Requirements

Art History 

Art History Major

The art history major consists of ten courses.

Art History Minor

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A first year writing seminar in ARTH or an independent study may be used to satisfy this requirement.

Courses that count toward the major and minor must be taken for regular letter grades (not Credit/D/Fail), and students must earn grades of C- or better in these courses.

Seminars in Art History

The seminars are intended to utilize the scholarly interests of members of the department and provide an opportunity for advanced work for selected students who have successfully completed enough of the regular courses to possess a sufficient background. The department does not expect to give all, or in some cases any, seminars each semester. As the seminars are varied, a given topic may be offered only once, or its form changed considerably from time to time.

Interdisciplinary Majors

Art history participates in interdisciplinary programs in art history and archaeology, and in art history and visual arts. Art history majors may pursue a coordinate major with digital and computational studies, environmental studies, or education. See the Interdisciplinary Majors.

Additional Information and Department Policies

Art History

• Students who received a minimum score of four on the Art History Advanced Placement exam may replace one introductory art history course (numbered 1100–1999) with any upper-level course for the art history major and art history minor. In order to receive credit for Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate work, students must have their scores officially reported to the Office of the Registrar by the end of their sophomore year at Bowdoin.
• Art history majors are also encouraged to take courses in foreign languages and literature, history, philosophy, religion, and the other arts.
• A maximum of two courses for one semester of study from another college or university may count toward the major in art history with departmental approval of that transfer credit. If a student studies away for a full academic year, three courses from another college or university may count toward their art history major with departmental approval.
• Only one course for one semester of study from another college or university may count toward a student’s art history minor with departmental approval.

Information for Incoming Students: Art History

Art history offers ways to understand our world and our histories through the visual, material, and spatial dimensions of art. We look at the ways people have expressed ideas, participated in history, and created worlds through paintings, sculptures, buildings, furniture, jewelry, stained glass, and much more. By teaching you how to look closely, art history provides you with new ways to think about the images, objects, and spaces around you.

Art history is offering two first-year writing seminars this fall:  ARTH 1028 Art and Race from the Crusades to Colonization and ARTH 1038 Living in a Material World: Thinking and Writing with Art and Architecture. First-year students are also welcome to join all our 1000- and 2000- level courses. We are offering one 1000-level course for this fall: ARTH 1805 Introduction to Art History: The Art of Urban Life in Europe, 1500—1950. The 2000-level courses allow students to dive more deeply into specific topics and periods, but there is no expectation that students have any previous experience with art history: ARTH 2425 Making and Breaking Sacred Images in Early Modern Art, ARTH 2600 Cosmographies and Ecologies in Chinese Art, ARTH 2750 American Art I: Colonial Period to the Civil War.