UC Berkeley for Modern/Contemporary

[Ramblr]

Is anyone applying to UC Berkeley for modern/contemporary? If so, why?

I've always had it on my list. It seemed like a perennial favorite for my friends who've applied in the past. It's also a name that comes up when looking at current professors at other schools. However, I recently took a harder look, and are all its modernist emeriti??? Clark and Wagner are officially listed as "retired."

Anyone have any news on this front? Thanks in advance!

[cleisthenes]

On 10/23/2010 at 10:46 PM, Ramblr said:

Is anyone applying to UC Berkeley for modern/contemporary? If so, why?

I've always had it on my list. It seemed like a perennial favorite for my friends who've applied in the past. It's also a name that comes up when looking at current professors at other schools. However, I recently took a harder look, and are all its modernist emeriti??? Clark and Wagner are officially listed as "retired."

Anyone have any news on this front? Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like Berkeley AH is replacing Tom Clark & Anne Wagner. There may be a search for a modernist next year, but my understanding is that they're not hiring any replacements on that level. The UCs are in bad shape, but Berkeley is by far the best off and the truth is that the problem precedes the most recent wave of crises: attrition breeds more attrition. Apparently the department is having trouble securing funding mainly due to the fact that fewer students are finishing in time, and this is only going to be exacerbated by recent events (not to mention students leaving the program due to the lack of modern/contemporary experts).

Frankly, if you want to do modern/contemporary, it's increasingly looking like Berkeley Art History is not the place. Very sad considering the illustrious history of that program. If you're into Film, you might check out the newly created Film Studies dept (previous part of the Rhetoric dept).

I would think about other options for modern/contemporary art history: Columbia, Chicago, UCLA, Yale, IFA (funding nightmare), CUNY (ditto), Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, Michigan, WashU, et. al., depending on your subfield. There are also all sorts of interesting media/critical studies programs like Brown Mod Culture & Media, MIT History & Theory of Architecture, etc. Hard to give more specific advise without knowing your subfield.

Best,

Cleisthenes

[Ramblr]

On 10/24/2010 at 3:58 AM, cleisthenes said:

I would think about other options for modern/contemporary art history: Columbia, Chicago, UCLA, Yale, IFA (funding nightmare), CUNY (ditto), Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, Michigan, WashU, et. al., depending on your subfield. There are also all sorts of interesting media/critical studies programs like Brown Mod Culture & Media, MIT History & Theory of Architecture, etc. Hard to give more specific advise without knowing your subfield.

Best,

Cleisthenes

Thanks! Your comments were so helpful. I thought so, but I wanted a confirmation. Looks like you know your stuff (even though you do disagree with me on meeting with professors, ahahha!!)

My speciality is modern/contemporary with an focus on Eastern Europe. I'm not look for a Russianist on the faculty, per se, but I would like to have someone who, at least, knows when the Soviet Union dissolved.

Any advice would be appreciated. What's your focus?

[cleisthenes]

On 10/24/2010 at 7:06 AM, Ramblr said:

Thanks! Your comments were so helpful. I thought so, but I wanted a confirmation. Looks like you know your stuff (even though you do disagree with me on meeting with professors, ahahha!!)

My speciality is modern/contemporary with an focus on Eastern Europe. I'm not look for a Russianist on the faculty, per se, but I would like to have someone who, at least, knows when the Soviet Union dissolved.

Any advice would be appreciated. What's your focus?

Happy to help!

I'm not a specialist on Eastern/Slavic but to my knowledge, given your interests, Chicago seems like it would probably be the best fit for you- there's both Yuri Tsivian and Matthew Jesse Jackson tenured on the faculty. Christina Klaer at Northwestern and Elizabeth Childs at WashU are another no-brainer. There's Jane Ashton Sharp at Rutgers. You might also look at UCSB, where Sven Spieker in the Slavic/Comp Lit dept is an affiliated faculty in Art History (i.e., he could sit on your diss. committee), so you could mention him in an SoP. If you're interested in film, two people I know of are Lida Oukaderova at Rice and Pavle Levi at Stanford, but I'm sure there are many more. I'm probably missing some important people but again--not my field. If you want other suggestions, I would check out edited volumes of essays that include work by the above people, and see what other scholars are included, and then research them a bit.

My field is postwar American and European, with an emphasis on Germany.

Cheers,

Cleisthenes

[Ramblr]

My field is postwar American and European, with an emphasis on Germany.

Oh, very cool! My work strays a little in that direction when it comes to East German art, specifically artists groups and collectives from 70s and 80s. And no, I'm not very into film, at least not enough to have it matter right now.

Thanks, again!

[anonymousbequest]

I've heard from a faculty member that Berkeley is planning on taking 3 grad students total this year because of funding. Sven Spieker at UCSB is great & well-loved, but know that UCSB is also only planning on taking 2-3 this year. However, I'm not sure whether their modernist, Laurie Monahan, has many students so she may be interested in accepting someone. Michigan, which I also saw mentioned here by someone, is down to 4 from their usual 6 admits, and I think Stanford may be in the same boat (also both those programs did terribly in the latest NRC rankings btw, not that anyone cares about these things of course). So I would say choose your schools very strategically this year, particularly for modern/contemporary which seems to be the most trendy period right now among undergrads. Yale and Harvard are the only programs that are said to be unaffected and will take their usual numbers. CUNY, Columbia, and the IFA probably will too, but students there are often funded through "parental fellowships".

[georgica2]

Thanks! Your comments were so helpful. I thought so, but I wanted a confirmation. Looks like you know your stuff (even though you do disagree with me on meeting with professors, ahahha!!)

My speciality is modern/contemporary with an focus on Eastern Europe. I'm not look for a Russianist on the faculty, per se, but I would like to have someone who, at least, knows when the Soviet Union dissolved.

Any advice would be appreciated. What's your focus?

Definitely have to echo what's already been said about UC Berkeley. They posted a listing on CAA for one modernist at (I believe) an assistant/associate level, but assuming that position will be filled by next year, their program still won't be anywhere near as strong as it was with TJ Clark and Anne Wagner and probably won't for awhile. If you're interested in possibly going abroad, Courtauld Institute in London has Sarah Wilson, who specializes in Eastern European modern/contemporary. It's not really my area, so I don't know who the major players are or where they teach, but it may be worthwhile to look into Russian/Slavic studies programs as well as art history.

[cleisthenes]

Definitely have to echo what's already been said about UC Berkeley. They posted a listing on CAA for one modernist at (I believe) an assistant/associate level, but assuming that position will be filled by next year, their program still won't be anywhere near as strong as it was with TJ Clark and Anne Wagner and probably won't for awhile. If you're interested in possibly going abroad, Courtauld Institute in London has Sarah Wilson, who specializes in Eastern European modern/contemporary. It's not really my area, so I don't know who the major players are or where they teach, but it may be worthwhile to look into Russian/Slavic studies programs as well as art history.

I should add that Berkeley also lost Kaja Silverman, who's now at Penn.