Professors and Research Interests

[Pythia]

Hi all, this is my first time posting within this forum. I've been lurking for a while and I'm kind of nervous to post, but everyone on here has been so helpful to others, so that's definitely encouraging!

I'm currently an undergrad (classics major) and a bit clueless about this grad school process. I have started looking into schools, though I'm not 100% sure about my research interest. I really like American art - 18th/19th century - but judging from these forums and elsewhere, it seems like it's an uncommon field in art history. That said, I also enjoy Jacques-Louis David (currently writing on a paper on him, actually), Caspar David Friedrich, and a few British works of the same general time period.

So my question is, if I'm interested in American art, should I only be applying to schools with professors who specialize in American art (even if they aren't as focused on what I like the most)? Or should I also apply to schools with professors who enjoy that general time period, but not necessarily American art? I have noticed that there seem to be more specialists in European art rather than American, so it has kind of dwindled my list - which may be good or bad. Perhaps that kind of American art is not really a thing to study and I should just be focusing on European art of the time instead? I'm sure someone has posted a question similar to this, but I just wanted to clarify for my situation. Thank you for your help.

[Joan Callamezzo]

19th century American art is not as "common" as say contemporary or early modern, but it's still a huge field, especially in the US. As far as the 18th/19th century goes, you will find the most professors specializing in French, the fewest in British, and American falling somewhere in between. American art is a pretty popular and well-funded field, I'd be curious to see where you're looking and turning up empty handed, because I can think of several programs just off the top of my head (and it isn't even my field). 

[theartman1193]

I think the 19th century era folks - many aren't taking grad students at the moment (though I did hear some may take a few more students in the next years). It also seems as though alot of folks in that era will probably retire over the next years. Many of those also seem to be social art historians (think of TJ Clark and his students). With that said, sometimes it can be quite neat to work with someone who has an interest in your field of study, but its not his/her major era. I think someone who shares a similar methodology to you can be just as helpful and interesting to work with. Most people seem to be geared towards the 20th century nowadays....

[Pythia]

14 hours ago, Joan Callamezzo said:

19th century American art is not as "common" as say contemporary or early modern, but it's still a huge field, especially in the US. As far as the 18th/19th century goes, you will find the most professors specializing in French, the fewest in British, and American falling somewhere in between. American art is a pretty popular and well-funded field, I'd be curious to see where you're looking and turning up empty handed, because I can think of several programs just off the top of my head (and it isn't even my field). 

Wow, I had no idea. It seems like most of the professors I've read about do not have a primary research interest in 18th/19th century American.

I don't have a conclusive list yet. I looked at a ton of schools; originally I had a list of more than 40 I was interested in, then I narrowed it down to see which had professors specializing in 18th-19th century art (either European or American). I also factored in location, my chance of acceptance (but who even knows), and cost. I'm applying for my MA so that is also a factor. There are some schools I would be interested in applying to (e.g. Illinois, Tulane, Florida State - only a few examples) but I am trying to stick with American art and it seems as though they lack professors who specialize in this. If I had my list right now I would say there are around 20 schools I have noticed that have strictly American art professors - whether their research piques my interest or not. Another note - although my art history GPA is not a problem, my cumulative GPA will be below 3.5 when I graduate, so I feel that that puts me at a disadvantage when applying. I am not applying to ivies because of the price as well as my sub-zero chance of being accepted - so that's a factor as well.

Thank you for your input! BTW, love your name; not sure if you like her character, but Aubrey Plaza and I share the same alma mater, and I went to school with her sister

28 minutes ago, theartman1193 said:

I think the 19th century era folks - many aren't taking grad students at the moment (though I did hear some may take a few more students in the next years). It also seems as though alot of folks in that era will probably retire over the next years. Many of those also seem to be social art historians (think of TJ Clark and his students). With that said, sometimes it can be quite neat to work with someone who has an interest in your field of study, but its not his/her major era. I think someone who shares a similar methodology to you can be just as helpful and interesting to work with. Most people seem to be geared towards the 20th century nowadays....

