Do I have any shot at PhD applications without a MA in art history?

[WhyWait]

Hi all! I'm circling back here almost 15 years after my first post. As an undergrad majoring in photography with an art history minor, I was planning to do a PhD in photography history. Straight out of undergrad I started an MLitt in history of photography at University of St Andrews, but had a bad experience there and left after my first semester. I wound up moving to California and getting an MFA in film & television, spent 10 years suffering in the trenches of the film industry, and then moved away from film writing into writing novels. Now I'm 33 and about to finish my first year of a 4 year MFA creative writing (fiction) program. Meanwhile, the last few years I've also been circling back towards my first love, photography, and a lot of my current fiction writing is about photo history. With all that said I've found myself thinking again about the PhD. 

I'm wondering how possible it would be to apply for PhDs as someone with two MFAs, but no MA in art history. My hope would be to finish my current program and apply for the following year, which would mean submitting PhD apps in fall/winter of 2028. Which gives me around 2.5 years to prepare. I have a lot of publications but they're all fiction, so I've started working on a publishable scholarly article about photography. I'm also hoping to get some museum or archive internship/job experience during my current program if possible. And, in a totally ideal but obviously not at all guaranteed scenario, I'd have sold and published my photography history-related novel by the time of application.  

I guess I'm asking if it's realistic to hope for a PhD position straight out of my MFA program (and what else I could do to improve my chances in this regard!), or if I would definitely need to do another master's program. I kind of feel like 3 masters is approaching levels of psychosis that I'm not super happy about lol, but I'm open to it if necessary. 

[SocialKonstruct]

On 3/20/2026 at 1:46 PM, WhyWait said:

Hi all! I'm circling back here almost 15 years after my first post. As an undergrad majoring in photography with an art history minor, I was planning to do a PhD in photography history. Straight out of undergrad I started an MLitt in history of photography at University of St Andrews, but had a bad experience there and left after my first semester. I wound up moving to California and getting an MFA in film & television, spent 10 years suffering in the trenches of the film industry, and then moved away from film writing into writing novels. Now I'm 33 and about to finish my first year of a 4 year MFA creative writing (fiction) program. Meanwhile, the last few years I've also been circling back towards my first love, photography, and a lot of my current fiction writing is about photo history. With all that said I've found myself thinking again about the PhD. 

I'm wondering how possible it would be to apply for PhDs as someone with two MFAs, but no MA in art history. My hope would be to finish my current program and apply for the following year, which would mean submitting PhD apps in fall/winter of 2028. Which gives me around 2.5 years to prepare. I have a lot of publications but they're all fiction, so I've started working on a publishable scholarly article about photography. I'm also hoping to get some museum or archive internship/job experience during my current program if possible. And, in a totally ideal but obviously not at all guaranteed scenario, I'd have sold and published my photography history-related novel by the time of application.  

I guess I'm asking if it's realistic to hope for a PhD position straight out of my MFA program (and what else I could do to improve my chances in this regard!), or if I would definitely need to do another master's program. I kind of feel like 3 masters is approaching levels of psychosis that I'm not super happy about lol, but I'm open to it if necessary. 

Based on today's atmosphere and one of my colleagues, I would recommend having a master's in art history to apply for a Ph.D. It is very competitive out there.

I am getting my 3rd master's degree for creative writing in order to apply for a Ph.D. in creative writing. Crazy but we need this today.

[staxdo_21]

I was accepted to a Ph.D. program without an MA or an undergrad degree in Art History. I was also considered for another highly competitive Ph.D. program, but ultimately offered admissions to their MA program. I did have professional experience in the field, though, before applying.