Cornell University, Department of History of Art and Visual Studies

The Department of History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University prepares students to undertake journeys into visual culture through traditional areas of study such as ancient, Medieval and Renaissance art, as well as through the integration of recent fields of theory and research. Students explore the history of cultural interactions as manifested in visual culture both inside and outside the West, from antiquity to present. Our program encourages the crossing of not only geographic but also disciplinary borders. Students are encouraged to explore a wide range of fields, including archaeology, dendrochronology and material culture, anthropology, architecture and urban planning, art practice, connoisseurship, critical and post colonial theory, media studies, museum studies, performance, race and gender studies, religious studies, the sciences, and social history.