Thanks for letting me know. All of that is definitely good to keep in mind.

[knp]

I seem to have run into a bunch of 18th-century Americanist art history professors, but I went to school in the Northeast—they might tend to congregate there. I'm also aware of some really interesting work in 19th-century American photography studies, especially in the post-war west, although none of the works that jump to mind were written by tenured professors at PhD-granting institutions. There is something to be said to just working your way down the rankings in your discipline and looking up all the faculty with your regional interest, if listed by region, or through all of them because their department has an annoying website that doesn't provide any information about what each professor studies.

1 hour ago, Pythia said:

Another note - although my art history GPA is not a problem, my cumulative GPA will be below 3.5 when I graduate, so I feel that that puts me at a disadvantage when applying. I am not applying to ivies because of the price as well as my sub-zero chance of being accepted - so that's a factor as well.

Gahh! No!!

 

[condivi]

On November 28, 2015 at 7:50:58 PM, Pythia said:

Hi all, this is my first time posting within this forum. I've been lurking for a while and I'm kind of nervous to post, but everyone on here has been so helpful to others, so that's definitely encouraging!

I'm currently an undergrad (classics major) and a bit clueless about this grad school process. I have started looking into schools, though I'm not 100% sure about my research interest. I really like American art - 18th/19th century - but judging from these forums and elsewhere, it seems like it's an uncommon field in art history. That said, I also enjoy Jacques-Louis David (currently writing on a paper on him, actually), Caspar David Friedrich, and a few British works of the same general time period.

So my question is, if I'm interested in American art, should I only be applying to schools with professors who specialize in American art (even if they aren't as focused on what I like the most)? Or should I also apply to schools with professors who enjoy that general time period, but not necessarily American art? I have noticed that there seem to be more specialists in European art rather than American, so it has kind of dwindled my list - which may be good or bad. Perhaps that kind of American art is not really a thing to study and I should just be focusing on European art of the time instead? I'm sure someone has posted a question similar to this, but I just wanted to clarify for my situation. Thank you for your help.

Ideally, you should study with an Americanist if you want to study American art (if you're trying to chose between American and European art, you should pick what interests you most--European is already a crowded field, and there are more funding opportunities for Americanists). It does happen that professors will advise students who share similar methodological interests but not the same field, but you should make sure there'd be a secondary person on the faculty who knows your material and the literature on it. One possibility would be to work between two professors--one who shares your theoretical orientation and another who shares your geographic interests. But keeping looking--there are a lot of interesting Americanists out there working on 18th/19th century art. 

[Pythia]

On 11/30/2015, 2:04:28, knp said:

I seem to have run into a bunch of 18th-century Americanist art history professors, but I went to school in the Northeast—they might tend to congregate there. I'm also aware of some really interesting work in 19th-century American photography studies, especially in the post-war west, although none of the works that jump to mind were written by tenured professors at PhD-granting institutions. There is something to be said to just working your way down the rankings in your discipline and looking up all the faculty with your regional interest, if listed by region, or through all of them because their department has an annoying website that doesn't provide any information about what each professor studies.

Thank you. It seems like that's the only thing I can do, and that there should be an easier way of going about it. Is there a way to find the rankings for a specialty as opposed to just art history rankings in general?

On 11/30/2015, 2:04:28, knp said:

Gahh! No!!

 

Well that makes me feel a little better. Thank you. I am just afraid of rejection. It hurts.

9 hours ago, condivi said:

Ideally, you should study with an Americanist if you want to study American art (if you're trying to chose between American and European art, you should pick what interests you most--European is already a crowded field, and there are more funding opportunities for Americanists). It does happen that professors will advise students who share similar methodological interests but not the same field, but you should make sure there'd be a secondary person on the faculty who knows your material and the literature on it. One possibility would be to work between two professors--one who shares your theoretical orientation and another who shares your geographic interests. But keeping looking--there are a lot of interesting Americanists out there working on 18th/19th century art. 

Thank you for answering my question! Do you have any recommended programs or professors that I should look into?

