemporary art grad students this year and want several this year; it might be that the faculty member I applied to work with has been on a dry spell and hasn't accepted any new students for too long; it might be that my rec writer is a good friend with one of the professors and so his letter came to hold much more weight. All this is to say don't be too hard on yourself! Talent and preparation play a role, but so does chance, and I'm sure your turn will come around soon enough!
  4. *raises hand* I haven't stopped dancing crazily in joy since the call
  5. I second fullofpink in saying that if you do not have a lot of coursework in traditional art history, be prepared to show your competency in other ways, or make sure that your recommenders can testify to your art historical knowledge. I did not major or minor in art history in college, but did a large independent research project on aesthetics and the Frankfurt School, which inevitably had to do with lots of modern art history which I had to learn by myself, and I made sure to highlight that in my SOP. I've received pretty good feedback in the interviews I've conducted so far, and it seems that most faculty do not have major problems with my lack of art historical expertise, as long as I am willing to acquire it independently during graduate school alongside other coursework. You might also be interested in more interdisciplinary programs (UC Berkeley's Rhetoric, Stanford's MTL, Duke's Literature, etc.) where you will be able to pursue art theory, aesthetics, and continental philosophy without having to worry about fulfilling art history area / period requirements as you would have in traditional programs. Off the top of my head, here are some art history professors w/ strong interest in continental philosophy you might want to check out: Sebastian Zeidler (Yale), Branden Joseph (Columbia), Matthew Biro (Michigan).
  6. I'd echo fragonard32 too that the Guggenheim is horrible with notifications! Last year I applied for a Guggenheim NYC internship and they got back to me in early May--wayyyy after the notification date. Good luck and hang tight. Just remember, no news is good news!
  7. Congratulations to the Columbia admits! As I now nervously chew on my fingernails (while waiting for pizza delivery for stress eating), may I ask how you were contacted and if your status on the application webpage has been updated?
  8. So many casualties from the Princeton massacre today. Goodness gracious me, did they just reject everyone this year?
  9. Echoing uromastyx's sentiments, it is hard to offer a yes or no answer for equivalency, since there are so many kinds masters programs in the UK. The terminology (MA, MLitt, MPhil, MSt) actually doesn't say much, but the important factors to consider are the length to degree and whether it is research-based or not. Is the MLitt you are considering a Scottish way of saying research-only MPhil, or is it more similar to a taught MA? Many PhD programs give credit for MA coursework, so something to consider will be whether if what you do during your MLitt will reduce time to PhD in the US or not. But in the end, getting the MLitt will be good proof that you can carry out independent research and write something of considerable length, which of course, you can submit as a writing sample. Hope this helps!
  10. Ah yes, me too. Until I saw how ridiculous I would look as a gif: And with a chair....
  11. Join the circus most definitely. I can juggle urinals, you know. But seriously, I'm looking to do curatorial work in contemporary art. It's a tough field, and it's gonna be as much about networking as it is about the academics, but I like working with people (and can't stand archival research), so that's that
  12. German annieca, kotov, Kelkel, Ganymede18, grlu0701, hbeels (veeeeeery rusty), Orient, ticklemepink, viggosloof28, Tiglath-Pileser III Spanish annieca, crazedandinfused, Ganymede18, grlu0701 (kind of), CageFree, StrangeLight, pudewen (very rusty and basically useless to my work), ticklemepink (reading), fortiesgirl, viggosloof28, Andean Pat, apotheosis French theregalrenegade, Ganymede18, CageFree (reading, can speak a bit), StrangeLight, Safferz (Franglais), hbeels, sandyvanb, fortiesgirl, Tiglath-Pileser III, Andean Pat, apotheosis Hebrew uhohlemonster, crazedandinfused (ktzat), ticklemepink, Tiglath-Pileser III, Qaus-gabri Italian fortiesgirl (reading, can speak a bit), Andean Pat (I understand it, swering) Latin Kelkel, Ganymede18, husky4ever Greek Ganymede18 (New Testament), , Tiglath-Pileser III, Qaus-gabri (Hellenistic) Russian ticklemepink (really, really basic), ReallyNiceGuy Polish runaway Romanian kotov Japanese kyjin, pudewen (sort of, it's in process), Tiglath-Pileser III Portuguese CageFree (reading), StrangeLight (reading, swearing), fortiesgirl (reading, some comprehension), Andean Pat (reading) Hungarian StrangeLight (swearing only) Somali Safferz Arabic Safferz (reading), Orient (MSA) Chinese pudewen (modern and classical), apotheosis Turkish orient (modern an ottoman) Persian Orient (reading) Yiddish ticklemepink Norwegian viggosloof28 (can also read Swedish and Danish) Akkadian Tiglath-Pileser III, Qaus-gabri Egyptian Tiglath-Pileser III Coptic Qaus-gabri (Sahidic) Aramaic Qaus-gabri Ugaritic Qaus-gabri
  13. I definitely second this. For Chicago you might be interested in applying to their Committee for Social Thought program; it's an interdisciplinary PhD so you can do coursework across several departments. If you are looking at Duke, you might also be interested in Mark Hansen as well--he is quite the bomb in media philosophy.
  14. I don't know if you're looking for a more traditional analytical phil program to do "philosophy of art," or something more continental and expansive? If it is the latter, you might want to check out the PhD program in Philosophy at the New School in NYC. They're very strong in critical theory (in the proper sense of the word, i.e. Frankfurt school), aesthetics and ideology.
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