Graduate Student Admissions and Financial Aid
Applicants may be admitted to the post bachelor’s MA or MA/PhD programs or to the post-master’s PhD program. Applicants admitted to the MA/PhD program must later undergo an internal interview to advance to the PhD program upon completion of the MA degree requirements.
Applicants for the MA degree choose from one of three tracks: a general track, a track with specialized focus on the history of architecture, and a track with specialized focus on the history of Asian art and architecture. Applicants for the PhD degree choose one of two tracks: a general track (which includes students specializing in Asian and other non-Western art and architecture) and a track with specialized focus on the history of architecture.
History of Art & Architecture admissions information can be found within this document.
For additional information on applying to our graduate program, please visit The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences webpage. There you can find the online application form, financial aid and scholarship information, and contact information regarding the status of submitted applications.
If you have department-specific questions regarding your application, you may also contact our Director of Graduate Admissions:
Jonathan Ribner
Director of Graduate Admissions
725 Commonwealth Ave, 210B
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Telephone: (617) 353-1465
Fax: (617) 353-3243
E-mail: jribner@bu.edu
Financial Aid
A variety of fellowships, assistantships and grants are available to qualified degree candidates. Dean’s Fellowships are multi-year grants for entering graduate students. (Students may not apply directly for these fellowships.) In addition to the Dean’s Fellowships, the Department of History of Art & Architecture annually awards a number of teaching fellowships and graduate assistantships (tuition assistance in return for work per week). Graduate assistants are usually assigned to the Boston University Art Gallery, the Visual Resources Center, or as research assistants to departmental faculty. In addition, small awards are available for graduate students to travel to conferences, workshops, archives, and collections through the Art History Alumni Association Fund and the Patricia Hills Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund.
Grants in the Field of American Art
A number of grants are available for graduate students of American art. The three-year Jan and Warren Adelson Fellowship in American Art offers a three-year post-MA fellowship for students applying to the PhD program in American art at Boston University. The fellowship includes tuition, fees, health insurance, and a stipend for three years. The first year the student focuses on courses and curatorial practice; the second year consists of a teaching fellowship, finishing coursework and preparing for the doctoral examinations; the third year is reserved for taking the PhD qualifying examination and for dissertation research and writing. Students engaged in writing dissertations on American Art can apply to the Beaze and Harry Adelson Research and Travel Fellowship for American Art, which will fund dissertation research and travel expenses up to $2500. The Raymond and Margaret Horowitz Foundation Dissertation Fellowship is awarded to cover one-year of dissertation research on American Art, in the amount of a $25,000 stipend and $2500 in research and travel expenses.
History of Photography Grants
Kate and Hall Peterson have given the department a discretionary fund for the support and encouragement of doctoral studies in the History of Photography.
Fellowships in Asian Art History
The Richard and Geneva Hofheimer Fellowship and the Ralph C. Marcove Fellowship are two endowed fellowship funds that support graduate studies in Asian art history.
Graduate Travel Grants
The Art History Alumni Association Fund and the Patricia Hills Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund provide funds for students giving papers at conferences or undertaking archival research. For detailed instructions for application eligibility, instructions, and reimbursement, click here.