[condivi]

32 minutes ago, Pythia said:

 

Thank you for answering my question! Do you have any recommended programs or professors that I should look into?

Well, whose work do you like? I suggest reading widely, and see where the scholars you admire are based. As for being afraid of rejection: you must get over that. Grad school is full of rejection. Not getting in somewhere will be the first of many rejections. Nowadays, it's likely you won't find a tenure track job after you're done, and it's becoming more likely every year. Make sure you have the skin and dedication to pursue a PhD in the first place.

[anonymousbequest]

Are you limiting yourself to terminal MA programs? If, so I think there are fewer options, which is why you might have had trouble finding people. Of the schools you mention, the Americanist from Illinois just decamped for USC (and who could blame her). UC Riverside has Jason Weems who works in 1930s-40s but could probably advise on an earlier topic. Americanists tend to be less specialized than other fields. Susan Rather is at Texas and Williams has Mike Lewis plus curators and fellows at the Clark and the college museum who teach American topics.

For PhD programs you have a lot more choice including Jennifer Roberts and Robin Kelsey at Harvard, Jenny Raab at Yale, Michael Leja and Gwen Dubois-Shaw at Penn, Rachel DeLue at Princeton, Wendy Bellion and Camara Holloway at Delaware, Melody Duesner at Indiana, Ross Barratt at BU, Alex Nemerov at Stanford, Bruce Robertson at UCSB, Angela Miller at WashU, Jenny Greenhill at USC, Maggie Cao at UNC, Kathy Manthorne at CUNY, Margaretta Lovell at UC Berkeley, and Maurie McInnis at UVA. These are just people I can think of off the top of  my head who work or have worked in 18th/19th century. I'm not sure how many are taking students. Of these, Roberts, Raab, Duesner, Greenhill, Holloway, Barratt, DuBois-Shaw and Cao are young or young-ish and the rest are more senior. 

Best of luck!

[Pythia]

21 hours ago, condivi said:

Well, whose work do you like? I suggest reading widely, and see where the scholars you admire are based. As for being afraid of rejection: you must get over that. Grad school is full of rejection. Not getting in somewhere will be the first of many rejections. Nowadays, it's likely you won't find a tenure track job after you're done, and it's becoming more likely every year. Make sure you have the skin and dedication to pursue a PhD in the first place.

OK! If rejection is that common, then I can deal with it. I haven't narrowed down my interest because I'm not that knowledgeable on the subject. I think I might try to find a book or textbook on art of that period. 

7 hours ago, anonymousbequest said:

Are you limiting yourself to terminal MA programs? If, so I think there are fewer options, which is why you might have had trouble finding people. Of the schools you mention, the Americanist from Illinois just decamped for USC (and who could blame her). UC Riverside has Jason Weems who works in 1930s-40s but could probably advise on an earlier topic. Americanists tend to be less specialized than other fields. Susan Rather is at Texas and Williams has Mike Lewis plus curators and fellows at the Clark and the college museum who teach American topics.

For PhD programs you have a lot more choice including Jennifer Roberts and Robin Kelsey at Harvard, Jenny Raab at Yale, Michael Leja and Gwen Dubois-Shaw at Penn, Rachel DeLue at Princeton, Wendy Bellion and Camara Holloway at Delaware, Melody Duesner at Indiana, Ross Barratt at BU, Alex Nemerov at Stanford, Bruce Robertson at UCSB, Angela Miller at WashU, Jenny Greenhill at USC, Maggie Cao at UNC, Kathy Manthorne at CUNY, Margaretta Lovell at UC Berkeley, and Maurie McInnis at UVA. These are just people I can think of off the top of  my head who work or have worked in 18th/19th century. I'm not sure how many are taking students. Of these, Roberts, Raab, Duesner, Greenhill, Holloway, Barratt, DuBois-Shaw and Cao are young or young-ish and the rest are more senior. 

Best of luck!

This is amazing. Thank you!! I'd eventually like to get my PhD, but I think I will be applying for a master's separately - though not only applying to terminal MA programs.